Richard Neutra’s Health House: Was It Really Healthy?

Richard J. Neutra’s Health House: Was It Really Healthy?

By Victor Vivaudou “Richard Neutra is able to design a structure which makes the people who live in it now and forever, ‘feel good’.” 1

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Architect Richard Neutra accepted Dr. Phillip and Leah Lovell's commission in 1927 to design and build a new Los Angeles home where the health, social, and domestic needs of his family would be fulfilled in a modern, forward looking style. Lovell granted Neutra “complete freedom of design” as long as the home conformed to the family’s “idiosyncrasies”.2 After extensive interviews with each member of the family, including the Lovell's staff, Neutra delivered the house to the Lovells in 1929.3 Dr. Lovell was delighted with the later dubbed “Health House” and praised the architect publicly.

Illustration 1: Dr. Lovell's “Health House” designed by Neutra

After completion, Dr. Lovell wrote a public testimonial: “He (Neutra) diligently ascertained the living habits of this family-our likes and dislikes-our prejudices and idiosyncrasies-and conformed his architecture accordingly. …Such cooperation is rare, and we, as owners, desire to express this appreciation publicly to him. If we had to build a home over again or if we had to do any 3

other type of construction, there is no architect in the city we would rather choose then Mr. Neutra.”4 While it is difficult to compare Pre-Modernist or homes built in the last 50 years to Lovell’s house, Health House should be evaluated on its own merits. There are many ways to evaluate the relative healthiness of a building; this essay explores the potential health benefits of Lovell's house in the Los Angeles hills as it relates to architecture.

It is important to consider how Neutra viewed himself as a designer. Neutra took the time to learn about the lifestyles and the expectations of his clients and design a home specifically for their needs. Two of Neutra’s mentors, Frank Lloyd Wright and Erich Mendelsohn, were, as Neutra described them, ego-maniacs.5 Neutra encouraged his clients to participate in the design process. He went so far as to adopt a self-ordained therapist roll in the architect-client relationship by carefully listening to their needs, problems, hopes and dreams for what the house would mean to them and how they expected it to improve their lives.

“Neutra understood his buildings, and particularly his houses, as vehicles of empathetic connection between himself and his clients.”6 Neutra insisted that his clients complete highly detailed questionnaires and write diaries about their daily activities, childhood homes, and domestic habits for the design process.

Silvia Lavin noted, “Neutra used his clients’ information both as a foundation for his curative design intentions and as a way to establish a relation of power with his clients”7 He viewed his notes and the client's input as the “couch session” and living in the completed house as part of their therapy.

Later in his career, Neutra became well known for his sometimes intimate relationships with his clients during the design process. He even noted that his clients, especially women, loved him. While there is no evidence to suggest that he was anything but platonic with his female clients, “the house became, through identification, a kind of prophylactic, permitting of, as well as a defense against, a potentially erotic relationship between architect and client.”8 Neutra commented that, “A house, then, can be designed to satisfy...'by the moment', the fraction of a second, with the thrill of a lover.”9 He would visit the owners after they had been living in the house for a while to collect feedback from them, sometimes many years later. If the house were sold to new owners, Neutra would pay them a visit to discuss the house.

Neutra’s view of health encompassed both the physiological and the psychological. As far back as Dion Neutra (his son) can remember, his father 4

warned that “today's man-made environment has become an irritating, increasing threat to the vitality and soundness of mind and body.”10 Lavin commented that, “Design becomes a form of therapy when the psyche must be defended from unconscious effects of architecture. Affective rather than symbolic form, according to Neutra, was the most useful architectural defense.”11 Freud’s psychoanalysis methods along with a Modernist design philosophy profoundly influenced Neutra's work; this is evidenced by his deep involvement with his clients. “Neutra deliberately modeled his role as an architect for residential clients on the analyst working with neurotic patients. Neutra assigned to himself both the absolute psychological authority acquired by the analyst through transference and the domestic expertise produced by the mechanism of American professionalism.”12 Lavin also noted, “Taking over the curative duties of the analyst/architect, the house itself was the therapeutic apparatus.”13 He felt a deep sense of responsibility towards his clients to design and built a home that played an active roll in the interconnected physiological and psychological well being of the home’s occupants. Neutra wrote that, “Designers...must underbuild their proposals and compositions with more solid physiological foundations rather than with mere speculative conversation or sales talk.”14 Neutra stated in a 1940 lecture: “home is…not a machine for living.

Architecture is a stage for living.”15 Was Neutra attempting to design a house for Dr. Lovell that actually cured illness or actively improved the health of the inhabitants, or was he just doing what the client asked.

