Architecture and nature; glenn murcutts magney huouse in comparison with four rural houses in the first half of the twentieth century

i ARCHITECTURE AND NATURE; GLENN MURCUTT’S MAGNEY HOUSE IN COMPARISON WITH FOUR RURAL HOUSES IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY The Phuong Ly A dissertation submitted to the University of Adelaide in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture (by coursework) School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design June 2004 ii Contents page Statement of authorship i Table of contents ii Acknowledgements iv Preface v Introduction Methodology Modern Movement and its ‘masters’ Le Corbusier and the Villa Savoye Frank Lloyd Wright and the Fallingwater 16 Alvar Aalto anf the Villa Mairea .24 Mies van der Rohe and the Farnsworth House .32 Sustainability .38 Glenn Murcutt and objective and subjective influences on his natural-related architecture .42 Childhood 42 Overseas excursions 45 Magney House, Murcutt’s one of the most iconic masterpieces apparently revealing his ideas .52 General description 56 Natural image 58 Technical image 67 Cultural image 76 iii Conclusion 79 Notes .81 Appendix: Summary comparison of the houses 84 References 87 iv Acknowledgements I gratefully acknowledge Professor Antony Radford for his dedicated supervision on my research I am profoundly impressed by his whole-hearted instructions on the research process, on the study of architectural values, on the expression method of writing I also thank for his lending of many interesting books which are useful for my writing and knowledge Acknowledgement and appreciation to Hoang Tung for his multifold role in computer help of 3D rendering and graphic design Also thank to Do Huu Minh Triet, Bui Viet Duong for their warm encouragements on my work, special appreciation to Triet for his editing my first draft of the report Thank Vo Ngoc Linh for the copy of his dissertation I particularly thank to Veronica Soebarto, Deborah White, and Izziah Hasan for their significant comments on my presentation which form the foundation for a convincing argument v Preface Nature, humans, and architecture are three sections of a whole system, which has existed together for long time The manners in which humans respond to nature, in architectural approach, have been much discussed in many theories, for example, the Oriental Fen-sui or sustainability However, when reading books about Glenn Murcutt, who was the 2002 Pritzker Architectural Prize laureate, I am extremely drawn to his architectures Murcutt eschewed to design big projects but only relatively small ones of which many are residential buildings They gently ‘touch’ to the earth, causing a minimal impact on the place they are located I propose that he is the ‘architect of nature’ His oeuvre is defined in nature-related houses with his careful attentions to the climate adaptation and to the connection to surrounding nature The Magney house can be considered to be one of Murcutt’s most typical emblems An interesting thing is that there is a relation between Murcutt’s works and the famed rural houses designed by Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Alvar Aalto and Mies van der Rohe in the first half of the twentieth century Preceding events cause a remarkable influence on the posterity’s determinations It is seen that this inheritance is about simple form, tangible materiality, natural allusiveness, and overall, the way they connect to nature In this research, I would like to examine the ways those architects’ works responded to nature, and to study the links between them in spite of their different chronologies of birth Introduction The aim of this dissertation is to examine relationships between architecture and ‘nature’ by analysing and comparing the Magney House by Glenn Murcutt and four iconic rural houses built in the first half of the twentieth century: the Villa Savoye, Fallingwater, the Villa Mairea and the Farnsworth House In each historic period, ‘nature’ has been understood differently The concept of ‘nature’ in architecture is not an exception According to Raymond Williams’ Keywords; a Vocabulary of Culture and Society, ‘nature’ is defined in three senses: “(i) the essential quality and character of something; (ii) the inherent force which directs either the world or human being or both; (iii) the material world itself, taken as including or not including human beings” (Williams 1976: 184) The term of ‘nature’ used in this dissertation follows the third of Williams’ definitions excluding human beings Thus “‘Nature’ has meant the ‘countryside’, the ‘unspoiled places’, plants and creatures other than man” (Williams 1976: 188) This was present from the 17th century In the 18th century, art, in general, including architecture considered ‘nature’ to be “a means of resistance to the artificiality of culture” (Forty 2000: 235) To the 19th century, the inventions in natural sciences