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Wolff house . 1961
8530 Hedges Place . Los Angeles . 90069
John Lautner
1911 - 1994
John Lautner, FAIA, was born in Marquette, Michigan, in 1911 and worked
under Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin (Wisconsin and Arizona) from 1933-39.
He worked in private practice in Los Angeles from 1946 where he boldly
experimented with new industrial processes in what he terms his "continual
search to answer total basic human needs, emotional as well as physical, in
shelter."
The 1948 apartment building L'Horizon showed the influence of his six years
at Taliesin. Visually intriguing and functionally ingenious, his design gives
each of the nine units its own deck and outdoor garden. The Pearlman Cabin
of 1957 is a successful attempt to integrate a modern building into a wooded
site without resorting to rusticness. The sharply angled glass walls of the
house are supported by a circle of peeled log pillars, as if the building simply
grew out of the surrounding trees. The result is refreshingly direct but not
overly intrusive.
Perhaps Lautner's best known building is the Malin House of 1960, or simply
the Chemosphere. This flying saucer shape perched on a single concrete
column may look like futuristic indulgence, but it is also a very sensible
solution for a small steep site. The one column foundation minimized
destruction of the existing terrain and obviated the usual bull-dozing and
retaining walls of hillside building. The clear span interior of the hexagonal
house leaves 1,300 square feet of uninterrupted living space and offers
amazing views of the valley below.
Wolff House is again characteristically bold, made of dressed boulders,
concrete and jutting glass, with the carport projecting like a great lip.
Silvertop, as it is lovingly known, with a cantilevered driveway and swimming
pool, is a cascade of projecting forms: it was several years in the building
because of difficulties in obtaining permits for its unorthodox structure. The
use of space is daring and inventive, but never at the expense of the human
needs central to Lautner's view of architecture.
http://www.usc.edu/dept/architecture/shulman/architects/lautner/index.html
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