Villa Muller | Model | 1:50

Finished Model

Villa Muller is of cubic form. The windows are arranged asymmetrically on the west facade.

Section A-A reveals the inter-locking space. The entrance, living room, and the boudior are located at different levels.

Section B-B

My favourite wall in the villa! The seperating wall between living and dining room gives an interesting relationship between these two space. People sitting in the dining room can look through the decending opening down to the living room. The wall also frames the dinnig room like a picture.

Model made by Yammie Ho & Vincent Hsu

Working Model

In view of the complex raumplan, we believed developing a model via Google Sketchup first can help us visualize and experience the villa in three dimensions. The Sketchup model is a good help to develop the model in balsa wood at later stage. In particular, the decision of the section cuts can be tested in Sketchup model to understand what section view can be achieved. At the end, we decided to make two section cuts. One lies on one-quarter of the length of the living room from the west façade to give section A-A. It cuts through the boudoir and the alcove that is the major circulation of the entire house. The other cut lies in front of the service stairs from the east façade. The section B-B reveals the central staircase connecting up to bedroom level.

Section A-A

Section B-B

Villa Muller | Poche Drawings | 1:100

Charcoal pencil is used for rendering to create different shades of dark values and contrast. Key furnitures and furnishing are drawn to communicate the ambience and to give hint of human scale.

Villa Muller | Parti Diagram | 1:200

Geometry

• The house is based on the proportions of 2:3 with the geometry of repeated squares found in the rectangular plan. The living room is one third and the dining room is one-sixth of one level. The square shape corresponding to the interior is used on the façades also.

Circulation

• Horizontal circulation (drawings show entry level and raised ground level of the living program): Access to the living room from the entrance is via an alcove approached by a short flight of stairs and a turn. A number of routes intersect in front of the alcove. The route on the left lead up to the boudoir while the route to the right provide access to the dining room and the central stairs to go upward for private space.
  
• Vertical circulation : The space of raumplan is connected vertically at different levels. The vertical movement takes place via the central staircase, service staircase and elevator.

Enclosure

• Relationship between inside and outside
  The facades forms an emphatic division between inside and outside. The villa has an introverted character and the main private outside space is on the roof where the breakfast room leads.
  
• Massing
  The house is in large cubic form sitting on a slope.

Structure

The villa is supported vertically by the exterior wall which is load bearing and four columns in the center. One of the columns is the elevator shaft and the others are blended into the interior as internal walls.


Program

• Zoning of private and public functions
  
  · Gradient of vertical privacy: The entry level with the anteroom and living rooms are the most public of all levels. The boudoir accessed by its own staircase from the living room becomes more private. And the bedroom level is only accessible from the boudoir and library level, the utmost privacy is ensured.
  
  . Gradient of horizontal privacy: The street front is the most public and contains the entrance. The living room is at the back facing away from the street towards the private garden. On the sleeping level, the master bedroom is also located at the back of the villa to provide most privacy.

Villa Muller | Research

Raumplan

“I do not design plans, facades, sections, I design space.”, Adolf Loos.

Raumplan is a unique way of spatial design and three-dimensional articulation of program by Loos. He designed almost every room with different height in Villa Muller, which created the floors on different levels. The space is connected with one another so that the transition is natural and practical.

Masking

“The house should be mute on the outside and reveal all of its riches on the interior.”, Adolf Loos.

The facades of Villa Muller are used as masks to distinct between the conventional domesticity and the metropolis. The façades were designed from inside out and intended not to communicate an interior condition which was considered the proper accommodation to a culture.


Reference:
Van Duzer, Lesile & Kleinman, Kent (1994), Villa Muller: a work of Adolf Loos, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 38-39, 44-45.

Risselada, Max (1988), Raumplan versus Plan Libre: Adolf Loos and Le Corbusier, 1919-1930, New York: Rizzoli, 27-32, 40-46.

Tournikiotis, Panayotis (1994), Adolf Loos, New York: Princ