Architects’ Houses
by Michael Webb, Hon. AIA/LA
Though some may
contend that restraint breeds the best design, they would change their views upon
seeing this collection of homes, where architects have no client demands binding
them, and they create with brilliant abandon. “But the temptation to take risks,”
writes Webb in the introduction, “is tempered by the realization that they will
have to live in their creations and accept full responsibility for any shortcomings.”
The homes selected by Webb, one of our more prolific design writers, are by and
for an international roster that “share(s) a keen appreciation of nature and the
urgent need to reduce their carbon footprint.”
Webb is based in Los Angeles, and shows
four California projects from LA regulars Thom Mayne, FAIA, Buzz Yudell, FAIA, and
Tina Beebe, Kulapat Yantrasast, and Scott Johnson, FAIA. Interestingly, in the contextual
essay, “Drawing on the Past,” he discusses ideas and experiments of architects’
own homes starting with Thomas Jefferson, FAIA, though most of the US architects
featured are from Southern California, where no one can argue the advances of single-family
architecture. Schindler, Neutra, Eames, Frey, Kappe, Gehry, Hertz, Myers, and Ehrlich
are noted for their contributions.
Formal
elements that unite this global collection are glass, light, vertiginous spaces,
and treacherous stairs, along with mostly modern classic furniture by Jacobsen,
Saarinen, Breuer, Corbu, Aalto, and, of course, Eames (10 out of the 30 homes have
at least one Eames chair design). But innovation
is at the heart of these houses. “If you stick to the building code, you will
produce coded architecture. It’s essential to push the envelope,” says Antón
Garc?a-Abril, a Spanish architect who proves this through homes in Madrid and
the US designed with wife and partner Débora Mesa. The most thrilling part of this
book is seeing the unfettered imagination of the architects translated into beautiful
and daring realities.
Princeton Architectural Press; 2018; 304 pages; hardcover; $50.
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