and the appearance of new alternative materials, such as steel and glass, reduced the influence of ‘nature’ on the aesthetic architectural concept The scientists declared that they could explain ‘nature’ and Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly use the image of machinery aesthetics to reveal human power over ‘nature’ Many dominant buildings were built in this time that showed their great sizes and modern material use with an important role of civil engineers, for instance, the Eiffel tower in Paris, 1889 by Gustav Eiffel Forty writes that: “By the end of the nineteenth century, particularly for those architects who espoused the “modern”, nature had nothing to offer” (Forty 2000: 236) Yet Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright 2, Alvar Aalto and Mies van der Rohe all wrote much about the significant role of ‘nature’ in architecture To Wright, “Primarily, Nature furnished the materials for architectural motifs out of which the architectural forms as we know them have developed” (Wright 1908, quoted in Forty 2000: 238) Thus in ‘nature’, values of the architecture is enhanced In a different view, Le Corbusier presented his notion of the relationship between architecture and ‘nature’ in the book The Home of Man He noted: Sun, space, verdure: “essential joys” Through the four seasons stand the trees, friends of men Great blocks of dwellings run through the town What does it matter? They are behind the screen of trees (Le Corbusier & De Pierrefeu 1948: 91) The difference is that it sees ‘nature’ as something ‘separate’ from buildings, screening them The buildings are not themselves influenced by ‘nature’ Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly To Aalto, Finnish landscape is a valuable source of inspiration in his architectural design He wrote: “The purpose of the present article is to underline the fact that pure, original nature, with all its magic power, cannot surpass the sight of the landscape to which a human touch has been added as harmonious, enhancing factor” (Aalto 1925, quoted in Schildt 1998: 21) Thus Aalto argues that a building can improve the landscape It can stand side by side with the landscape to contribute its role to the whole picture Meantime, Mies said: “We should strive to bring Nature, homes, and people together into higher unity” (Mies 1958, quoted in Tegethoff 1985: 130) Like Le Corbusier, he maintains a clear separateness between the human object and ‘nature’ The work they designed reflected their ideas They visually relate to ‘nature’ in different ways Whereas the Villa Savoye, and the Farnsworth House emphasise ‘separation’, Fallingwater emphasises ‘organic connection’ The Villa Mairea is inserted into landscape as a human object enhancing ‘nature’ It is ‘overlaid’ between an artificial object and an image of ‘nature’ which is employed in this building However, the understanding of ‘nature’ has “been entirely transformed since the late 1960s by the environmental movement” (Forty 2000: 238) The term ‘nature’ now is Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly considered to be an ecosystem on which architecture interacts with a careful wariness of keeping its balance for future sustainability Living in harmony with ‘nature’ is to minimise the human passive actions in shaping the environment (Elliott 1997: 118-119) “Touch the earth lightly” is the maxim by which Glenn Murcutt means to place architecture into an entire ‘nature’ By this, he metaphorically means that architecture should cause a minimal impact on ‘nature’ rather than exploit it with human ignorance of harmony The reason for this dissertation is to concentrate on the image of house and ‘nature’, and how this image relates to concurrent images of house and technology and of house and culture Each one expresses the designer’s way of inserting the house into ‘natural’ surroundings The Villa Savoye (1929-31) by Le Corbusier is a simple and pure ‘object’, freely standing in the midst of a vast meadow Being the result of radical Modernism, it rejected past values of architecture in a new architectural language: simplicity, ‘objectness’, and ‘freedom’ in ‘nature’ In contrast, Fallingwater (1937-9) designed by Frank Lloyd Wright combines images of human dominance and power over ‘nature’ with that of emerging from ‘nature’ However, Wright imbued the concept of ‘organism’ in the building by hovering it over the waterfall to exploit distinctive sounds, and moreover, to express a visible change of time and of weather on the house throughout the year Consequently, the interrelation between the house and Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly surrounding milieu makes up a materiality and expressiveness for Fallingwater on the peculiar site Combined from the Villa Savoye and Fallingwaters’ features, the Villa Mairea (1938-9) by Alvar Aalto is both ‘object’ and emergent Naturally inserted into the site, the house works well with young