Ten years later commissioned to Franck Lloyd Wright the later became iconic Water Falling House at Bear Run, Edgar Kaufmann needed to find an architect to design his new house located in a arid lot near Palm Springs. For his new house, Kaufmann, decided for the lighter style of Richard Neutra; more suitable for the frivolous Palm Springs.
Since the 1920s, the city at the foot of Mount San Jacinto drew Hollywood types seeking a getaway. Albert Frey, Le Corbusier's protege', built his own house here in 1940; Neutra's tiny Miller House was completed in 1937, but the $348.000, 3,200 square feet Kaufmann House reigns today as a grand Modernist villa, a recently landed silver aircraft on a green carpet weighted down only by carefully positioned boulders on this "moonscape," as Neutra called it.
The wilderness around Palm Springs, fascinated Richard Neutra. ln his 1927 book Wie baut Amerika he concluded with images of pueblos in New Mexico and Arizona, praising their stacked rooms with rooftop terraces and the ability of mudbrick masses to respond to a punishing climate. Despite the polished precision of the Kaufmann House, it suggests the spirit of the pueblos he admired.
Despite the agreements between The Falling Water House and the Kaufmann villa (both have stone masonry and appear to be floating weightlessly), Neutra saw a great difference between his work and that of Wright. Neutra believed that his works, like the Kaufmann villa, were in it's own right in the landscape, not merged in. The villa was "set on footings", whose combination of artifice and artificial climate underscored " the weather, the silver-white moonlight, and the starry sky" .
The Kaufmann villa became one with the site without losing taut quality, which was the signature of Neutra's earlier work. The result was that space is divided by shiny horizontal planes sliding above transparent glass. The chimney is the only pronounced vertical element of the house, that flanked the rooftop space, or as Neutra called it "the gloriette".
In the original drawing of the pinwheel floor-plan Neutra alternated by using loose curves to percolate the landscaping through the straight design, and, in contrast, taut parallel lines drawn on the diagonal represented the high winds and sand storms so common at the northern end of Palm Springs. It animates the drawing, but in reality it turned out that the northwest winds blasts whatever they could carry in the house (even today, despite later attempts to solve this problem). Also the use of much unprotected glass on the south side made it impossible to use the house twelve months a year. But this all was not a problem for Kaufmann, since he only wanted to stay in the villa in January to escape from the cold in Pittsburgh.
In the plan of the villa the living area is at the centre and the pinwheel provides that the four arms of one volume rooms get enough daylight and ventilation. Except this thoughtful function of the plan, the four arms also reveal a specific social order: Extreme privacy for the host, servants and children at each their own area, while they could mingle in shaded walkways, common inside areas or outdoor spaces.
Not only Neutra provided the Kaufmanns and their guests with inner comfort and privacy but also with a comfortable outdoor space. As an example, the louvers flanking the lily pond created a cooled patio protected by sand storms. The radiant heat -placed in the low seating wall- accompanied the hosts an their guests from the house to the pool guaranteeing warmness during a pool party on a chilly January night; the only month the Kaufmann lived in the house.
What later became the Neutra's trademark, is the floating effect obtained combining wood and steel in a way that reduced the necessary vertical supports. This is evident on the living room whose glass and steel walls open while the roof and the beam supporting the sliders disappear; spatially and visually linking the house with the pool while fusing the outdoor with the indoor space.
"Utah buff" stone was used in and outdoors. The stone work, rough and mortared from behind, complemented the smoothness of the other finishes. But dont get fooled: the stones were carefully chiseled, to make them fit perfectly in the total picture. It is an example that Neutra didn't leave anything to chance.
One lively detail occurs at the southern gutters. At their eastern end, the fascias suddenly become much narrower just before they terminate, allowing any overflow rainwater to flow east beyond the building before it falls on rocks below; a feature seen in both japanese gardens and medieval cathedrals. Banal gutters become Modernist gargoyles adept at romance. This indeed is a celebration of falling water a long way from Bear Run.
Since the 1920s, the city at the foot of Mount San Jacinto drew Hollywood types seeking a getaway. Albert Frey, Le Corbusier's protege', built his own house here in 1940; Neutra's tiny Miller House was completed in 1937, but the $348.000, 3,200 square feet Kaufmann House reigns today as a grand Modernist villa, a recently landed silver aircraft on a green carpet weighted down only by carefully positioned boulders on this "moonscape," as Neutra called it.
The wilderness around Palm Springs, fascinated Richard Neutra. ln his 1927 book Wie baut Amerika he concluded with images of pueblos in New Mexico and Arizona, praising their stacked rooms with rooftop terraces and the ability of mudbrick masses to respond to a punishing climate. Despite the polished precision of the Kaufmann House, it suggests the spirit of the pueblos he admired.
Despite the agreements between The Falling Water House and the Kaufmann villa (both have stone masonry and appear to be floating weightlessly), Neutra saw a great difference between his work and that of Wright. Neutra believed that his works, like the Kaufmann villa, were in it's own right in the landscape, not merged in. The villa was "set on footings", whose combination of artifice and artificial climate underscored " the weather, the silver-white moonlight, and the starry sky" .
The Kaufmann villa became one with the site without losing taut quality, which was the signature of Neutra's earlier work. The result was that space is divided by shiny horizontal planes sliding above transparent glass. The chimney is the only pronounced vertical element of the house, that flanked the rooftop space, or as Neutra called it "the gloriette".
In the original drawing of the pinwheel floor-plan Neutra alternated by using loose curves to percolate the landscaping through the straight design, and, in contrast, taut parallel lines drawn on the diagonal represented the high winds and sand storms so common at the northern end of Palm Springs. It animates the drawing, but in reality it turned out that the northwest winds blasts whatever they could carry in the house (even today, despite later attempts to solve this problem). Also the use of much unprotected glass on the south side made it impossible to use the house twelve months a year. But this all was not a problem for Kaufmann, since he only wanted to stay in the villa in January to escape from the cold in Pittsburgh.
In the plan of the villa the living area is at the centre and the pinwheel provides that the four arms of one volume rooms get enough daylight and ventilation. Except this thoughtful function of the plan, the four arms also reveal a specific social order: Extreme privacy for the host, servants and children at each their own area, while they could mingle in shaded walkways, common inside areas or outdoor spaces.
Not only Neutra provided the Kaufmanns and their guests with inner comfort and privacy but also with a comfortable outdoor space. As an example, the louvers flanking the lily pond created a cooled patio protected by sand storms. The radiant heat -placed in the low seating wall- accompanied the hosts an their guests from the house to the pool guaranteeing warmness during a pool party on a chilly January night; the only month the Kaufmann lived in the house.
What later became the Neutra's trademark, is the floating effect obtained combining wood and steel in a way that reduced the necessary vertical supports. This is evident on the living room whose glass and steel walls open while the roof and the beam supporting the sliders disappear; spatially and visually linking the house with the pool while fusing the outdoor with the indoor space.
"Utah buff" stone was used in and outdoors. The stone work, rough and mortared from behind, complemented the smoothness of the other finishes. But dont get fooled: the stones were carefully chiseled, to make them fit perfectly in the total picture. It is an example that Neutra didn't leave anything to chance.
One lively detail occurs at the southern gutters. At their eastern end, the fascias suddenly become much narrower just before they terminate, allowing any overflow rainwater to flow east beyond the building before it falls on rocks below; a feature seen in both japanese gardens and medieval cathedrals. Banal gutters become Modernist gargoyles adept at romance. This indeed is a celebration of falling water a long way from Bear Run.
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