i’m off to nyc for a week or so.
so (and yes, i use ‘so’ too often. i mean, does it even mean anything? if so, or if not, i’ll keep using it because i’m lazy) i won’t have oddball l.a pictures for the next 5 or 6 days or so.
i used ‘so’ 4 times in that last sentence. i need an intervention.
in the meantime, 2 things:
1-if for some reason you haven’t seen ‘my architect’ about louis kahn, well, you probably should. because it’s great.
here it is: http://www.myarchitectfilm.com
and
2-todays very completely 100% random photo is of one of the most ubiquitous styles of houses in l.a. what fascinates me about these white box houses is their heritage, as they were originally pioneered as part of the bauhaus/new objectivity architectural movement in germany and middle europe in the early 20th century.
it just seems so odd/interesting to me that architectural forms invented by architects and theoreticians in the early 20th century in weimar would have found their most fertile ground in places like southern california.
and yes, that was probably an egregious run on sentence.
or sentences.
in any case, i like this house because it’s pleasant and ubiquitous and unremarkable, and it represents an odd white box building heritage started almost 100 years ago by theoreticians in a cold climate.
i mean, i guess a better than ‘how did bauhaus/new objectivity houses end up being everywhere in southern california?’ would be: ‘who in germany and switzerland, where there’s a lot of snow, thought that building houses with flat roofs was a really good idea?’
flat roofed houses make a lot more sense in warm places (like, say, l.a) than snowy places (like, say, switzerland).
because, to state the obvious, snow tends to slide off of pitched roofs. and it tends to collect on flat roofs, making flat roofs collapse.
or so i’ve been led to believe.
in any case, the arbitrary/random/odd spread of architectural forms makes for interesting spectator sport, especially in l.a, which is kind of like the gall bladder/cul de sac of 20th century architecture.
ok, off to nyc.
-moby