forest Furthermore, Aalto attached images of natural bunches of tree trunks and bamboo to the canopy and staircase details, utilising raw materials, especially timber and rock, and capturing bounty of light into the house The Farnsworth House (1945-50) by Mies van der Rohe causes a minimal impact on the site The house’s purity and simplicity are portrayed not only on the form but also on polished materials of steel and glass It is a foil to the ‘natural’ background with trees, leaves and grassland The Magney house (1982-84), designed by Glenn Murcutt in New South Wales, Australia much later than those ‘masters’’ houses, is a multi-faceted synthesis of nature-related aspects, including many similar characteristics to the above rural houses from which he has been influenced The reason is that Le Corbusier, Wright, Aalto, and Mies had been dominant figures in the recent history of architecture when Murcutt had been a student Also, their buildings would have been attractions when Murcutt was traveling around America and Europe in his excursions The Magney house responds to the site in the way which relates to natural, technical and cultural images of sustainability Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly 76 Cultural image In a talk to Ian MacDougall about architecture, Australia and ethics in 1992, Murcutt expressed his thoughts about the values of cultural image in his view of architecture design: “It is the land that will dictate it finally, but we have brought with us cultural aspirations, we have built form and that must form part of any brief to an architect” (Murcutt 1992: 51) It is the culture that has a remarkable influence on the architect’s solutions in planning his or her work In the Magney House, this sensitive aspect is referred in the following points The most important concept which Murcutt produced in the Magney house, and in most of his rural houses, is the concept of verandah as told above in the natural image section The house is regarded as a whole verandah where its inhabitants can sit and connect with nature outside It refers to the cultural role of the verandah in traditional Australian architecture The form of the roof, beside its function of ease for air movement, reveals the image of gull wings on the seashore In the dawn or sunset, those wings are ethereal and soaring in the sky amidst light yellow sunbeams The edge of the roof is so gentle that it seems to be a ribbon of silk floating on the air But Murcutt explained that it was a tent-like house which he designed for the client who had camped on the same site for a long time “The roof profile is lifted off the transom Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly 77 datum It is airy and light, like gulls’ wings The building possesses a tent-like quality in its lightness It is a house where one goes to bed early and gets up at sunrise” (Murcutt, quoted in Beck and Cooper 2003: 82) Murcutt had many discussions with his clients to understand what they needed, required and desired A canvas or a corrugated thin steel roof sheet is not important, but the most necessary is to make the house close to the clients’ imaginations and habits Murcutt brought vernacular aspects into the design ranging from the small details to the great concepts He has considered corrugated steel as a kind of expressive material which is used widely in Australian traditional architectures He has chosen it because its ‘patterns of highlights and shadow change throughout the day’25, because “it can be bent, rolled, curved”, “because it is capable of giving [him] that thinness, that lightweight quality, an edge, a fitness, economy, strength and profile” “[He loved] it because it reflects the day; on the dull day the building dulls down and on the bright day, the building is bright The building responds beautifully to the type of day it is and that is important” (Murcutt quoted in Drew 1999: 127) Corrugated iron eventually becomes the major means to express his idea of connecting the building with surroundings The building is inserts into nature and reflects nature in its skins of corrugated metal sheets Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly 78 Another particular aspect is his use of rain water transport system in the Magney house Big round metal downpipes with the rain water head, which is developed as a funnel, stand far away from the building This has become a feature that Murcutt employed in many of his works The image of rain water head and downpipes is visible on houses around Australia In summary, the Magney house is one of Murcutt’s most emblematic works which reveals its intimate connection to nature It is a subtle synthesis of sustainable images in the way it open toward nature, in material and technology employments, and in the cultural consideration on the site The house’s appearance on the site does not create a major change to the landscape, just a gentle insert of the architecture