Mid Century Modern Architecture Term Paper

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Architecture



It is interesting to learn that Mid-Century modern is really an architectural, interior and creation purpose procedure that normally defines mid-20th century expansions in modern blueprint, architecture, and urban expansion from approximately 1933 to 1965. The period, occupied as a style descriptor even during the mid-1950s, was reiterated in 1983 by author Cara Greenberg in the name of her manuscript, Mid-Century Modern: Furniture of the 1950s, which celebrating the style which is now documented by researchers and museums all over the world as a noteworthy design movement. With that said, this paper will discuss the architecture of the Stahl and Neutra Houses that were visited on a tour in Los Angeles, California.



Stahl House



One of the first stops that we landed at was the Stahl house which we learned had a very interesting background. Upon entering, it was brought our attention that a man named Julius Shulman, who was an American architectural photographer, gave a little history to the house that is worth noting. Julius took a picture of this house and he is best known for his snapshot called the "Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960. Pierre Koenig, Architect."



Another name for what most call the residence is The Stahl House. Shulman's photography had spread California Mid-century contemporary all over the world. Throughout his hundreds of manuscripts, displays and personal appearances his Julius had ushered in a new gratitude for the movement that really started around the 1990s.



Julius massive library of imageries currently exist in the Getty Center in Los Angeles. His colleagues comprise of Ezra Stuller and Hedrich Blessing. With that said, it is clear that he helped put the Stahl houses on the map. The Case Study project towards this home had started somewhere around 1945, when John Entenza, who was the editor of Art and Architecture Magazine, made a commission to several famous architects which involved Richard Neutra, Raphael Soriano, Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, Craig Ellwood, and Pierre Koenig to construct inexpensive houses in California by using things like wood, glass and steel.



The homes were envisioned to be model institutions which the normal American family would be able to just effortlessly copy utilizing reasonable materials.



When I first walked in the front door of the home my mouth pretty much just dropped all the way to the because the site was so flawless in its appearances. To be honest, I had never seen sights like that anyplace in all my life of living. Everything was basically breathtaking! And the home!!! I do not think that there are words that have come to mind to give it a proper description for the house. I can't imagine living, or even getting to spend one night, there. Our tour, which had gone on for around an hour, was done by Buck Stahl's son and his former wife, Carlotta and Mark Stahl, separately. Mark had made the point that growing up in the household that he really did not pay attention of the architecture. To him it was just his home and he did not realize that this place was the first home to be made from steel. He made the point that as he began to grow older, a lot of his friends wanted to hang out with him more at the house and swim in the pool. It was then that he noticed that the house was from what he thought was normal. Again, I would have to add that it was captivating to be given a sightsee of the home by those in the family that actually lived there. We learned that the Case Study House #22 is one of the only Case Study Houses that is at the very present occupied and owned by the original residents, so it the condition that it is in is incredible. Because of the Stahl Family's strength of mind to keep the house true to its unique form, the home is tremendously costly to preserve, which is why the family thought it would be a good idea to give tours.



When we went into the kitchen, it was breath taking. The view looking where the kitchen stood displays its floating bar and cooking islands. We were able to the stretches of glass windows that were enclosed to the house on three sides and which gave it the L-shape pavilion which was around a 270-degree mountain-to-ocean scene.

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A manufactured fireplace that acts as a pivotal point for where the living room was stationed.



Then we were able to see that back view of the house C.H. "we stood near a terrace which Stahl had constructed at the back of his hillside home from concrete which was reclaimed from the construction sites. "My father had really spent many hours every weekend for two years constructing the walls that went all the way around the property line," says his son Mark Stahl. Then he added. "As you can see, there are really just only two areas of the back terrace that still exist today, but as you can see the rest of the wall has not gone anywhere."



It was interesting to learn that this Case Study House program had played a very important position in the idea that a lot of these modern houses could be constructed with industrial materials like that of steel. By looking at the architecture of this home, it was so clear that the steel beams with the columns attached were provided and constructed like a huge erector which was actually set in one whole day at the Stahl property. (Interesting to learn also that the name Stahl, by chance, interprets to "steel" in German.) The family started moving into the house in June 1960; just around nine months after the building had started. In comparing this to the neutral houses, it very much different because the Nuetra homes are not constructed by steel but by glass.



Neutra Houses



Even though better known for his residential structures, Richard Neutra's business projects however reverberate the same all-inclusive ecology- concord with the surrounding landscape and inflexible functionalism. It was clear that Neutra's focus to detail even went past to the choice of signage for all of his buildings. It makes perfect sense that Neutra identified lettering that was exposed and inconspicuous, the same features which characterized his liberal architecture. House Industries have brought the same linear geometry to Neutraface deprived of foregoing a distinctly warm and human texture.



Arriving at the Neutra house which was located locates in LosAngeles was quite different from the Stahl home. We learned that around seventy-five years ago, in this city, having borrowed a no-interest loan from the Dutch philanthropist named Dr. CH Van Der Leeuw, Viennese-American designer Richard Neutra came up with the idea to build a radical "glass house" with balcony and rooftop gardens on Silverlake Boulevard



. Now this was a total different scene from which we had discovered at the Stahl residence. The houses did not look the same at all. Both had a total different nature but what was similar was that they chose unique material with one choosing all steel and the other utilizing glass. The builder called it the VDL Research house, after his sponsor. It was intended to contain his main office and two families on a little 50 x 60-foot lot.



Then around seven years later, as his family enlarged, he constructed a garden house which was constructed on the back of the lot. When we toured that area, we noticed that it had condensed wing shad walls that slithered open onto a garden that looked like a pocket which was actually being shared by the add-on and the main part of the house. However, we later learned during the tour that in 1963 after a dreadful fire, that left unharmed only the 1940 Garden home and basement of the initial wing, Richard and the family members along with partner Dion Neutra took it upon themselves to reshape the main house. It was interesting to tour the two floors and a penthouse solarium that had been constructed on the first manufactured basement structure. Apparently, they related to what the custom had studied in the interlude about sun water roofs louvers, "nature-near" and physiologically interested purpose.



What we see about this house is that in his design of the VDL Research House, Neutra wanted to display to the viewers that the novelties of his Lovell Health House could possibly be built-in into plans for less well-off clients.



In the course of using of glass, natural lighting, glass walls that opened right into the patio mirrors and gardens, Neutra made sure that he designed enough of a space that was….....

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