NEUTRA, Richard

(1892-1970)

   In addition to Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius, Richard Neutra is credited with introducing the International style of modern architecture in the United States. Born in Austria, Neutra first trained with Adolf Loos and worked with Erich Mendelsohn before coming to the United States in 1923. Un-like many European architects who fled Europe during World War I and settled along the East Coast, Neutra worked in California, where he built modern homes for movie industry clients. The Kaufman House, built in Palm Springs in 1946, is perhaps his most famous home. Since it was built as a vacation home in the desert climate of southern California, Neutra constructed a white building with a strong horizontal design of overhanging cornices that protect inhabi-tants from the bright sun and heat. Large sliding glass doors provide a link to the surrounding nature, while movable outdoor patio parti-tions allow flexibility in outdoor use. Much like the prairie-style homes of Frank Lloyd Wright, Neutra's free-flowing interior spaces open up the floor plan to maximize the living and dining room areas, thereby allowing for the entertainment of a large number of guests. While Wright's homes respond to the surrounding Midwestern envi-ronment, however, Neutra's houses are more consistent with the Cal-ifornia Ranch, which is a more elegant version of this popular house style introduced in the 1930s. Neutra also helped to make the do-mestic swimming pool popular; they first appeared in the homes of the wealthy but gradually became more commonly found in middle-class homes. The Kaufman House, together with Wright's homes from the 1930s, the Gropius House built by Walter Gropius in 1937, and the Breuer House I, built by Marcel Breuer in 1938, are considered some of the most important examples of early modernist do-mestic architecture in the United States.