Lovell Health House Griffith Park, LA 1927-29
1. The house is commissioned by Philip Lovell, a doctor and a famous naturopath advocate, based in LA area.
3. Lovell’s “natural” methods of healing and preventive health care led to rooms with outdoor sleeping porches, private areas for nude sunbathing, and extra-large preparing areas in the kitchen for the family’s vegetarian meals.
3.2 The main entrance is at the top, street level, and is entered by driveway – a design premised to auto mobile. The main, middle floor is enclosed by a wall of ceiling high cement windows looking out on the city, and is gently illuminated by actual model-T Ford headlights.
2. The hillside site abutted Griffith Park was a difficult experiment for Neutra. It was steep and irregularly-shaped.
4. The house rises above the heavy ferro-concrete foundation with a wide-open light steel frame that supports the building. It was the 1st completely steel-framed residence in America. The swimming pool is integrated into the base.
5. Neutra studied from modern architects like Loos, Mendelson, and Wright. The balanced asymmetry of its rectangular geometry also echoed the patterns and proportions of Mondrian’s paintings.
6. The house was premised on the fundamental health principles and construction ideas of Philp Lovell.
Kaufmann House/Fallingwater Bear Run, Pennsylvania 1934-37
1. The house was commissioned by Kaufmann family based in Pennsylvania as a weekend house, a house with the modern conveniences, away from the highway, deeper in the forest, and closer to the waterfalls where he liked to go.
2. Kaufmann expected the house to be downstream from the falls, but Wright designed a house directly above them.
3. Wright had a principle for any house that is not confined by the narrow city lot should be addressed 30-60 degree to the south, so that every room can be lit by sunlight for at least part of the day. He wanted to put the house as near as possible to the upper waterfall, and to give it the best orientation, so he aligned it parallel to the old bridge.
4. Wright used the means of cantilever to achieve the effect of the house leaping out from the rock ledge. He used a beam system which was made of stone and concrete to build the foundation directly by the water. The cantilever liberated space and created planes parallel to the earth.
4.2 Stone, concrete, steel, and glass were the main materials he used in the house. Stone was quarried locally on the site; concrete had the organic nature that he needed for the house; steel, which was mainly used to reinforce concrete, also was used on the frames of the windows; glass was served as an inconspicuous border between domestic life and nature.
4.3 Wright had the walls laid up in courses of sandstone, whose random, shifting ledges resembled the layering of the terraces of the house.
Farnsworth House Plano, Illinois 1949-51
1. The house is commissioned as a rural retreat for a single woman, Edith Farnsworth, a nephrologist based in Chicago.
2. It was built on an isolated wooded land bordering the north bank of the Fox River near Plano, Illinois, 47 miles away from Chicago. The river floods occasionally. Thus the site with trees was also chosen after consideration for consolidating soil.
4. Mies alleviate the floor slab five feet above the ground to ride above the potential water level. Both the floor and roof planes were supported by eight H-columns, which are positioned on the outside of the glass walls, leaving the interior a completely free plan.
3. One ACCESSES the house from a low stair that rises to a rectangular terrace nearly as large as the plan as the house. The terrace lays parallel to the house while sliding a bit to the west, and is also suspended above the ground. Another low stair ascended from the terrace to the patio, turn right on which and one can enter from the sole portal of the house.
3.2 The INTERIOR was a single space, whose major subdivision was provided by a freestanding, longitudinal, asymmetrically placed core. A freestanding closet parallels to the east wall borders the sleeping area without enclosing it. Noted to point out, all the furniture in the house was designed by Mies. (But there was no AC, so cross ventilation could be achieved by opening the portal, which may cause some mosquito problem in hot summer days.)
4. Mies’ European remanence can be seen in the asymmetrical placement of the core, the sliding terrace and his use of materials. He employed Roman travertine for all deck and floor areas. The steel frame was sanded to smooth, then painted white. (The process suggested the crafts, which is quintessential Mies – matter accepted then transformed, temporal fact elevated to the level of ageless truth.)
5. The house is unmistakably modern in its abstract geometry, yet it is history that Mies abstracted as surely he did structure. The sanded columns deny steel’s industrial origins while reminding people of something more akin to the classical columns.
