Neutra: Rêsidencias/Residences

by Richard Neutra, Julius Shulman (Photographer), P.M. Bardi (Foreword)

Published 1950 for the exhibit "Residences of Neutra."

NEUTRA
INDEX

pág. 7.
Sua posiçāo/His position - prefácio/forword: P. M. Bardi

pág. 21.
Neutra
Arquitetura e fisiologia
Architecture and physiology

pág. 27.
Neutra escreveu-nos
Neutra sent us

pág. 29.
Oito residências/Eight residences
Chattsworth, 1936 [Von Sternberg House]
Beverly Hills, 1940 [Sinay House]
Brentwood, 1942 [Nesbitt House]
Colorado, 1947 [Kaufmann House]
Montecito, 1948 [Tremaine House]
Santa Monica, 1948 [Bailey House]
Escondido Beach, 1948 [Holiday Houses]
Silverlake, 1948 [Sokol House]

Parallel text in Portuguese and English.

71 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1950

About the author

Richard Joseph Neutra was an Austrian American architect. Living and building for the majority of his career in Southern California, he came to be considered among the most important modernist architects. He was famous for the attention he gave to defining the real needs of his clients, regardless of the size of the project.

Reviews

[jw468 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This small book is most likely to appeal to those who are intensely researching Neutra or his work. The book itself is small, measuring just 6.5” by 9.5”. It’s paperback, with a dust jacket that’s glued along the spine, and a sewn binding. It’s actually more than 71 pages because it includes 7 tipped-in unnumbered gatefolds.

P.M. Bardi’s foreword is typical: he bemoans the situation that proceeded Modernism and the then-current state of architecture, praises the virtues of Neutra’s rational and essential architecture, and calls for more interaction between the arts. Bardi also questions the general public’s disinterest in architectural criticism, a situation he intended to change by presenting a number of exhibits about architecture at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, where he was the director.

Neutra’s Architecture and physiology discusses mostly two things: architecture’s collaborative nature and a questioning of why human physiology wasn’t considered more important in architecture. He states:

When designing in limestone or in forged iron, nobody in his senses would think that it was an “extraneous chore” to consider the intrinsic properties of limestone or forgeable iron. On the contrary, truly creative instruction will impart and demand such consideration and knowledge. Therefore, if the architect’s primary and most important material is human nature, the physiological material called human mentality and this emotional, intellectual commodity called confidence, he will certainly have to cherish and understand it in relation to his work as much as any craftsman cherishes and understands his material. (p.22, 23)

As indicated by the contents listed above, about half of the book is text, the rest mostly photos, plans, and captions. Large plans, reproduced on the aforementioned gatefolds, are given for all of the buildings except the Von Sternberg House. The plan given for the Bailey House, otherwise known as Case Study House 20, depicts its early form and is different from the one published in McCoy's Modern California Houses. Quickly compared with the first volume of Buildings and Projects and Life and Human Habitat, there does appear to be information here that isn't in those books.