Illustration 2: Biltmore Estate in Asheville N.C., 1895 5

Humanity has been trying to make their indoor living environment more comfortable for thousands of years. From a warm fire in a cave to opulent mansions (illustration 2), the quest to improve our digs16 goes unabated. The reasons are self evident; people want a nicer place to live. In general, the attitude of western society is it wants what it wants and often does not really care who it hurts to get it. This quest, however, has had some unintended consequences. The planet’s ecosystems have suffered greatly. Many species have been misplaced or driven to extinction; and many of these comfortable, convenient homes threaten the health of its occupants.

While deplorable human behavior may play a role in the development of residential domiciles, it was not likely the driving force in the evolution of home design over the millennia. The primary design imperative has always been security. Keeping out the elements, intruders, illness, and accommodating the occupants drove home design. Other factors such as projecting social or economic status, comfort, convenience, visual appeal, and leisure activities developed as priorities for society's wealthy and burgeoning middle class.

The home, as a place where one could live better and even enjoy some restorative benefits, gained popularity in the 1800s. A healthy house was often a traditional house built away from the polluted industrial or urban areas usually by the wealthier classes of society. The industrial revolution allowed mass production and the associated reduction in cost for building materials and many of the household conveniences and comforts that were put in the home.

The increase in demand resulting from a growing middle class led to greater industrial growth to supply the demand. Unfortunately, this expansion of industrial growth led to a decreasing quality of life for many members of society, mostly laborers and the poor, who were unable to afford to live further than walking distance from their jobs at the factories. The middle classes generally owned only one house, but they often could afford to have their house built away from the factories in less densely populated areas later known as suburbs.

Early twentieth century attitudes toward healthy home design were forged by a few non-traditional architects. Neutra was one of the architects who saw an opportunity to utilize industrial mass production to benefit “industrial proletarians, living in shockingly crowded slums with their hordes of sickly and neglected children,� 17 with affordable housing designs made with inexpensive massproduced components.

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Victorian-era designed houses often had many rooms that were designed for specific purposes and were filled with furniture that had specific functions. The rooms and their furnishings were ornately decorated, often leaving very few surfaces without some sort of decoration. Many, if not most, of the decorations were inspired by nature. Flowers, plants, animals and nature scenes were stylistically portrayed on walls, ceilings, flooring and furniture. (Illustration 3)

Illustration 3: "The Breakers" Dining Room

While there are many architectural styles that were popular during the Victorian era, among them are Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne, Richardsonian, Eastlake, Beaux Arts, French Chateau, etc., there are quite a few design elements these styles have in common: visual beauty, projection of economic or social status, comfort and social entertaining. These houses were designed by their respective architects to be a lasting legacy to the families that owned them. In the opinion of Modernist, like Neutra, unnecessary decoration did nothing to enhance the functionality of the domestic purpose of the house.

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Beginning in the early 1900s, a few architects felt that homes with a greater integration of the natural elements could improve the well being of the inhabitants. Frank Lloyd Wright believed that the home should be more organically integrated with its natural surroundings. His designs were inspired by his love of nature and humanity’s place in it. When viewed from the outside, Wright's house designs did not sit like an unsightly protrusion on the land. Smooth horizontal lines and locally derived building materials were utilized inside and out in an attempt to create more symmetry and harmony with the local environs.

Illustration 4: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House, 1908

Locally sourced stones for masonry design elements were very common. Open plans and multipurpose living areas were the norm. Rather than using exotic and/or rare materials, such as imported marble, which may look out of place, Wright wanted his designs to respect the surrounding land, like the land had a say in the design of the structure to be placed on it. While not widely accepted at first, his “Prairie style” designs became highly respected and widely emulated.

(Illustration 4) While not directly influenced by the Bauhaus, Neutra had much respect for Gropius and his school. After the Lovells' house was completed, Neutra traveled to Germany and gave lectures to the Bauhaus students. Neutra was offered the opportunity to start a branch of the Bauhaus School in the United States.18 Bauhaus architecture came out of Germany after the end of World War I. This design philosophy sought to ask some essential questions about human habitation, function and utility before a building or object was designed. “Form 8

follows function� became a design priority. Make the building better for people to use rather than force people to live in a structure poorly suited for the purpose. Superfluous design elements or decoration for the sake for visual appeal or fashion trends were minimized or excluded. Clarity of purpose, simplicity of function and minimalism were the hallmarks of Bauhaus design.

Illustration 5: Bauhaus School Building, 1923-1933

All architectural design has function or purpose, prior to the birth of Modernism, architectural design was based on among other things; empirical or observation with a design judgment, traditional ideas copied or updated, philosophical or religious overtones, social or political agenda, arbitrary or perceived needs or desires, limited financial or raw material resources, comfort enhancements, convenience, and/or artistic vision of the architect. Modernist design philosophy questioned every element of an object to determine if the element was necessary to its function. A scientific or engineering foundation was often used as a basis for design. It was believed that science and standardization through industrial mass production would help solve many of the deplorable living conditions facing the highly populated urban centers in the 1920s.

