Kaufmann Desert House (1946) Palm Springs, California 3800 sq ft Architect: Richard Neutra View from road. Photo from greatbuildings.com Richard Neutra was born in Vienna in 1892. He was taught by Adolf Loos and worked with Rudolph Schindler. Neutra is well-known for his modernistic architecture in southern California. He died in Germany in 1970. Edgar Kaufmann hired Neutra to be the architect for his winter desert house. Kaufmann was a wealthy Pittsburg merchant and had previously hired Frank Lloyd Wright to build Falling Water as his vacation home. Kaufmann chose Neutra for this house because he was looking for a greater feeling of openness and lightness than what Wright had designed. Unlike Wright’s desert house designs, in which the house appears to have grown out of the landscape, Neutra designed the house to stick out from the landscape as a place to inhabit and view the landscape. View towards second story porch. Photo from “Plans, sections, and elevations: Key Buildings of the Twentieth Century.”

Site plan. Taken from “The Architecture of Richard Neutra: From International Style to California Modern”

Floor plan. Taken From “Plans, Sections, and Elevations: Key Buildings of the Twentieth Century”

Floor Plan unskewed. Taken from “Plans, Sections, and Elevations: Key Buildings of the Twentieth Century” CD-Rom.

View from the Northeast. Photo from “The Architecture of Richard Neutra: From International Style to California Modern”

View from the Southeast. Photo from “Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture”

View from the east. Photo taken from “Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture”

Gallery. Second Story Porch. Both Photos from “The Architecture of Richard Neutra: From International Style to California Modern” Sources: The Architecture of Richard Neutra: From International Style to California Modern by Arthur Drexler and

Thomas S. Hines Greatbuildings.com Plans, Sections, and Elevations: Key Buildings of the Twentieth Century by Richard Weston Richard Neutra by Esther McCoy Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture by Thomas S. Hines