Neutra

"An important contribution to the understanding of 'modernist' culture in the United States and a perceptive analysis of the achievement of a major American architect, with a European background and an international reputation."--William Jordy, Brown University "This study, part biography and part architectural analysis, is a modern masterpiece of architectural history. The prose is lucid and sometimes elegant--very much like the work of Richard Neutra which it so brilliantly examines."--Peter Gay, Yale University "An important contribution to the understanding of 'modernist' culture in the United States and a perceptive analysis of the achievement of a major American architect, with a European background and an international reputation."--William Jordy, Brown University

In 1937, the architect and his sophisticated client produced a masterwork of forward-thinking and artful architecture."

Born and raised in Vienna, Richard Neutra (1872 1970) came to America early in his career, settling in California. His influence on post-war architecture is undisputed, the sunny climate and rich landscape being particularly suited to his cool, sleek modern style. Neutra had a keen appreciation for the relationship between people and nature; his trademark plate glass walls and ceilings which turn into deep overhangs have the effect of connecting the indoors with the outdoors. Neutra ability to incorporate technology, aesthetics, science, and nature into his designs him recognition as one of Modernist architecture greatest talents.

Richard Neutra's landmark publication Survival Through Design, in print again for the first time in decades, is a cycle of essays providing insights far ahead of their time. With a new introduction by Dr. Barbara Lamprecht and foreword by Dr. Raymond Neutra, it is richly illustrated and intended as a reference for years to come. Neutra's themes are wide-ranging and he extensively plumbs through history to develop his insights, however, the general theme of man-made environment and its impact on human physiological, neurological, emotional states over time, and the designer's potential role as mediator of these conditions, is a constant throughout Survival Through Design with ever greater relevance for the present day. Richard Neutra's landmark publication Survival Through Design, in print again for the first time in decades, is a cycle of essays providing insights far ahead of their time. With a new introduction by Dr. Barbara Lamprecht and foreword by Dr. Raymond Neutra, it is richly illustrated and intended as a reference for years to come.

How modern architecture came to embrace the urges and fears of the affective unconscious. "Eight million Americans a year cool their heels in psychiatric waiting rooms. Design can help lower this nervous overhead."—Richard Neutra, 1954 Sylvia Lavin's Form Follows Libido argues that by the 1950s, some architects felt an urge to steer the cool abstraction of high modernism away from a neutral formalism toward the production of more erotic, affective environments. Lavin turns to the architecture of Richard Neutra (1892-1970) to explore the genesis of these new mood-inducing environments. In a series of engaging essays weaving through the designs and writings of this Vienna-born, California-based architect, Lavin discovers in Neutra a sustained and poignant psychoanalytic reflection set in the context of a burgeoning psychoanalytic culture in America. Lavin shows that Neutra's redirection of modernism constituted not a lyrical regression to sentimentality but a deliberate advance of architectural theory and technique to engage the unconscious mind, fueled by the ideas of psychoanalysis that were being rapidly disseminated at the time. In Neutra's responses to a vivid range of issues, from psychoanalysis proper to the popular psychology of tele-evangelical prayer, Lavin uncovers a radical reconstitution of the architectural discipline. Arguing persuasively that the received historical views of both psychoanalysis and architecture have led to a suppression of their compelling coincidences and unorthodoxies, Lavin sets out to unleash midcentury architecture's hidden libido. Neither Neutra nor psychoanalysis emerges unscathed from her investigation of how architecture came to be saturated by the intrigues of affect, often against its will. If Reyner Banham sought to put architecture "on the couch," then Lavin, through Neutra, leaps beyond Banham's ameliorative aim to lure contemporary architecture into the lush and dangerous liaisons of environmental design.

The correspondence between Richard and Dione Neutra recounts the difficult early years and the developing philoso­phy of a man who would change the look of architecture. But as Thomas S. Hines, Neutra’s biographer, makes clear, the book does far more than trace the devel­opment of two artistic young people: “What you have here is not only valuable material about the making of an archi­tectural career and of a salutary and in­teresting marriage, but documents of Eu­ropean and American social and cultural history in the early twentieth century.” The letters and diary entries describe the period that followed World War I, with the unbelievable inflation in Germany and the Great Depression in America. The settings range from imperial Vi­enna to imperial Japan, and from the nightmare of Ellis Island to a dream-house in Los Angeles. Along the way are fascinating glimpses of and comments from such architects as Gropius, Men­delsohn, Schindler, and Wright that fur­ther document Richard Neutra’s con­cepts, approaches, and attitudes, his frustrations and achievements. Running as a charming counterpoint to these intellectual themes is the story of a romance that was to endure for half a century, for many of the letters are first and foremost love letters that chronicle the Neutra’s meeting, courtship, and first ten years of marriage. The book is gener­ously illustrated by both personal photo­graphs and photographs of Neutra’s work.

"Harwell Harris would have been pleased with Lisa Germany's book. . . . The quality of the man permeates the work. It is honest, forthright architecture. It is void of tricks. It uses simple materials in an unself-conscious manner. It places priorities on the user. The emphasis on plan in his practice is the thread that takes us from project to project as Germany weaves the Harris tale."--Ray Kappe, FAIA, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians