The home and studio of the Austrian-American architect Rudolph M. Schindler on Kings Road in West Hollywood serves today as the homebase of the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles. This seminal building was declared an architectural landmark by the World Monument Fund in 2002. Today Schindler counts
as one of the most important modern architects.
Rudolph M. Schindler's Studio-Residence was the first modern house to respond to the unique climate of California, and as
such it served as the prototype for a distinctly Californian style of design. From 1922 until his death in 1953, the building
functioned as Schindler's home and studio. During this 30-year period, Schindler designed houses and small commercial buildings
that today are considered landmarks of the modern movement.
In his own house, Schindler expressed his philosophy about structure and materials most clearly, but the entire site explores
the relationship of space, light, and form. In this, his first independent design in the U.S., Schindler set forth the basic
tenets of his architectural philosophy, which he called "Space Architecture." In this masterwork, he established himself as
a major figure in the history of the modern movement.
Rudolph Michael Schindler was born in 1887, in Vienna, Austria. He studied both art and architecture and was associated with Otto Wagner and Adolf
Loos. In 1914, at the age of 26, Schindler left Austria for Chicago with a 3-year contract to work in a commercial architectural
firm. At the expiration of the term, he accepted an offer from Frank Lloyd Wright to join his studio. Wright became Schindler's
most important influence, and in 1920, he came to Los Angeles to supervise the construction of Wright's Hollyhock House.
In 1921, Schindler began his independent practice by designing his own house and studio. With his wife, Sophie Pauline Gibling
(later known as Pauline), Schindler joined another couple, Clyde and Marian Chace, to build a cooperative dwelling for two
couples with a guest unit. Loans of $5,000 from a bank and $3,000 from Pauline's parents enabled construction in 1922. Shortly
after the completion of construction Pauline gave birth to the Schindlers' only child, Mark.
The Chaces departed for Florida in 1924 to pursue better financial prospects, but the Schindlers were joined by Richard Neutra
and his family in 1925. Neutra, a former schoolmate of Schindler's from Vienna, soon became one of the most important modern
architects in Los Angeles. Between 1926 and 1930 (when the Neutras moved on), Schindler and Neutra produced several significant
contributions to early 20th-century architecture: Schindler's Lovell Beach House at Newport Beach (1925/26); their joint competition
entry for the League of Nations Building (1926); and Neutra's Lovell "Health House" in Los Angeles (1928/29).
During this period, the lifestyle embodied in Schindler's design for his house was observed by the Schindler and Neutra families
through diet and exercise, psychoanalysis, education, and the arts of music, dance, painting and photography. The outdoor
courts were dining rooms and playrooms for their toddlers, who ran free under the sun year round. They slept in the open air,
ate simple meals of fruits and vegetables by the fireplaces, and wore loose-fitting garments of natural fibers closed with
ties rather than buttons. At their parties, the terraces served as stages for musical and dance performances; in the audiences
were many aspiring California artists and writers.
By the end of the 1920s, Pauline Schindler had left with her son, only to return in the mid 1930s to live, separate from her
former husband, in the Chace studios. Her death in 1977 coincided with the founding of the Friends of the Schindler House.
Undoubtedly the Schindler House has been one of the most influential designs of the 20th century, and its daring innovations
became commonplace by the time of the architect's death. The California house—a one-story dwelling with an open floor
plan and a flat roof, which opened to the garden through sliding doors while turning its back to the street—became the
established norm of postwar housing. The Schindler House is now recognized nationally and internationally as a totally new
beginning, a genuinely fresh start in architecture.
Kathryn Smith, architecture historian and author of Schindler House (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001)
Schindler Lab Online Publication
This publication documents an exhibition-oriented initiative that prompts artists and architects to develop installations
highlighting Rudolph M. Schindler's domestic experiment.
Each year the MAK Center greets a myriad of local, national, and international visitors intrigued by this early (1922) example
of Los Angeles modernist architecture. They often ask detailed questions. They are curious about Schindler's thought
process when designing and constructing the house; how the house has been used, understood, and canonized throughout the decades;
and how the house is holding up today.
Inspired by these visitors' questions, the MAK Center, in collaboration with series initiator Sara Daleiden, developed Schindler Lab. Initiated in 2011, the initiative not only presented artistic projects that reframed the experience of the house, it also
foregrounded the intricate process of discussion, debate, deliberation, and creative problem solving behind every Schindler
House exhibition. That process is embodied in the online publication at SchindlerLab.org. / March 2015
$10 / $7 students and seniors, admission including Schindler by MAK guide $17 / $16 students and seniors
Free admission children under 12, Friends of the Schindler House, and Friends of the MAK Center; on Friday afternoons 4–6 p.m.; International
Museum Day in May; and Schindler's Birthday, 10 September
Related
Freier Artikel
MAK Center Archive
On-line Archive for the MAK Artists and Architects-in-Residence Program
Since his emigration to the USA in 1914, the experimental Viennese visionary has given direction to a modern architectural
percept in California. After completion of his own Kings Road house in 1921/22 designed as live-work space, Schindler primary
planned and built private residencies, like the Mackey Apartments and the Fitzpatrick-Leland House.
The Pearl M. Mackey Apartments (R.M. Schindler, 1939) in the Mid-Wilshire District of Los Angeles are home to the MAK Artists and Architects-in-Residence program MAK Artists and Architects in Residence Program]. The Republic of Austria purchased the building on the initiative of the
MAK in 1995 and the program designed for visiting emerging international artists and architects was launched in the same year.
The Fitzpatrick-Leland House R.M. Schindler, (1936) on the corner of Mulholland Drive in the Hollywood Hills was donated to the MAK Center in 2007. Today the house serves
as an active hub for research, contemplation, and conversation about modern architecture, contemporary art, and urban space.
