The Free Plan - Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe

                Of the architects we have studied recently who embraced the concept of the free plan, two whose design methods are quite interesting when directly compared are Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe.  While the two shared some fundamental values and an affinity for the free plan, their individual definitions of free plan and other points addressed in their designs differed substantially.  The work of both Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe can be recognized largely by their free plan spatial organizations.  The building plan had moved from segmented spaces enclosed by intrusive, heavy structure to a now flexible structure which allowed spaces to be arranged in any way desired to best suit function and context.  Building structure was organized on a grid, and partitions became freed from any load-bearing responsibility.

Villa Stein - Le Corbusier

While flexibility was the main objective of the free plan for both Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, its purpose and the manner in which that flexibility was utilized differed between the two.  Le Corbusier approached his projects with a very scientific mindset.  His five points of architecture—pilotis, free plan, free façade, ribbon windows, and roof gardens—and his modular, repeatable structural systems became the interchangeable building blocks for nearly all of his projects.  Houses designed by Le Corbusier became like products of an assembly line, each having its own variations on the design formula and its own identity, but pieced together from a definitive set of components.  Free plan allowed him to do this with ease in his projects, such as Villa Stein or Villa 

Villa Savoye - Le Corbusier

Savoye, in which the domino skeleton system essentially created a structural box into which Le Corbusier could freely insert his architectural components in any arrangement that the specific context required.

Mies van der Rohe approached his projects with the same enthusiasm for free plan as Le Corbusier; however, Mies van der Rohe took the “free” quality of the free plan to another level beyond that of Le Corbusier.  His designs were much less rigid than Le Corbusier’s, and they allowed for much more flexibility and multifunctionality.  He dissolved the building center and the conventional four-walled room as spatial organizers.  Instead of the rigid, heavy boxes of defined space acting as a container for a specific function as seen in prior architecture, including that of Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe opened everything that could be opened and then some.  He completely liberated the plans of his buildings, providing minimal division where absolutely necessary for issues of privacy.  Many times it was as though he started with a block of open space, conservatively carved out small pieces for service space, and what was left was a large, light, airy volume of space which promoted ease of flow and felt far less claustrophobic than the traditional

50x50 House - Mies van der Rohe

room.  The 50x50 House, for example, or the Farnsworth House, redefined the idea of a house, opening the spaces within the house to each other, and the house to its environment.  Aside from the grid used to create structure, which itself was often unconventionally arranged, Mies van

Farnsworth House - Mies van der Rohe

der Rohe’s buildings were “free” in every sense of the word in relation to free plan and liberation of spaces.

Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe both valued the concept of free plan in their designs, but for seemingly very different reasons.  While Le Corbusier was very scientifically minded, his approach to spatial design was much more regimented than that of Mies van der Rohe, and the freedom of his free plans largely related to his freedom in design as opposed to Mies van der Rohe’s freedom of function and use in the free plan.  Both approaches, however, allowed the architects to design buildings to the best of their ability that they believed would support the needs of occupants in a unique way.

Works Cited:

http://en.wikiarquitectura.com/index.php/Villa_Stein_-_de_Monzie

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/Corbu.html

http://www.architakes.com/?p=5801

http://www.farnsworthhouse.org/photos.htm