6. The house is a total work of art that architecturally brings man and nature to a higher unity.
1. The house is commissioned by Philip Lovell, a doctor and a famous naturopath advocate, based in LA area.
3. Lovell’s “natural” methods of healing and preventive health care led to rooms with outdoor sleeping porches, private areas for nude sunbathing, and extra-large preparing areas in the kitchen for the family’s vegetarian meals.
3.2 The main entrance is at the top, street level, and is entered by driveway – a design premised to auto mobile. The main, middle floor is enclosed by a wall of ceiling high cement windows looking out on the city, and is gently illuminated by actual model-T Ford headlights.
2. The hillside site abutted Griffith Park was a difficult experiment for Neutra. It was steep and irregularly-shaped.
4. The house rises above the heavy ferro-concrete foundation with a wide-open light steel frame that supports the building. It was the 1st completely steel-framed residence in America. The swimming pool is integrated into the base.
5. Neutra studied from modern architects like Loos, Mendelson, and Wright. The balanced asymmetry of its rectangular geometry also echoed the patterns and proportions of Mondrian’s paintings.
6. The house was premised on the fundamental health principles and construction ideas of Philp Lovell.
Kaufmann House/Fallingwater Bear Run, Pennsylvania 1934-37
1. The house was commissioned by Kaufmann family based in Pennsylvania as a weekend house, a house with the modern conveniences, away from the highway, deeper in the forest, and closer to the waterfalls where he liked to go.
2. Kaufmann expected the house to be downstream from the falls, but Wright designed a house directly above them.
3. Wright had a principle for any house that is not confined by the narrow city lot should be addressed 30-60 degree to the south, so that every room can be lit by sunlight for at least part of the day. He wanted to put the house as near as possible to the upper waterfall, and to give it the best orientation, so he aligned it parallel to the old bridge.
4. Wright used the means of cantilever to achieve the effect of the house leaping out from the rock ledge. He used a beam system which was made of stone and concrete to build the foundation directly by the water. The cantilever liberated space and created planes parallel to the earth.
4.2 Stone, concrete, steel, and glass were the main materials he used in the house. Stone was quarried locally on the site; concrete had the organic nature that he needed for the house; steel, which was mainly used to reinforce concrete, also was used on the frames of the windows; glass was served as an inconspicuous border between domestic life and nature.
4.3 Wright had the walls laid up in courses of sandstone, whose random, shifting ledges resembled the layering of the terraces of the house.
Farnsworth House Plano, Illinois 1949-51
1. The house is commissioned as a rural retreat for a single woman, Edith Farnsworth, a nephrologist based in Chicago.
2. It was built on an isolated wooded land bordering the north bank of the Fox River near Plano, Illinois, 47 miles away from Chicago. The river floods occasionally. Thus the site with trees was also chosen after consideration for consolidating soil.
4. Mies alleviate the floor slab five feet above the ground to ride above the potential water level. Both the floor and roof planes were supported by eight H-columns, which are positioned on the outside of the glass walls, leaving the interior a completely free plan.
3. One ACCESSES the house from a low stair that rises to a rectangular terrace nearly as large as the plan as the house. The terrace lays parallel to the house while sliding a bit to the west, and is also suspended above the ground. Another low stair ascended from the terrace to the patio, turn right on which and one can enter from the sole portal of the house.
3.2 The INTERIOR was a single space, whose major subdivision was provided by a freestanding, longitudinal, asymmetrically placed core. A freestanding closet parallels to the east wall borders the sleeping area without enclosing it. Noted to point out, all the furniture in the house was designed by Mies. (But there was no AC, so cross ventilation could be achieved by opening the portal, which may cause some mosquito problem in hot summer days.)
4. Mies’ European remanence can be seen in the asymmetrical placement of the core, the sliding terrace and his use of materials. He employed Roman travertine for all deck and floor areas. The steel frame was sanded to smooth, then painted white. (The process suggested the crafts, which is quintessential Mies – matter accepted then transformed, temporal fact elevated to the level of ageless truth.)
5. The house is unmistakably modern in its abstract geometry, yet it is history that Mies abstracted as surely he did structure. The sanded columns deny steel’s industrial origins while reminding people of something more akin to the classical columns.
6. The house is a total work of art that architecturally brings man and nature to a higher unity.
