Culture and History II : Project 1b

Analytical Essay
Massing and Form

Comparing
Walter Gropius - Gropius house
&
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe - Barcelona Pavilion

Ho Tze Hooi (0314179)

Introduction
The Gropius House was designed by Walter Gropius and built in 1938.
Now a historic museum, the Gropius House, located at Lincoln, Massachusetts was
meant to be his private family residence. As for the Barcelona Pavilion, designed by
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and built in 1929, this pavilion was the German Pavilion for
the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona. The Bauhaus was a famous German art
school that was founded by Walter Gropius in 1919 under the of vision of creating a
"total" work of art. It was a place for experimenting arts and it later became a pioneer for
Modernist architecture. Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe had very similar
opinions in terms of their design and ideology because both of them were once directors
of Bauhaus. These two architects designed buildings using the Bauhaus and
International style. While Walter Gropius focused on the study of essentials where it
focuses on the collective satisfaction of "the people's needs", Ludwig Mies van der
Rohe opposed Gropius' "study of essentials", instead advocated "spatial implementation
of intellectual decisions" where it meant an adoption of his own aesthetics. The main
discussion for this essay is the usage of the concept "Massing and Form" which is used
in the Gropius House and Barcelona Pavilion. The dictum "Form Follows Function" by
Louis Sullivan plays an important part in the Bauhaus philosophy and also in their
design. R. Sen (2011) The Bauhauss philosophy was that form should follow function
and all other distractions and decoration should be avoided. It wanted space to be
experience for its purity, stripped off all the dirt and clutter of decor. This is something
thats been happening recently in the field of visual interaction design.

Cruickshank (1989) "In short, the building becomes a theatrical demonstration of its
functional ideal. In this romanticism, high-tech architecture is, of course, no different in
spirit - if totally different in form - from all the romantic architecture of the past" (pg. 394)
Walter Gropius- Gropius House
Massing and form is an important issue in designing Gropius House, it is used to
illustrate the philosophies of modernism, simplicity, geometry, and aesthetics beauty
determined by materials rather than applied ornamentation which were introduced by
Bauhaus. In the Gropius House, Gropius used mostly horizontal elements in the design.
He used simple geometries such as rectangles in solid form to design the Gropius
House. To make it as horizontal as possible to suite the form, he made the roof flat,
following the Bauhaus philosophies that were inspired by "Form Follows Function", the
flat roof was simple and functional where the roof actually allows snow to melt and
rainwater to drain through a centre pipe to a dry well. Staying true to the Bauhaus
philosophies and building with economy in mind, Gropius combined traditional materials
like bricks, clapboard and fieldstone with modern materials such as steel, glass blocks
and acoustical plaster to build the house. The use of steel rather than the traditional
wood that were widely used in New England at that time, were much cheaper, easier to
mass produce and easier to build with. W. Gropius "Architecture begins where
engineering ends". Massing is also a very important factor in designing the Gropius
house as it affects daylighting, passive cooling and heating. At the Northern side of the
facade, Gropius placed ribbon windows on the ground floor and the first floor, ribbon

windows are narrow in height and horizontally long as it provides more privacy, limits
the amount of light coming in to the building and also minimizes heat. Ribbon windows
in general do not bring in much light to the building because of the short height of the
windows but through Gropius' strategic placement of the ribbon windows around head
level provides the idea that the windows provide much more light than they actually do.
J. Penz (2011) "In perfect contrast is a glass block wall that serves as both background
and light source. Not only does the use of the glass blocks celebrate the contrast
between the man-made and the natural, it also becomes an elegant solution to a
particular design problem." Not only that, the glass blocks also serves as a heat and
light shield for the walkway and the entrance, because the entrance is the only 'big'
opening in the northern elevation. On the South side of the building is where everything
changes, there are massive windows that open up the interior of the buildings to the
environment and also leaves an impression of openness. This is the area of the house
that has ample natural sunlight and is more open to the surroundings.

1.

2.

Image 1. North Side, Ribbon Windows, Flat Roof, and Glass Block Faade
Image 2. South Side, Big Windows opening up to the outside.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe- Barcelona Pavilion

The Barcelona Pavilion was the German Pavilion for the International Exposition
in Barcelona, Spain. Mies designed the pavilion with tranquility in mind. He wanted the
pavilion to be a space for the visitors to escape from the expose, thus tranquility. The
form is mainly rectangular shaped cubic void, and with horizontal elements. Mies
wanted the building to be as open as possible, he applied the concepts of emptiness
and continuity. To achieve that, Mies used thin cross shaped load bearing steel pillars to
lift the ceiling up making the building appear to be floating or weightless. This cannot be
achieved if he used the conventional load bearing walls. Polished marble and glass that
are transparent and opaque are used for the wall partitions that are not load bearing. To
further enhance the sense of weightless-ness, only transparent and reflective materials
were used. Also the sense of weightless-ness can be seen from the overhang roof slab
that is extended out as gives a sense that the roof is hovering. K. Andrew (2011) By
raising the pavilion on a plinth in conjunction with the narrow profile of the site, the
Barcelona Pavilion has a low horizontal orientation that is accentuated by the low flat
roof that appears to float over both the interior as well as the exterior.