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Gone were the frilly decorations, the small limited purpose rooms, the highly specialized, ornate furnishings, exotic building materials shipped from long distances, cumbersome floor plans, and small double hung windows. Long before Feng Shui19 was a part of the western design lexicon, Modernist designers, like Neutra, were considering the physiological, functional, emotional, and psychological needs of the inhabitants in the building. The structure of a roof, walls, windows, and doors were no longer merely a space to keep out nature, but could be a facility to embrace nature. Modernist buildings had large expanses of well placed windows that maximized natural light and ventilation, open floor plans that allowed easy movement within the space, locally sourced building materials where possible, clean and smooth lines that directs the eye towards uncluttered scenes inside and outside of the structure. Lavin wrote, “Windows both before and after Neutra were conceived as therapeutic tools.

Modernist windows were said to cure tuberculosis through what might be described as the engineering of the physiological effects of the sun.”20 According to Neutra, “the fulfillment of the search-in space-for happiness.”21

Illustration 6: The ventilation stacks allow the “bad air” to be exhausted away from patients. Johns Hopkins Hospital, 1876-85 10

The modern science of building-acquired health issues began with healthcare facilities attempting to control infection. This started a trend towards the construction of buildings with ventilation being entirely dependent on the mechanical ventilation systems.22 The beginnings of this science dates back to the late 1800's when patients of infectious diseases, like tuberculosis, were cared for in institutions and sanitariums with specially designed ventilation systems to exhaust the “bad air” away from the patients. Eventually, it was discovered that “bad air” was contaminated with pathogens, like bacteria, fungus and viruses.

(Illustration 6) People have always wanted a healthy indoor environment, but contaminates, such as asbestos, lead based paint, mold, bacteria, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), pests, radon, humidity, allergens, sewage, endotoxins, etc., were unknown or ignored in the 1920s. The health effects from exposure to indoor hazards were not studied extensively until the 1960s.23 Health House may have started the trend towards healthier homes, with open plans, extensive windows and lots of natural light. Open plans were not unique to Health House, Wright used them extensively; they allow air flow and minimize stale air sinks in a space. Windows allow for fresh air into a space. Air in an occupied space will accumulate carbon dioxide, which make it seem “stuffy”. Natural light includes ultraviolet light, which is a natural disinfectant for airborne microbiological contaminants. The trend in modern buildings took a step back when demand for more climate control and better energy efficiency included increased use of mechanical heating air conditioning and ventilation (HVAC) in the design. The oil crisis of the 1970s caused a push to build more energy efficient buildings in the 1980s and later. Building tolerances improved and buildings were “tightened up” to conserve energy. This contributed to an increase in indoor air quality and building-acquired health problems.

The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) developed standards for Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), which is incorporated in the United States Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (USGBC LEED) standards, which were intended to alleviate what is now commonly referred to as “Sick Building Syndrome” (SBS).24 SBS and Building-Acquired Illness (BAI) are scenarios where many occupants of a building develop similar illnesses or conditions that are tied to a particular building. A 1984 World Health Organization Committee report suggested that up to 30% of new and remodeled buildings worldwide may be the subject of excessive complaints related to indoor air quality.25 11

Neutra probably did not understand the causes of the potential negative effects of the indoor environment in the way we do now, but the effects were well known at the time. His intuition and experience with other progressive architects lead him to deduce that bringing the outside environment inside would beneficial to the indoor occupants.

“Shell shock” took a heavy toll on soldiers returning from World War I, and was the subject of much study after the war, especially by Freud and his followers.26 Being a veteran of that war himself, Neutra was most likely very aware and sensitive to this condition. We now call it “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder”. It was also well known at the time that a person could work themselves to infirmity or death; or suffer a “nervous breakdown”. These conditions sometimes required, weeks, months, or years to heal the patient before they could return to a productive life. By attempting to understand the “stressors” people were subjected to in the industrial society that existed in the early twentieth century, Neutra believed that an individual's domestic environment could be designed to help alleviate some of the effects of stress on the body and mind. It was this approach that he brought to building design.

Having grown up in and educated in Vienna, Neutra was exposed to a cultural and academic revolution in mental health care. Through Ernst Freud, a friend and fellow architectural student at Technishe Hochschule, Neutra met his father, Sigmund Freud. Neutra visited the Freud's home many times and he developed a great interest in psychoanalysis. Though highly influenced by Freud's writings, Neutra differed with many of Freud's theories. However, he did consult with Freud in the 1930s regarding his son's developmental issues.27 The science of psychoanalysis greatly impacted Neutra. The modern human animal has evolved and developed to a high degree of complexity, both physiologically and psychologically. An animal may be satisfied with a cave or shelter that can be defended against intruders and provide protection from the weather. A human being needs conscious, subconscious, and physical nourishment beyond food and water.

