UNDERSTANDING THE DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

OF WELL-KNOWN BAUHAUS ARCHITECTS

ARCHITECT AND PHILOSOPHER

RICHARD NEUTRA
Compiled by
DRISHTI BHARTIA, 6
SUKRUTI JAIN, 13
PRIYANKA SHAH,
JASHAN SIPPY, 30
KHJADIJA TAMBAWALA,
CHARUSHILA THACKEREY,
ACADEMY OF ARCHITECTURE, unaided
JULY 2014

 Austrian American architect Richard Joseph Neutra

(April 8, 1892 April 16, 1970).
Lived and worked in Southern California and developed
variation of International Style, to suit the arid climate.
Known for rigorously geometric yet airy structures.
Used steel and glass, and the prefabricated elements
which were easy to build with a modernist look.
Keen sensitivity towards blending the interior and
exterior of a space such that it would place man in
relationship with nature; thats where he developed and
where he feels most at home.

Features of
International
Style:
geometric,
monolithic
Coined the term biorealism, which means "the inherent
skyscrapers
and inseparable relationship between man and nature.
flat roof
glass curtain
Novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand based part of her
character Howard Roark on Neutra in The
wall
Fountainhead.
no
Introduction | 01
ornamentatio
UNDERSTANDING BAUHAUS | RICHARD NEUTRA
2014-15 ACADEMY OF ARCHITECTURE,
n

Danger in the Smallest Dose: Neutras Philosophy

Sensitivity to post-war human conditions Even harsh
neon signs as we quickly pass them on the freeway are
literally nerve-wrecking to us, whether we know it or not.
weightlessness and dematerialization as aesthetic
principles.

In contrast to Le
Corbusiers ideal
of the house as a
machine for
living, Neutra
conceived of it as
an open
stage for living.

user interactivity (open planning and multi-functionality);

later commitment to a psychoanalytically inflected design.
Materialism was a result of his careful arrangement of
prefabricated materials that contained their own
measureable energies and not a matter of his
intentional shaping of those materials.
Attention given to defining the real needs of his clients used detailed questionnaires to discover his client's
needs, regardless of the size of the project, unlike other
architects at the time, who would force their design
ideologies and artistic visions onto their clients.
Design Philosophy | 02
UNDERSTANDING BAUHAUS | RICHARD NEUTRA

2014-15 ACADEMY OF ARCHITECTURE,

Early Work: Desert Modernism

Bauhaus modernism +
Southern California building
traditions.
dramatic, flat-surfaced
industrialized-looking buildings,
in carefully arranged
landscape.
steel, glass, and reinforced
concrete, finished in stucco.

From pre- to post-war Neutras

focus changed from the
technology of construction to the
technology of perception, a
consumer aesthetics

Later Work: Pavilion Style

composed of layered
horizontal planes.
extensive porches and
patios.
merge with the surrounding
landscape.

Tremaine House, later work (1948)

Lovell House, early work (1928)
UNDERSTANDING BAUHAUS | RICHARD NEUTRA

Growth as a Designer | 03
2014-15 ACADEMY OF ARCHITECTURE,

Kauffman House begins

Design Philosophy | 01
UNDERSTANDING BAUHAUS | RICHARD NEUTRA

2014-15 ACADEMY OF ARCHITECTURE,

Second selected structure

Design Philosophy | 01
UNDERSTANDING BAUHAUS | RICHARD NEUTRA

2014-15 ACADEMY OF ARCHITECTURE,

Design Philosophy | 01
UNDERSTANDING BAUHAUS | RICHARD NEUTRA

2014-15 ACADEMY OF ARCHITECTURE,