Neutra's VDL Research House

The VDL Research House, located at 2300 E. Silver Lake in Los Angeles, was built twice. The first version was designed by Richard Neutra and completed in 1933 as a home for his family. After a fire destroyed all of the main building in 1963, Neutra and his son, architect Dion Neutra, rebuilt the house in a somewhat altered form. The current version of the house continued many basic design elements from the first, but was larger and expanded on many of the ideas inherent in the first design.

The house was first designed by Neutra when a Dutch industrialist, C. H. Van Der Leeuw (hence, VDL) visited Los Angeles "especially to see Neutra's work" (Sack 40). According to Neutra, Van Der Leeuw was shocked, after a tour of some of Neutra's projects, to find that Neutra did not have a home of his own. He offered Neutra a check on the spot that would enable him to build the house he wanted. Eventually, after accepting a $3,000 loan from Van Der Leeuw, Neutra borrowed the rest of the money and began to plan for a home on a 60' x 70' lot near Los Angeles' Silver Lake reservoir. From the beginning, Neutra was "determined to make it an experimental venture" (Hines 111). He solicited free materials from manufacturers of recent innovations ranging from "enamel metal facing to cork floors to pressed fiber boards" (Hines 111).

Neutra also took advantage of the fact that the local building conditions had not yet been codified, and he "exploited the limited potential of a very small

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tantial when the panels are least visible. Behind it the apparent view through the building hints at a large block of open space behind a few strong vertical 'supports' for a flat roof. Then, the visitor adjusts to the fact that much of this space is a reflected illusion. The space of the north-end block is almost as invisible as the space that is contained behind the aluminum blinds that mark the south-end's stepped layers. The tricks of spatial manipulation that the facade creates foreshadow the illusions that await on the interior. Clearly, the building offers a balance between light and shade. The exterior gives the impression of being something like a pavilion on the north end. This impression is cleverly reinforced by the open, beamed pergola on the third floor. Here, the arrangement of horizontals and verticals echoes the pavilion-like shape below. But, this roof is open. This makes it perfectly clear to the viewer that the promise of roofed space that is given, and then taken away, by the lower floor, is going to be met on the interior. For, just as this shape echoes the lower form, it confirms its depth with the clarity of it's open shape. The interior of the building is as lively as the complicated exterior

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