As part of providing shelter to the body during sleep, which minimizes the deleterious effects of living in the world, a house should in some way help heal the body from exposure to the outside world. Neutra did not necessarily design a home for sick people to live in; he designed houses that affected clean, uncluttered functionality and exposure to the outdoor environment in a controlled manner. Neutra’s designs controlled the exposure to the natural 12

world from within the home. This exposure was intended to bring harmony and balance to life; thus, restoring the body, mind, and spirit from the stresses and rigors of working life.

Early exposure to architect Otto Wagner and mentoring by Adolph Loos helped shape Neutra’s modernist design aesthetic. A few years after graduating, he spent a year and a half working with Erich Mendelsohn, a successful German modernist architect and expressionist artist.28 Shortly after Neutra immigrated to the United States, he worked with his idol, Frank Lloyd Wright, for several months, and was impressed by Wright’s naturalist, organic design philosophy.29 In 1925, Neutra moved his family to Los Angeles to live and work with Rudolph Schindler, a friend from his time with Adolph Loos and a fellow modernist architect. While the living and working relationship between the Neutras and the Schindlers had its trials30, it was the Schindler’s network of friends that put Neutra in contact with the noted Naturopathic physician, Dr. Phillip Lovell. The Lovells and the Neutras early social relationship through the Schindlers, later developed into a professional relationship. (Illustration 7) The Lovells wanted a new house in the Los Angeles hills. Schindler, who had previously designed three houses for Illustration 7: Dr. Phillip Lovell the Lovells, including the now famous Lovell Beach House, had mixed results.31 Lovell wanted a modernist design for his new home, however, his previous experience with Neutra’s well received remodeling of his medical offices and disappointments regarding Schindler previous work for him, led Lovell to offer the commission to Neutra over Schindler in 1927.32 Neutra would express his long held belief that a home should be more integrated into the lives of the inhabitants. Much to Lovell’s satisfaction, Neutra spent much time getting to know each member of the Lovell family including the staff serving the family. Neutra’s attention to detail and design precision 13

allowed him to build Lovell’s house on the side of a steep hill. The eventually named “Health House” became a sensation and is considered one of the most influential homes in the United States.

Dr. Lovell wanted a “house that will enhance by its design the health of the inhabitants of this house!"33 The house would function as an integral part of the well being of the occupants. Neutra used innovative construction methods and mass produced building materials, previously only used in commercial buildings to create a living space that was open, uncluttered, with a minimum of interior walls to allow easy access to many different functioning spaces in the house with copious amounts of natural light, wide open views of natural scenes, and fresh air, and integrated nature into the home. The clean modernist styling was loved by the Lovells and the public. Health House was dubbed 'the New International Style,' by the media. “…the International style, a term by no means synonymous the Modern Movement.”34 much to (Richard Neutra's) dismay. “He hated these attempts to categorize his work, which was much more philosophical than stylistic.”35

Illustration 8: Front Entrance to Health House

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It is important to understand Dr. Lovell’s health philosophy in order to understand Neutra’s design philosophy for the house. Dr. Lovell was a practitioner of naturopathic medicine. He advocated natural methods of healing and preventative medicine that included exercise, nude sunbathing, open-air sleeping, therapeutic message, heat and water therapy, and a strict vegetarian diet as a path to good health in an otherwise unhealthy world.36 Combine this with the rise of the pharmaceutical industry which made claims to cure all manner of ills with pills, potions and ointments many of which made claims based on pseudo-science or folk remedies. Many of these remedies merely masked the symptoms of underlying conditions without really curing them.

Naturopathic medicine is still practiced today.

“The purpose of architecture is to shelter and enhance man's life on earth and to fulfill his belief in the nobility of his existence.”37 Many believe that architecture should induce moods, feelings and emotions that enhance the well being of the occupants of a building.

In short, architecture has the power to profoundly impact the lives of those of who interact with the building.

One of Neutra’s design goals was to construct a house using the industrial capacity of the country, which was considered a positive attribute to modernism (the side effects of pollution, urban sprawl, overcrowding, poor industrial hygiene and safety problems endemic to Pre-war industrialism not withstanding). Pre-

Illustration 9: Health House interior

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manufactured assemblies and standardized components were utilized for construction of Dr. Lovell’s new city home. By using mass produced components, economies of scale would be realized, thereby creating greater utilization efficiency of raw materials, minimized waste, increased quality and consistency, and decreased labor time for construction. Neutra's admiration of Henry Ford and the mass production revolution is symbolized by the inclusion of a light fixture made from the headlight of a Model “T� Ford automobile.