The idea and the detail-making for the house are unified as harmony between architecture, humans and nature Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly 79 Conclusion The houses discussed in this report are iconic works representing different manifestations of connection with nature A system of humans, architecture and nature, like a three-leg stool, is unseparated; and it is more significant than ever in the present when the sustainable background is prevailing Although appearing in the early half of the past century, the four houses designed by ‘Modern masters’’ seek to be balanced and harmonious with the context There are similarities between all of these houses and Murcutt’s work It has aspects of the simplicity and ‘objectness’ Villa Savoye on the immense and deserted grassland It also is the dominant but ‘organic’ Fallingwater in the midst of the vital forest and melodious spring and waterfall or the duality of ‘objectness’ and ‘emerging’ to create the materiality of the Villa Mairea, and the insert of the minimal and pure Farnsworth house as a designer’s ideal response to nature Born in the later time, the Magney House is a synthesis from many architectural influences not only from these masters’ works but on Australian traditional houses It has the simplicity form on the meadow, the purity of material, the sole ‘objectness’ amidst nature It attaches to nature by using allusiveness of tree-like struts and rock shape, and exploiting good orientations and sun paths It is the house to ‘live’ within nature, like the Jury of 2002 Pritzker Prize cited on Murcutt’s works: Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly 80 [Glenn Murcutt’s] houses are fine tuned to the land and the weather He uses a variety of materials, from metal to wood to glass, stone, brick and concrete always selected with a consciousness of the amount of energy it took to produce the materials in the first place He uses light, water, wind, the sun, the moon in working out the details of how a house will work -how it will respond to its environment (Online Available: HTTP: http://www.pritzkerprize.com/main.htm (May,2004)) To close the thought about the natural-relation of architecture, there is an extract from Frank Lloyd Wright’s writing of the ‘principles for the new architecture: Thus environment and building are one: Planting the grounds around the building on the site as well as adorning the building take on new importance as they become features harmonious with the space-within-to-be-lived-in Site, structure, furnishing - decoration, too, planting as well – all these become as one in organic architecture What was once called “decorating” – landscaping, lighting, etc – and modern gadgetry (mechanical fixtures like air-conditioning) all are within the building structure as features of the building itself Therefore all are elements of this synthesis of features of habitation and harmonious with environment This is what posterity will call ‘modern architecture’ (Wright from Testament 1957, quoted in Wright 1960: 317) Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly 81 Notes In Keywords; a Vocabulary of Culture and Society, Williams also presented the times when the term ‘nature’ appeared in English in three different senses See Williams 1976, p.184 Forty only mentioned Wright and Le Corbusier as two outstanding exceptions not to negate nature in their thoughts and designs See Forty 2000, p.237 See Understanding Sustainable Architecture, by Williamson, Radford and Bennetts, 2003, p.32 See Architecture and the Environment– Bioclimatic Building Design, by Jones and Hudson, 1998, p.23 In comments of natural writings of Le Corbusier, Jones and Hudson argued: “In The Radiant City (Paris, 1967) he declares: “Man is a product of nature He has been created according to the laws of nature If he is sufficiently aware of those laws, if he obeys them and harmonises his life with the perpetual flux of nature, then he will obtain [for himself] a conscious sensation of harmony that will be beneficial to him.”” (Jones and Hudson 1998: 23) Wright’s architecture was mentioned as a heterodox style of modern trend by Jones in the book Architecture and the Environment – Bioclimatic Building Design (p.27) However, Jones considered Wright to be one of the giants of Modern Movement The description of the site, Bear Run, was carefully detailed in the book Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, the House and Its History by Donald Hoffmann, second edition in 1993 by Dover Publications: USA Bear Run is a stream of water on a rough topography of rock-ledges and boulders amongst the young forest The picture is an absolutely natural landscape without language Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly 82 of any artificial landmark The outcrops of rocks, vital trees, especially rhododendron, stream of water and the harmonious sounds are interwoven in a colorful image of nature See Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, the House and Its History, by Hoffmann, D., second edition, 1993, Dover Publications: USA, p 21 The article ‘Architecture in landscape of Central Finland’ is collected on the book Alvar Aalto in his own words which was edited and annotated by Göran Schrildt, published by Rizzoli: New York in 1998 10 See Alvar Aalto in his own words by Göran Schrildt, published by Rizzoli: New York in 1998 11 See Architecture and the Environment-Bioclimatic Building Design by David Lloyd Jones with Jennifer Hudson, 1998, Laurence King, London, p26 12 See Mies van der Rohe by Jean-Louis Cohen, published by E & FN Spon : London in 1996, p92 13 This quotation is one part of Mies’ interview that took placed in 1958, quoted in Tegethoff 1985, p.130 14 See Tegethoff 1985, p.13 15 See Design with Nature, the Ecological Basics for Architectural Design, by Yeang 1995 p.189 Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly 83 16 “Henry David Thoreau, (1817-1862), was an American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher, best-known for his autobiographical story of life in the woods, Walden (1854) Thoreau was one of the leading personalities in New England Transcendentalism His "Civil Disobedience" (1849) influenced Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.” (Online HTTP: http://www.online- literature.com/thoreau/ (June 2004)) 17 The first trip of Murcutt in Europe was demonstrated on Drew 1999: p.39-48 18 The second trip around American and Europe was stated on Drew 1999: p.49-62 19 See Drew, P (1999) Touch This Earth Lightly Duffy & Snellgrove: Australia, p.49 20 Ibid., p.50 21 Ibid., p.50 22 Ibid., p.58 23 Ibid., p.59 24 Murcutt’s ideas of using technical applications in the Magney house were revealed on the book Glenn Murcutt: a Singular Architectural Practice by Beck & Cooper, p.82 25 Murcutt’s statement of material use and colour effect is apparently performed on the book Touch this Earth Lightly edited by Drew, P 2003, p.105 Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly 84 Appendix: Summary comparison of the houses Natural image Technical image Cultural image Villa Savoye in - Simple, stark, ethereal box - Reinforced concrete and - Changing notion of traditional Poissy, 1929- - On pilotis for unobstructed view; free masonry use for stilts, slabs and house 1931 by Le circulation zone beneath the villa; poised stair with transparent strip glazing - Preserving the natural scenery Corbusier box window of meadow in the country - Garden terrace for natural ventilation - Built on stilts to form undercroft - Obeying to Le Corbusier’s ‘Five and light - Artificial ventilation through ramp points of new architecture’: free - Strip windows for free view stack plan, free faỗade, on pilotis, strip window and roof garden Fallingwater in - “Organism” - Use reinforced concrete with - Entirely adapting to cosmic Bear Run, - Use of rhythmical masses of terraces steel strand for long overhangs surroundings as a weekend Pennsylvania, as the images of rock-ledges and - Round edges of roof slab and house 1937-1939 by boulders terrace masses to provide the - Obeying the ‘organism’ notion Frank Lloyd - Hovering above the water fall to sense of lightness Wright employ the sound and landscape Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly 85 - Participant to nature as a symbiont - Natural light by using glass - Filter natural light into the house to window create the safe emotion for the inhabitants - Natural material use: stone masonry, timber Villa Mairea in - Delicate attachment of building into - Skillful use of material - Successful experiment for a Noormarkku, nature - Flexible partitions for variety of living space and art collection 1938-1939 by - Use of copied images from nature: client’s uses place as well Alvar Aalto bunches of tree-like columns, bamboo - Insulation for glass window in - Adapting to the local climate posts winter - Natural disposition of functional spaces - Natural daylighting - Natural materials and colours: slate, timber, tree bark, masonry Farnsworth - “Less is more” notion -Steel frame with glass walls -Adapting to the natural condition House, west of - Very pure, simple and minimal form - Machinery aspects of finished of site: flood and landscape Chicago, 1945- - Interior open totally to landscape performance - Weekend country house 1950 by Mies van - Touching lightly to the earth, hovering der Rohe the ground on slender steel columns Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly 86 - No enclosure of screen or solid wall on the skin of the building Magney House in - “Touch the earth lightly” without any - Use of durable and recyclable - Use corrugated iron for roof and New South disruptions on surrounding landscape materials wall Wales, 1982- - Minimal impact on surrounding - Refined surface and material to - Concept of verandah for the 1984 by Glenn greenery and nature reflect