The Kaufmann House was built by Austrian-born architect Richard Neutra for Edgar J Kaufmann – an American department store entrepreneur – as a vacation residence away from his Pittsburgh home. The same retail baron commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, a decade earlier.
Built in 1946, the boxy two-storey residence has many defining elements of modernist architecture – a flat roof, pale exterior and shaded outdoor spaces – tailored to the arid climate of the California desert. Large sliding glass doors open onto patios that are lined with vertical, moveable metal fins. These slats enable the rooms to be shaded and cooled during extreme heatwaves, and closed up during sandstorms.
joaoslr says
The Kaufmann House was built by Austrian-born architect Richard Neutra for Edgar J Kaufmann – an American department store entrepreneur – as a vacation residence away from his Pittsburgh home. The same retail baron commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, a decade earlier.
Built in 1946, the boxy two-storey residence has many defining elements of modernist architecture – a flat roof, pale exterior and shaded outdoor spaces – tailored to the arid climate of the California desert. Large sliding glass doors open onto patios that are lined with vertical, moveable metal fins. These slats enable the rooms to be shaded and cooled during extreme heatwaves, and closed up during sandstorms.
More info and photos: https://www.dezeen.com/2018/02/16/richard-neutra-kaufmann-house-desert-architecture-palm-springs-modernism-week/
Crossposted from /r/ModernistArchitecture .
BopTheDrass says
This could easily have been designed today. Can’t believe it’s 73 years old.