(Illustration 9) Neutra frequently experimented with new building materials and/or methods when designing a home. Some materials were utilized to keep the budget low; others to improve the functionalism of the home. In addition, the freedom of the automobile liberated Americans like no other technological development.

Choosing to live further than walking distance to public transportation became an option for home site selection. Neutra's clients were able to take advantage of this and he designed their homes accordingly.

Illustration 10: Steel frame of house

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"The Lovell house... had in Los Angeles in 1929 an importance comparable to the early iron or steel and glass exhibition buildings in Europe, and indeed it was through this house that Los Angeles architecture first became widely known in Europe. Brilliant as the structure was in conception, it is doubtful whether it could have been executed without Neutra's familiarity with the methods of contractors and sub-contractors.

“The open-web skeleton, in which standard triple steel casements were integrated, was fabricated in sections and transported by truck to the steep hillside site, and the lightweight bar joists of floors and ceilings were electrically welded in the shop. The shop work was held to a decimal tolerance to avoid the costliness of changes during assembly on the site, and as a result the skeleton was erected in forty hours—too fast to photograph the various stages of construction. (Illustration 10) “The balconies, usually called cantilevered, are instead suspended by slender steel cables from the roof frame. This use of members in suspension, and also the U-shaped reinforced thin concrete cradle in which the pool was suspended, created a stir in architectural circles.

“The walls of the house are of thin concrete, shot from two-hundred-foot-long hoses, against expanded metal, which was backed by insulation panels as forms..."38 This was the first steel frame home in America. The sub-assemblies were fabricated in a factory, trucked to the site and assembled in less than a week.

The tolerances were within a 1/8” and required little to no adjustment for window and wall installation. The shot concrete walls used insulating forms which were left in place as part of the wall system. One of the appealing features of the filigree steel frame structure utilized in Health House was the freedom from the need for interior load bearing structures, which may limit the design possibilities. Most of the structural steel sub-assemblies, made off-site, were transported, picked by a crane and assembled very quickly on site.

While some thought was put into the well being of the people living in the traditionally styled home; that was not usually the primary design consideration of the architect. In contrast, Health house was designed from the beginning to promote the health and well being of the Dr. Lovell and his family. In many ways it was intended to be a health spa that you live in. The house reflected Dr. Lovell’s naturopathic medical principles that were gaining popularity in the early 17

twentieth century. While some of those practices later proved to be of little medical benefit, the lasting legacy was the architectural philosophy that buildings should help promote the well being of those living and working in them.

The 4800 square foot house was a landmark building in that its primary purpose of a living space included the health of the inhabitants. It has long been recognized that indoor environments can cause or exacerbate a myriad of illnesses, diseases and ailments. It was often accepted that the best way to minimize the negative effects of being indoors was to minimize exposure to it.

Prior to the twentieth century, only the wealthy had the advantage of building homes where a lack of fresh air, good sanitation, proper hygiene, and overcrowding was not a concern.

If the boundaries and limitations in traditional building design were removed, new opportunities would present themselves. By sitting down with the client and discuss their needs and wants, Neutra has a clean slate to design the building.39 Neutra had a very strong design philosophy, but his designs were very flexible to meet the needs of the new owners. Within the

Illustration 11: Overhangs above windows

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framework of the Modernist ethos, he designed a high performance building for the client. Efficient design had a multitude of benefits. Standardized techniques, prefabricated components, and simplified assembly resulted in high quality construction that was affordable to the middle class.

Health House had many features that contributed to a healthier living environment. By designing a house that promoted physical health, neurological health was improved which contributed to the well being of the individual.

Neutra consciously designed his client's houses this way.

Many of the windows have overhangs to allow natural light into the home, but reduce direct overhead sunlight on the southern exposed long side of the house. This minimizes thermal loading on the windows due to radiant energy from direct sunlight. This helped regulate indoor temperature and mitigated the need for shades which would block the natural light and views. (Illustration 11) The operable windows allow for passive ventilation. Although not specifically mentioned, Neutra most likely placed the house on the site to take advantage of prevailing breezes. Situated on the hill as it is, the overhangs would help direct the breezes into the windows, keeping the house cooler and better ventilated.

