Neutra VDL Studio and Residences

Neutra VDL Studio and Residences, also Neutra Research House, Van der Leeuw House or Richard and Dion Neutra VDL Research House II is a building designed by Richard Neutra and Dion Neutra his son living home in Los Angeles, California, 2300 Silver Lake Boulevard. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places ( NRHP) on May 8, 2009.

The nearly 200-square meter house was originally built in 1932 for Neutra and his family. The name VDL Research House wears it, because it was built with a loan of Neutra's early friend Case H. Van der Leeuw, a Dutch industrialist and architecture lovers. Neutra and his wife Dione moved her three sons is great. From a studio, he led his architectural practice until he removed a few hundred meters, on Glendale Boulevard, its offices in the Neutra Office Building opened, which is also performed in the National Register.

In his design Neutra sought to show that the innovations he had introduced at the Lovell Health House, could also be used in designs for less well-off customers. Through the use of natural lighting, glass walls that opened onto the garden and mirrors created Neutra a space that does not limit the nearby area of Silver Lakes but reflected. Neutra wrote of the VDL Research House:

"I was convinced that a draft high density could be done in a fully human way, and I saw my new house as a specific pilot project. I wanted to show that people are brought into close proximity, can be accommodated under very satisfactory conditions, taking into account the valuable amenity that is called privacy. So equipped with my memories and beliefs and are in direct contrast to the sense hostile conduct my childhood environment, I put three families on my usual 60 - to -70 -foot plot of land on Silver Lake. And I was able to arrange the things in such a way that they beautified our lives with abundant plantings and liberating vistas. You feel a large idea of ​​freedom in the VDL, because everything has been carefully planned to avoid interference between the different zones of the home, and there were so many opportunities for yourself to be alone. "

Neutra was later proud that every year many strangers came to his house, some stopped and pondered and perhaps also wondered why this building in its clarity and composition not generally rubbed off on Los Angeles.

When Richard Neutra 's house on Silver Lake Reservoir In 1932, he had a budget of $ 10,000 is available and a small strip of land.

The small rooms of the house are arranged around an open staircase and have fitted furniture, decorated in neutral tones. The house was Neutra's third plant in the United States and was born four years after the Lovell Health House in Los Feliz. It later evolved into the focal point of a collection of ten designed by Neutra houses on Argent Place.

The original house was destroyed by fire in March 1963. The fire destroyed not only the house but also Neutra collection of drawings, writings, and his architectural library. Neutra's son Dion built the house under the supervision of his father again. The original impression of the house was obtained, however, a number of changes were incorporated into the design of the reconstruction. One critic later wrote that the "original clarity was now gone, but the new house has won an abrupt visual complexity."

Neutra's widow donated the house in 1980, which had at that time a value of 207,500 U.S. dollars ( adjusted for inflation 520 600 U.S. dollars), the Cal Poly Pomona for the purpose of academic use.

The building was in a state that required some repairs and it threatened the further decline, as 2008, a fundraising campaign was carried out in order to finance conservation measures.

The house is accessible for inspection Saturdays; it is the only house that Neutra designed and can be visited regularly.