3.

4.

Image 3. Overhang Flat roof

Image 4. Model, showing the Glass and marble partitions. And also the steel pillars

Image 5. Impression of the floating roof.

Comparison
The Gropius House and Barcelona Pavilion are very similar geometry wise
because both of the architects are from Bauhaus and thus have very similar design
ideologies. Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe often design buildings using
simple geometries. This shows in their buildings like the Gropius House and Barcelona
Pavilion that are almost rectangular in form. In their buildings they also emphasized on
the horizontal elements. Gropius House for example, uses ribbon windows and flat roof
to show the horizontal elements. While The Barcelona Pavilion uses the extended flat
roof to make the horizontal element of the pavilion look more obvious. It was to no
surprise that Gropius and Mies have a lot of similarities, their design principles were
very similar because both of them were once Bauhaus directors. But Gropius and Mies
both had their own take on Massing. True that both Gropius House and Barcelona
Pavilion used light massing but the difference is, how the architects manipulate the play
of light and vision of the building. In summary, Gropius House has two main sides, the
Northern side which is the more enclosed side, and the Southern side which is the more
open side. The Northern side is more enclosed because it is to make the building more
private from the outside. The ribbon windows and glass block faade plays a big part in
making the Northern side enclosed. The southern side on the other hand, is more open,
because the southern side is the heart of the house, it is a place where everybody
gathers, chat and relax. This is a space that is welcoming, more exposed to the
environment and where natural lighting enters.

Compared to the Gropius House which has both public and private space, The
Barcelona Pavilion only has one, which is public space. This pavilion was a place meant
for the public to escape from the expose. Therefore, to make the pavilion more
welcoming and accommodating he decided to make the building more open by using
only steel pillars to support the structure. K. Andrew (2011) Every aspect of the
Barcelona Pavilion has architectural significance that can be seen at the advent of
modern architecture in the 20th Century; however, one of the most important aspects of
the pavilion is the roof. The low profile of the roof appears in elevation as a floating
plane above the interior volume. The appearance of floating gives the volume a sense
of weightlessness that fluctuates between enclosure and canopy. The roof structure is
supported by eight slender cruciform columns that allow the roof to as effortlessly
floating above the volume while freeing up the interior to allow for an open plan. This
completely eliminated the need to use load bearing walls. As compared to the Gropius
House, Gropius used windows to show open-ness, while Mies uses steel pillars, glass
and highly polished marbles.

Conclusion
Both of the Bauhaus architects were really ahead of their time. I can say that they
truly have left their mark in the architecture world. Setting an example that, the
conventional way is not always the best and exploration is always healthy. A few
examples are, the creation of Bauhaus where Walter Gropius wanted to create a new
architectural style to reflect this new era, the exploration or use of new materials like
steel and glass and Mies Spatial Implementation of intellectual decisions where he
adapted his own aesthetics. In conclusion, I can conclude that they have very similar
views when it comes to their design philosophies and architecture style because both of
them were from Bauhaus, but different individuals have different opinions on different
things. In this case, Massing and Form, although both buildings uses light massing and
simple geometry, the way they actually execute or interpret the concept is different.
(1,628 words)

References
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Image Reference
1. David, C. (Photographer). [Web Photo]. Retrieved from
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%20House/photographic-tour-of-gropius-house/Another%20view%20of%20the
%20Gropius%20House/image_preview
2. Irwin, M (Photographer). [Web Photo]. Retrieved from
http://irwinmiller.com/blog/wp-content/gallery/walter-gropius-house/irwinbloggropius-house-10.jpg
3. Rthalf2. [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://chapar.co/wpcontent/uploads/2015/04/unique-picture-barcelona-pavilion-withbarcelonapavilionmies-carlosbeamonte1-large.jpg
4. Vincent, L. (Photographer). [Web Photo]. Retrieved from
https://vincentloy.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/dsc00090.jpg
5. Theo, S. (Photographer). [Web Photo]. Retrieved from

http://img0.worldhistoryproject.org/photos/images/65a4f4bfbffb3aa06d3dbf43fd6b
dd4d_three_column.jpg