Illustration 12: Brightly lit Living room 19

Hines wrote, “The myriad sections of standard, clamped-on casement windows were neatly and effortlessly slipped into place as integrally moduled parts of the surface skin.”40 Neutra himself commented, “A person may look at large view windows of a living room with unobstructed panoramic possibilities, and every time he does so he may feel like taking a breath of relaxation, gratification, and relief.”41 Neutra's extensive use of windows offered sweeping views of the natural beauty of the rugged hilly landscape. The general belief was broad expanses of windows in the home was part of healthy design. In Neutra later houses, gardens or other landscaping features were brought into the home to enhance the healthiness of the living space.42 (Illustration 12) Neutra placed many plants in the home as part of the interior design. His work in Switzerland for a landscape designer after World War I gave him valuable knowledge about integrating the natural outdoor environment into the home design. Houseplants are known to reduce components of indoor air pollution by helping to eliminate toxins. The compounds are removed primarily by soil microorganisms.43 Also; plants reduce airborne microbes and increase relative humidity levels.44 (Illustration 13) Neutra always tried to incorporate the world outside the house in the overall design, whether it was a grand vista or a little rock garden. Later in his career, Neutra would merge the indoor and outdoors by having vegetation and water features that spanned the threshold of in and outside. This would bring the occupants closer to nature from within of their home, as well as acting as an indoor climate stabilizer.

Illustration 13: Living Room with indoor vegetation

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The walls of Health House were made from shot concrete called “gunite”. Forms were built in place with expanded metal lathe and insulation panels. This gave the house a stucco look inside and out. There were no cellulose wall structures, like wood or gypsum board, which might have allowed mold growth if it were to remain damp due to a leak. This design also had the added benefit of being pest-proof.

At Lovell's request, Neutra built a workout area on the property. It is not uncommon now for homes of this size to have an indoor gym.

However, it was probably a novel feature at the time.

Lovell advocated a daily workout regiment for his patients, and practiced it himself. One of the more innovative features of the home was the pool built into the side of the hill. It is mostly supported by solid concrete forms. (Illustration 14) The common living areas of the house follow an open plan. This promotes air flow and temperature regulation.

Frank Lloyd Wright designed houses this way to imbue them with an organic character. By organic, Wright was referring to an “unforced, faithful to the inherent quality of things.”45 Although, Neutra worked with Wright for several months in 1924 at Taliesin in Wisconsin, Neutra's designs

Illustration 14: Pool

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bore little resemblance to Wright's. However, Wright's arguably most famous house, “Fallingwater”, designed in 1935, bears a similarity to Neutra's design style. Did the student become the master? It is unlikely Wright would have ever admitted to that. (Illustration 15)

Illustration 15: Frank Lloyd Wright-"Fallingwater", 1935-6

There were a number of design features that were specifically requested by the Lovells. The placement of the balconies was favored by Dr. Lovell who was a proponent of daily nude sunbathing. There was a revival of nude sunbathing in the 1970's. Now, due to the risk of skin cancer, it is generally not regarded as part of a healthy lifestyle. Sleeping porches were built off the Master Bedroom. Lovell believed that there were health benefits to be gained from sleeping outdoors.

The kitchen was specially designed in consultation with the Lovell's cook for the preparation of their vegetarian meals.

“One constant throughout (Frank Lloyd) Wright’s seventy-five-year career was his extraordinary control in furnishing his buildings.…That owner’s of his buildings would have great difficulty in using any furniture other than the master’s own designs was of course his intention. …the architect as the supreme arbiter of all aspects of design…”46 Like Wright, Neutra designed not only the house, but also the furnishings. He thought of the home as a complete unit. One cannot exist without the other. Although, Wright would later disparage Neutra's designs, the Historic American Buildings Survey described the Lovell Health House as "a prime 22

example of residential architecture where technology creates the environment.�47 (Illustration 16)

Illustration 16: Library with Neutra designed furniture

After World War II, many technologies were engineered to increase comfort in the home. Americans were spending an increasing amount of their free time indoors. It was believed by most that technology could solve our societal and lifestyle problems; and architects grew confident that homes and commercial buildings were safer and healthier than being outside, especially in the cities.

However, poor maintenance, a lack of regulation and/or oversight, indifference or ignorance to component material quality, and over-reliance on applying standard solutions to unique design challenges led many buildings to become unhealthy and create a new class of illnesses. SBS, BAI, and some occupational diseases became drivers for reevaluation of building design towards the end of the twentieth century, which coincided with the environmental movement.

Many early twentieth century architectural designs that fell by the way side due to mechanization were rediscovered for “green� buildings. High performance buildings designed in the last decade or so are emphasizing energy efficiency, resource conservation, locally sourced building materials, indoor vegetation & water features and exposure to natural light and views. Passive heat and cooling management, automated monitoring of loads and cyclical demand have forced a new generation of architects to solve building-acquired illness 23

challenges with many of the solutions pioneered by the previous generation architects, like Wright, Neutra and others.

Illustration 17: Living Room

Neutra's careful integration of industrially mass-produced building materials did not detract from the basic design priority of his client's homes. Like so many modern human advancements, solutions to one problem can introduce side effects that can often be more detrimental to the occupants than the problem it is attempting to correct. However, the side effects may not reveal themselves for a considerablely long time. This was the case of homes built from 1980 onward. The tightening of the building envelope for thermal efficiency, reliance on mechanized heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, and toxic emissions from building materials have created homes that can be unhealthy to live in. In some ways, “green� building design is a throw back to an earlier time.