the grassland house Murcutt - Linear form and plan: taking - Use of blind and shading devices - Image of downpipe and funnel advantages of natural ventilation, for light and energy control for rain water transport system lighting, and view for the house - Use right angle of edge roof to - Image of tent-like under the sky - House like verandah is a good way to control the sun access in seasons vault contact with the outside space throughout the year - Image of gull’s wings on the - Natural sound taken into account by - Aerofoil concave roof shape for seashore using round downpipes air movement - Catching the image of tree-like strut - Use of thermal mass and supporting leaves of iron consideration of bushfire Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly 87 References Books: Beck, H and Cooper, J (2003) Glenn Murcutt, a Singular Architectural Practice, The Images Publishing Group: Australia Cohen, Jean-Louis (1996) Mies van der Rohe, E & FN Spon: London Elliott, R (1997) Faking Nature; the Ethics of Environmental Restoration, London and New York Farrelly, E.M (1993) Three House, Phaidon: London Forty, A (2000) Words and Buildings; a Vocabulary of Modern Architecture, Thames & Hudson: UK Fromonot, F (1995) Glenn Murcutt; Work and Project, Thames and Hudson: London Gössel, P & Leuthäuser, G (1991) Architecture in the Twentieth Century, Taschen: Köln Groat, L & Wang, D (2002) Architectural Research Method, John Wiley & Son, Inc: Canada Guiton, J (1981) The Ideas of Le Corbusier on Architecture and Urban Planning, George Braziller: New York Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly 88 Guthem, F (1975) In the Cause of Architecture Frank Lloyd Wright, Architectural Record and McGraw-Hill Publication: New York Hoffmann, D (1993) Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, the House and Its History, second edition, Dover Publications: USA Hopwood, G (1971) Handbook of Art, Victoria, Australia: Specialty Press Jones, D L with Hudson, J (1998) Architecture and the Environment – Bioclimatic Building Design, Laurence King, London Le Corbusier (1991) Precisions, translated by Aujame, E S., The MIT Press: London Le Corbusier & De Pierrefeu, F (1948) The Home of Man, the Architecture Press: London Reed, P (1998) Alvar Aalto: Between Humanism and Materialism, the Museum of Modern Art: New York Sbriglio, J (1999) Le Corbusier: the Villa Savoye, Foundation Le Corbusier in Paris and Birkhäuser in Berlin Schildt, G (1998) Alvar Aalto in his own words, Rizzoli: New York Spaeth D (1985) Mies van der Rohe, The Architectural Press: London Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly 89 Tegethoff W (1985) Miles van de Rohe, the Villas and Country Houses, The Museum of Modern Art, New York Tietz, J (1999) The Story of Architecture of the 20th Century, Könemann Weston, R (1992) Villa Mairea – Alvar Aalto, Phaidon: London Williams, R (1976) Keywords; a Vocabulary of Culture and Society, Fontana/ Croom Helm: Great Britain Williamson, T., Radford, A., Bennetts, H (2003) Understanding Sustainable Architecture, London & New York Wright (1960) Frank Lloyd Wright: Writings and Buildings, selected by Edgar Kaufmann and Ben Raeburn, Horizon Press: USA Wright, F L (1954) The Natural House, Horizon Press ICN New York Yeang, K (1995) Design with Nature, the Ecological Basics for Architectural Design, USA: McGraw-Hill Articles: Jury of the 2002 Pritzker (2002) ‘Glenn Murcutt; Pritzker Architecture Prize 2002, Architecture Australia May/June 2002: 70-83 Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly 90 Kwee, V and Radford, A.D (2004), “Arthur & Yvonne Boyd Centre”, Draft working papers, School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design: The University of Adelaide Murcutt (1992) ‘Keeping the Faith; Glenn Murcutt Talks to Ian McDougall about Architecture, Australia and Ethics’, Architecture Australia September/ October 1992: 52-57 Websites: Craven, J (2004) Glenn Murcutt, Online Available HTTP: < http://architecture.about.com/library/bl-murcutt.htm> (April, 2004) Pritzker Jury (2002) Citation from the Jury, Online Available HTTP: (May, 2004) UNEP (1972) Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, Online Available HTTP:< http://www.unep.org/Documents/Default.asp?DocumentID=78&ArticleID=1163> (March, 2004) Literature Network (2004) Henry David Thoreau, Online Available HTTP: (June 2004) Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Master dissertation by The Phuong Ly ... structure into a residential project There was an interesting Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth Century. .. from the L and closed the courtyard lawn by the surrounding coniferous forest Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth. .. designs, the path to sustainability in architecture. ” (Jones and Hudson 1998: 45) Architecture and Nature; Glenn Murcutt’s Magney House in Comparison with Four Rural Houses in the First Half of the Twentieth