WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM R.M SCHINDLERS, KINGS ROAD HOUSE?

Why do the houses we live in today look the way they do?

This is perhaps the question that Rudolph Schindler asked him self before designing one of his most notable pieces of architecture, the Kings Road House. The Kings Road House questioned the conventional way of living at the time. It questioned the necessity of customary spaces seen in houses of the past. It questioned the notion of what a house is and how it should function. Through his thoughtful reassessment of the "home" he arrived at one of the most iconic pieces of modern architecture in history. 

The Kings Road House, designed to be a “cooperative dwelling for two young couples.” For Clyde and Marian Chace and Rudolph and Pauline Schindler. The plan for the Kings Road house can be described as a three part pinwheel diagram. The house is made up by a series of private studios, one studio for each of the four adults (Clyde, Marian, Rudolph and Pauline), one guest space, one communal kitchen/utility room and two open rooftop terraces for sleeping. On the original plans, rather than notating conventional rooms, the drawings show each studio with the initials of the individual that would use the space as their studio.

There were two outdoor patios created by the plan were served as the communal spaces for the home. Each courtyard was for one couple. It could be assumed that the aesthetic inspiration for the home came from Ruldolph time working for Frank Lloyd Wright in his Taliesien studio.  Pauline made several visits to the studio and was clearly affected by the architecture and atmosphere created by Wright and his deciples there. Pauline Schindler was quoted as saying that the building at Taliesin “spoke repos, a harmonious consonance with the earth.”

Later that year Wright asked Schindler to move to Los Angeles to supervise construction on the Hollyhock house. Ruldolph and Pauline moved to Los Angeles and began dreaming about designing and building their own home studio. Originally Schindler had intended to return to Vienna and work for is olf mentor Adolph Loos, however his contempoaray Richard Neutra convinced him otherwise. Neutra was not optimistic on the condition and opportunities available in post war Europe.

Ruldolp and Paulines living situation was in flux when they decided to take a trip to Yosemite. This trip may have been the determining factor which kept the Schindlers in California and also provided inspiration for their next great endeavor. To design a house and studio for themselves.

Schindler designed the house over a two month period during Novemember and December of 1921. At the time the Kings Road was on unincorporated land between Hollywood and Beverly Hills. The deal was that Rudolph would draw the plans and Clyde would lead the construction process. All the members of each family helped to construct the home. Irving Gil, an aquantance to the Schilnders and a fellow architect, was exploring a construction technique known as tilt up. In concrete tilt up construction, the walls are poured into molds on the floor where they were left to cure. Once cure, they were tilted into place to form a wall.

The buildings primary materials are concrete, redwood, glass and canvas. The “sleeping baskets” were open on all sides with a roof on top. They were accessed by narrow stairs from the two main studios.

Thomas Hines describes the conception of the design buitifully in Architecture of the Sun by stating  

“Schindler conceived aspects of the house while camping at Yosemite and averred that it provided “the basic requirements for a campers shelter: a protected back, an open front, a fireplace and a roof.” Thus he explained, “the ordinary residential arrangement providing rooms for specialized purposes has been abandoned. Instead each person received a large private studio, each couple a common entrance hall and bath. Open proches on the roof are used for sleeping. An enclosed patio for each couple, with an out of door fireplace serves the purpose of an ordinary living room.” (Heins, 244)

In 1952 the year before his death Schindler is quoted saying:

“I camped under the open sky, in the redwoods, on the beach, the foothills, and the desert. I tested it adobe, its granite and its sky. And out of a carefully built up conception of how the human being could grow roots in this soil – I built my house. And unless I failed, it should be as Californian and the Parthenon is Greek and the Forum Roman.”

The take away from studying Schindlers Kings Road house is that our conventional notion of a house should be challenged. The Schindlers and Chace’s approach to a house could be described as one of reduction. They removed those rooms most commonly found in houses of the day that they found unimportant. These spaces were not unconsciously placed in the home just because all the other houses on the block contained them, they were eliminated. If we want our homes to be customized to our lives, they should not adhere to a prescriptive formula. Your home should be unique to the lifestyle that you desire.