Neutra wrote that, "This call for caution and responsibility is heard by voters and shareholders, and by journalists and critics, who are paying more attention than ever before to architectural, city-planning, and environmental issues. They are 24

inclined to pounce on any clear indication that a new building or development, whether residential, commercial, or industrial, may jeopardize the health, safety, or peace of mind of the people using it or living nearby. If it looks as though human vitality is going to be weakened by some short-sighted building or plan, the resulting news and ensuing debate is going to get back to those to whom the client is accountable. This is no different than if some businessman or bureaucrat had callously proposed digging one hole for both a septic tank and a well just because one hole is provably cheaper and faster than digging two."48 Neutra and his son, Dion, also an architect whom Richard was partners with towards the end of his career, have observed that planners are frequently unaware of the advances made by science and researchers in diverse fields in areas that could affect "healthy environment," and therefore "they continue to house man without fully understanding or fully respecting his biological necessities."49 Man must re-discover the relationship he once had with nature.

He must honor a new generation of priorities. "Otherwise, we are headed for ecological and personal disaster," warns Dion Neutra.50 So is Richard Neutra's Health House really healthy? In the words of many a western trained physician regarding the efficacy of most herbal remedies, “It couldn't hurt.”51 It is doubtful that his houses were curative or restorative to their owners in any physical way. At best, they may be considered less harmful to live in than many other home designs at the time Lovell's house was built. Neutra’s belief that the home should be a place of rest and relaxation from the stresses of live were design considerations of home designers for the wealthy, he brought it to the middle class. Often, homes for the middle class were built to sell at a price point, like the Levitt homes built in the 1940s and 1950s in the New York City suburb of Long Island, New York. Neutra designed personalized homes for those of modest means, rather than one-size-fits-all homes.

The revolutionary design of Health house was a huge step in the right direction towards healthier buildings. Is it possible to design and build a “healthy” home?

One that, in some way, improves the health of the occupants? A healthy house should act as prophylactic against pests, filth, toxins, hazardous substances, and microbiological agents should be kept out, and the accumulation of carbon dioxide, allergens, and contagions should be expelled from the house. Also, a house is a machine, and machines need maintenance and repairs; just like any other machine. Poorly maintained homes will likely to be less healthy to live.

Hospitals and other health care buildings attempt to minimize the intrusion of 25

toxins and pathogens and remove those that are from the sick patients, but they don’t always succeed. Maybe one day a truly healthy home will be designed and built.52 Unfortunately, to build a home to hospital standards is not cost effective for the average middle class home.

Inspired by the success of the initially named “The Lovell Demonstration Health House”, and later shortened to “Health House” and his Modernist design ethic, Neutra would continue to design houses that attempted to integrate psychoanalytical therapy and architecture. A home designed specifically for a client was intended to act as an extension of the therapy sessions his architectural consulting services were supposedly providing. His writings regarding the links between architecture and psychoanalysis have not stood up to critical review or the test of time. His lack of formal psychology training limited his ability to truly comprehend the dynamics of mental illness or emotional dysfunction. According to Silvia Lavin: “His houses were neither therapeutic nor corrective, no matter what he claimed or hoped. They failed miserably in their supposed effort to eliminate nervous tension and to produce...'ultimate entropy of consciousness'. Neutra's architecture does not dull the mind but instead generates mood.”53 Alain de Bottom noted: "The bourgeois couples who lived in Richard Neutra's mid-twentieth-century steel and glass pavilions in California may at times have drunk too much, squabbled, been insincere and over-whelmed by anxiety, but at least their buildings spoke to them of honesty and ease, of a lack of inhibition and a faith in the future-and would have reminded their owners, at the height of their tantrums or professional complication (when their fury rang out into the desert night), of what they longed for in their hearts."54 At the time he designed Lovell's Health House, Neutra was probably more concerned about satisfying the client's stated physical and lifestyle needs and less about their psychological needs. While we may question some of Lovell's naturopathic remedies in light of modern medical knowledge, at least he was a trained physician. While some of the early twentieth century Naturopathic therapies practiced by Dr. Lovell have since been debunked by modern science, but many have been proven to be effective. One of the tenants of Modernism is to design for function based on science. Neutra's therapeutic designs were based on pseudo-science. It is unlikely that his buildings cured anybody of anything.

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The therapeutic value of a Neutra designed house may lie in the owner's knowledge that he truly cared about their needs and always put his best effort into designing a home specifically for them. His presumed understanding of their emotional dysfunction and his arrogance in believing that a building design could alleviate psychological damage ran the risk of doing more harm than good. At best, power of suggestion of Neutra's proselytizing regarding the curative effects of the houses he was contracted to design may have on some level acted as placebo for his client's emotional or psychological hypochondria rather than provide actual therapeutic benefit.

