Kaufmann House / Palm Springs, California /1947
Built for Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. as a vacation home, the house represents a desert utopia. Through the photographs of Julius Shulman, it has become an icon of mid-century modernism.
The house is a collage of wood, aluminum, buff-colored Utah stone, glass, and steel. It follows standard wood-frame construction, with steel incorporated in key areas to free the corners—such as in the living room, which opens out to the pool.
Neutra’s Kaufmann House embraces the frontier myth. Although now surrounded by suburban development, the house feels alone in a sublime landscape, expressing a sense of rugged individualism. The architecture asserts itself upon the territory: at times, walls extend beyond the roofline, framing the desert landscape; at other times, it turns inward, creating an artificial world. In both instances, the boundaries between interior and exterior are blurred.