The Museum of Modern Art’s 1932 exhibition “The International Style: Architecture Since 1922,” curated from Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, set aside societal ideals and promoted modern architecture as a fashion. Now-familiar elements like horizontal ribbon windows, flat roofs and planar, unadorned walls prevailed in the primarily European examples gathered for the exhibit and companion book.
Planar walls were often accomplished using a little deception: Walls of brick or some other substance were often whitewashed or covered with stucco and painted white. This gave the buildings that the appearance of machinelike precision, but they were nearer to conventional techniques of production than the industrial, assembly-line products (cars, boats) which lots of the architects loved and emulated.
Architects have many more materials in their disposal today to achieve the clean lines of modern architecture, but stucco still finds a place, especially in climates conducive to it, for example California or the desert Southwest. Nevertheless the homogeneity of last century’s International fashion is eschewed in favor of modern forms balanced with vernacular considerations, for example climate, perspectives and color. Stucco is often also used alongside other materials on the outside surface.
Kanner Architects – CLOSED
To begin with, a home that follows the global style. This one-story residence in Malibu, California, by Kanner Architects is almost completely covered in stucco painted white. An entrance canopy juts into the ideal side of this photo, but the sun otherwise strikes the outside walls directly to light a collection of exterior spaces. What’s more, the wood window frames at a trim-free opening stick out in the white composition.
HMH Architecture + Interiors
This home in Colorado uses stucco for the majority of the exterior walls, in addition to a solid wall which defines the front of the property. But notice the rock wall which bisects the home; this wall continues inside to become an “art wall.” It takes on further importance by being of a different substance and color compared to white stucco walls.
TRG Architects
A similar type of idea can be seen within this award winning, ecofriendly house: Two stucco volumes are split by a space that’s further contrasted from the former by a wood cladding. The same wood is apparent in the space on each side of this stucco.
Given that stucco is basically plaster for outside uses, it’s therefore the perfect canvas for color. White may be ordinary, according to historical precedents in modern structure, but homes that respond to local issues — notably climate and the impacts of the sun — may benefit from some type of color. This home in San Francisco has grey walls with variation that shows the method by which in which the plasterer troweled the surface.
Architects Magnus
Here is another home where the variation on the outside gives the layout a particular character. It seems to work well with wood, a substance that his its own natural variations.
Griffin Enright Architects
The dark grey of the stucco exterior creates an imposing presence on the road.
Nick Mehl Architecture
Based on a number of variables — climate, backup structure, form — stucco can be implemented without control joints. This home is covered in various materials, such as Ipe wood (bottom left) and HardiePanel siding (centre), but notice how the stucco in the very top left and in the ideal uses vertical and horizontal control joints to divide the expansive walls, bringing the scale closer to another surfaces. The traces relate to the windows, a way of anchoring them to the stucco, rather than having them appear to float.
Neiman Taber Architects
More control joints can be seen in this Pacific Northwest home. Though each opening is unique, the horizontal and vertical lines show that an underlying grid is in the office.
Janof Architecture
The control joints on front elevation of the house fortify the difference between the small windows and the larger ones to the best. The joints create a kind of abstract composition about the wall.
West Architecture Studio
Look closely at the stucco expanse to the left of the bluestone box: Vertical and horizontal control joints are based on the square window, a different tactic than the prior illustrations.
Arcanum Architecture
This traditionally styled single-family residence near San Francisco uses stucco to provide clean surfaces and lines, instilling some modernism to the conventional form.
Randall Mars Architects
This massive residence overlooking the Potomac River is articulated in five interlocking pavilions. Stucco is a way to tame the composition, which could be unwieldy with the several roofs, chimneys and openings.
Randall Mars Architects
Up close it’s apparent that the stucco walls are not independently; poured-in-place concrete walls are interspersed among the pavilions.
Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects
This last example shows the potential of color, harking back to Mexican architect Luis Barragån, in place of the European architects who Hitchcock and Johnson promoted. A stucco wall defines a border of the property, and acting as a background for a number of sculptures. It’s carefully composed to be viewed from this terrace.
Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects
Up close, it’s clear how nicely the earthy orange-brown wall functions in it context. It hovers between blues and greens: between the green grass and blue sky, and instead the leaves over and reflecting pool below.
More:
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Wood Home Exteriors Branch Out
Glass Home Exteriors Reflect Modern Taste