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Grounding Mies and Floating Ledoux: Aberrant Decoding in Two Projects by Philip Johnson

This paper argues for a reinvigorated consideration of architectural influence through the lens of reception theory. The reception under consideration is intra-disciplinary: in other words, rather than considering how architecture is received within a larger cultural field, the paper instead analyses the reception of architecture's own history—in the form of precedents—within the field itself. As a specific case study, the paper considers two projects designed by Philip Johnson—the Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, from 1949 and the College of Architecture at the University of Houston from 1983—both of which are openly and explicitly influenced by earlier works. Adopting Umberto Eco's notion of “aberrant decoding” and expanding on the linguistic debates of the 1970s, the paper argues for both the disruptive and creative possibilities of “reading” the architectural past.