Villa Muller

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The Villa Muller is an architectural structure designed by the Viennese architect, Adolf Loos, in 1930[1]. The villa is located in Prague, Czech Republic. The house was designed originally for Mr. Frantisek Muller and his wife, Milada Muller.

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[edit] History

The building was commissioned by Frantisek and Milada Muller. Mr. Muller was an engineer and and co-owned a construction company called Kapsa and Muller. The company specialized in reinforced concrete, developing new construction techniques. Loos method of design was also transitioning, making the timing of the project appropriate. Soon, the architect Karel Lhota set Frantisek Muller up with Loos to design the villa. Lhota also contributed to the design due to Loos' poor health. After the building was completed, Loos celebrated his 60th birthday there with a few friends. The couple freely inhabited the house for eighteen years before Communists seized control of it in 1948. In 1968, the villa became headquarters for the Czechoslovak Republic. In 1989, when Communism died, the house was turned over to the Mullers' daughter, Eva Maternova. She sold it to the City of Prague in 1995, who put it in the care of the City of Prague Museum. The house was restored in 1998 and finally, re-opened as a museum in 2000[2].

[edit] Architecture

"My architecture is not conceived in plans, but in spaces (cubes). I do not design floor plans, facades, sections. I design spaces. For me, there is no ground floor, first floor, etc...For me, there are only contiguous, continual spaces, rooms, anterooms, terraces, etc. Storeys merge and spaces relate to each other[3]." Adolf Loos

Known as an innovative landmark of early modernist architecture, the Villa Muller embodies Loos' ideas of economy and functionality. The spatial design, known as Raumplan, is evident in the multi-level parts of individual rooms, indicating their function and symbolic importance. Raumplan is exhibited in the interior as well as the exterior.

The exterior displayed Loos' theory discussed in his 1908 essay, "Ornament and Crime." In the essay, Loos criticized decorated surfaces[4]. For the exterior of the Villa Muller, Loos designed a white, cubic facade. He also wanted to distinguish between the outside, where the view could be seen by the public eye, and the inside, the private spaces of those who lived there. Consequently, the interior is lavishly decorated with comfortable furniture and marble, wood, and silk surfaces[5].

[edit] Feminist Theory

In 1992, Beatriz Colomina, architectural historian and theorist and author of Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media, examined and discussed the Villa Muller in the book, Sexuality and Space (1992). It focused on the relationships between sexuality and space hidden within everday practices. The book is a collection of essays addressing gender in relation to architectural dialogue and critical theory. Colomina's essay, The Split Wall: Domestic Voyeurism, deals with gender spaces in various architectural structures. Colomina was interested in Loos' multi-level spatial design of the Villa Muller. She discusses Loos' opaque, covered windows of the house and how he would set sofas in front of the windows to angle the person sitting in the sofa towards the interior of the house[6]. Colomina includes Loos' idea of a theater box as a claustrophobic space if not for the large, open space to look out on[7]. Psychologically, the theater box could signify power and control inside of the house. In the Villa Muller, Loos designed a raised sitting area which Colomina interprets as the theater box as well as the 'female' space because of its domestic character. Moreover, Colomina suggests that the 'female' space is considered private and contrasts with the 'male', public spaces of the house. The voyeur concept in the Villa Muller is revealed through the theater box. The theater box draws attention to itself. At the same time the occupant of the box is looking out, the person looking at the theater box views the most intimate space. Therefore, the person in the theater box becomes the object[8]. Colomina infers a unique theory of Loos' interior design of the Villa Muller.

== Notes ==

  1. ^ Villa Mueller Prague by Adolf Loos
  2. ^ Villa Muller
  3. ^ Raumplan
  4. ^ HDM 15 Fischer
  5. ^ Villa Mueller Prague by Adolf Loos
  6. ^ Colomina 1992, p.314
  7. ^ Colomina 1992, p.315
  8. ^ Colomina 1992, p. 317

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[edit] References

Colomina, Beatriz (1992). "The Split Wall: Domestic Voyeurism", Princeton Architectural Press