Robert Stadler: Playdate

Paris-based, and internationally recognized, designer Robert Stadler has been working with The Glass House since 2020 on an exhibition directly connected to our own site. This series of design interventions will now be open to the public in an exhibition that details how Stadler has deeply considered the history of The Glass House, its collections and its former occupants, while keeping his creative eye focused on contemporary design juxtaposed with art.

The works will activate multiple locations at The Glass House: the Sculpture Gallery (1970), Da Monsta (1995), the Glass House’s main glass structure (1949), and the landscape itself, as a dialogue with the central core of the property. Much of the presented work is receiving its international premiere at The Glass House. Fascinated by Philip Johnson’s commitment to design as well as the architect’s signature wit, Stadler has named this series of interventions, Playdate.

Asked about his approach to reinterpreting The Glass House through his own design objects, Stadler noted: “Critiqued for being inconsistent, Johnson once brilliantly stated he was a ‘consistent chameleon.’ I see this presupposed inconsistency more like a great freedom. He had an inner urge to break with certain conventions defining a serious, ideological approach to architecture for the sake of avoiding the worst, which would be boredom and dull clients.”

The Glass House first approached Stadler about a collaboration prior to the pandemic but had to delay this important installation until it could be coordinated with Stadler’s residence at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. There he will work with students this fall to explore the opportunities of design in a social media-dominated world.