Richard Neutra as a Design Inspiration

The work of Richard Neutra is emblematic of the Architecture that I grew up with... bold, optimistic, and very Modern. I'm talking about my childhood in Los Angeles where many of the buildings, both the great and the not-so-great, were influenced by Neutra's Modernist vision. Its always been interesting to me to learn what a departure from the status-quo Modern Architecture was in most of the world, because to me it was more or less the norm. In the world of 1960's Los Angeles it was historicist Architecture from the pre-Modern era that was a departure from what was being built on a day to day basis.

Born in Vienna and beginning his Architectural training before WWI, Neutra came into his own as an Architect in the period between the wars. His early experiences were varied, but it is possible to see threads of his design sensibility looking back. Working in Europe initially, he apprenticed alongside Rudolph Schindler and later worked for Erich Mendelsohn (1921-3). Upon relocating to the U.S. he worked in N.Y. and Chicago before joining Frank Lloyd Wright for a short period in 1924-5 at Taliesen in Spring Green Wisconsin. Arriving in Los Angeles in 1926 he began collaborating with Schindler, and by 1929 Neutra had completed the Lovell House, a masterpiece that became an icon among Architects working across the U.S. and in Europe. It is one of the earliest built examples of what would later be dubbed the "International Style".

Neutra kept his Modernist perspective and design sensibility, but over the years his California Architecture seems to become adapted to the environment. While the term "Regionalist" doesn't fit, he did become comfortable allowing local topography, climate, and materials to temper his Modernist aesthetic. Neutra created a highly influential body of work over the course of his career, completing projects all across the U.S. and Internationally. But for me Neutra's California work is the most appealing. I see it as a welcome tempering of the hard-edged Modernist ideology of "Universal Architecture", leaving us with works that reflect the California landscape and optimize the California lifestyle.

Neutra Office Building
Broad Survey of Neutra Homes (some in original condition, some altered)
VDL Research House
Kaufmann "Desert House" 1
Kaufmann "Desert House" 2
"Windshield"
"Cyclorama"