Description
Engaging the compelling modern example of Frederick Kiesler’s Endless House, this paper examines how meaningful architecture that transmits its creator’s intentions to the public and allows them to be heard, can be influential even if only communicated through few published drawings and the architect’s words.Starting with a brief description of the project’s innovative ideas and components, a polemic reaction against the prevailing trend of architectural functionalism in the 1960s, the paper focuses on the way the project influenced some of Kiesler’s contemporaries in Montreal and gave rise to the first steps of a communication and collaboration. The project’s publication in New York Times (1959) was the reason for Kiesler’s travels to Montreal on different occasions. On the one hand he was invited by a client as a potential architect for the development of two possible projects inspired by the uniqueness and architectural creativity of the Endless House, while on the other hand he visited a lot near the city owned by a client interested in the building of the House itself.
In a period that Kiesler’s architecture was mainly understood and valorised by a small avant-garde group of architects and surrealist artists in New York, his communication with potential clients in Montreal reinforced a number of his architectural believes and helped him develop them in a more tangible level, as for Kiesler architecture should only start from the people’s real needs allowing the form to derive from them and serve them instead of being randomly chosen by the architects.
| Period | 2012 |
|---|---|
| Event title | ARCHITECTURE THAT SPEAKS |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Ottawa, CanadaShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | National |