Breuer's Hooper House II
That wall looks distinctly like Marcel Breuer's 1959 Hooper House II, fab house!
http://www.dwell.com/slideshows/marcel-breuer-hooper-house-ii.html
Marcel Breuer
(with his partner, Herbert Beckhard) was a first-rate modernist architect, and this residence is a gem. It's great to see it in such fine shape, with mature landscaping and no visible alteration to the original fabric.
This house contains one element, however, which reveals a flaw in the thinking of some architectural designers: stone-masonry (or brickwork) treated like "wallpaper."
Masonry is by its nature heavy -- wedded to, and arising from, the earth. It is supported from the ground and, above, by itself. It does not rest upon wood or other lesser material; if an opening is required, the material is arched or provided with a sufficiently firm (and thoroughly visible) stone lintel.
Modern materials include steel, available in many shapes and lengths. The large rectangular opening in the garden wall of the Hooper II house is provided with a hidden lintel of steel -- there's no other way to accomplish that feat, in a solid stone (or stone veneer) wall. Thus, a blatant act of structural dishonesty is part and parcel of the effect. To me, this detracts from the otherwise evident frankness of the architectural ensemble in this simple but grand modern architectural statement.
Speaking of Property porn...
I think I have fallen in love with the work of American architect Norman Jaffe, his designs were fantastic, so sculpturally Modernist.I particularly like the Lloyds house that he designed in 1977 with those battered stone walls...Which architects do you like?
http://www.normanjaffe.com/projects/lloyds/lloyds.html
Thanks, SDR.
Now I will dislike stone veneer for the rest of my days! (Seriously, though, thanks--there was something about it that always bugged me but I never really thought about it much. Other than that the outside corners were always obviously fake. I didn't get as far as the lintels and other details.)
I really start liking early...
Richard Neutra. Before he went to the states, he worked at the office of erich mendelsohn - i don't know if he really built much - however he did some work at the so-called onkel-tom-siedlung in berlin zehlendorf. We did a small trip there earlier this day - you can't really see that much because there is a wall and it's private property, but it does show where the stuff he did later came from.
http://1.1.1.5/bmi/distilleryimage7.instagram.com/b5281e12816a11e18bb812...
If you need any help, please contact us at – info@designaddict.com