It cannot be denied that there were many clients who at least partially believed in Neutra, there are hundreds of buildings designed by him. If he is remembered as a pioneering modernist architect and one of the forefathers of the green building movement, maybe his theories attempting to link architecture and psychoanalysis will be relegated to a historical footnote in his great career as an architect.

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End Notes: 1. Ruth Beebe Hill, “Fitting life with a shell”, Neutra Archive 2. Thomas Hines, Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture, p78 3. ibid, p81 4. ibid, p91 5. ibid, p55 6. Sylvia Lavin, Form Follows Libido, p38 7. ibid, p50-51 8. Richard Neutra, Survival Through Design, p229 9. Sylvia Lavin, Form Follows Libido, p39 10. Transcript of Dion Neutra’s 1997 walking tour of Health House-©1998 Institute for Survival Through Design 11. Sylvia Lavin. Form Follows Libido. P32 12. ibid, p47-48 13. ibid, p66 14. Richard Neutra, Survival Through Design, p4 15. From notes to a lecture Neutra gave to the Women’s University Club on May 4, 1940, Neutra Archive 16. “Home; place of residence”, www.urbandictionary.com 17. Richard Neutra, Survival Through Design, p33 18. Thomas Hines. Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture, p96 19. “Feng Shui” is a Chinese practice of interior design to enhance the flow of energy through the space. Although, Feng Shui has been practices in some form for 4000 years in China, it was only in the 1970s that it was “discovered” by American interior designers.

20. Sylvia Lavin, Form Follows Libido, p115 21. ibid, p87 22. “Sick Building Syndrome: A Potpourri Analysis”, Federation of Insurance & Corporate Counsel Quarterly, Spring 1999 by Wood, Brian A., Al, Marc A. 23. Sundell J., "On the history of indoor air quality and health", 2004

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24. Used in US EPA published documents, but no origin given. According to the EPA, "sick building syndrome" is used to describe situations in which building occupants experience acute health and comfort effects that appear to be linked to time spent in a building, but no specific illness or cause can be identified. The complaints may be localized in a particular room or zone, or may be widespread throughout the building. In contrast, the term "building-related illness" is used when symptoms of diagnosable illness are identified and can be attributed directly to airborne building contaminants.

25. Indoor air: proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate, held in Stockholm, August 20-24, 1984 26. Sylvia Lavin, Form Follows Libido, p30 27. Thomas Hines, Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture, p12; Sylvia Lavin, Form Follows Libido, p17-18 28. Thomas Hines, Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture, p32-37 29. Dell Upton, Architecture in the United States, p128 30. Thomas Hines, Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture, p57 31. ibid, p77 32. ibid, p76-77 33. Transcript of Dion Neutra’s 1997 walking tour of Health House-©1998 Institute for Survival Through Design 34. Martin Filler, Makers of Modern Architecture: From Frank Lloyd Wright to Frank Gehry.

2007, p xv.

35. Transcript of Dion Neutra’s 1997 walking tour of Health House-©1998 Institute for Survival Through Design 36. Thomas Hines, Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture, p76 37. Anonymous internet forum definition 38. Esther McCoy, Richard Neutra, p13-14 39. Sylvia Lavin, Form Follows Libido, p14 40. Thomas Hines, Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture, p81 41. Richard Neutra, Survival Through Design, p219 42. Sylvia Lavin, Form Follows Libido, p41, 44 43. Tarran Et Al. (2007). "Use Of Living Pot-Plants To Cleanse Indoor Air–Research Review"

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44. BC Wolverton, JD Wolverton. (1996). "Interior plants: their influence on airborne microbes inside energy-efficient buildings" Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences.

45. Dell Upton, Architecture in the United States, p128 46. Martin Filler, Makers of Modern Architecture: From Frank Lloyd Wright to Frank Gehry, p3031.

47. Ibid, p32 48. Richard Neutra. from William Marlin, ed. Nature Near: late essays of Richard Neutra, p1819.

49. Transcript of Dion Neutra’s 1997 walking tour of Health House-©1998 Institute for Survival Through Design 50. Neutra Institute for Survival Through Design: Aims and Purposes Description 51. This is anecdotal, but I have inquired of many western medicine trained physicians their opinion of certain well-known herbal remedies or Traditional Chinese Medicine. Every time the answer was almost the same: “It couldn't hurt.”

52. A building is an enclosure for living or performing a task, it cannot make one healthier. It can be designed and built to minimize long-term exposure to hazardous indoor contaminates.

53. Sylvia Lavin, Form Follows Libido, p144 54. Alain de Bottom, The Architecture of Happiness, p144

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