Mid-century Los Angeles was not a sprawling metropolis in the way it is today, and oak groves flanked already built up areas. At the time of this commission Lautner had relatively few residential projects under his belt. In 1949 the Schaffer family, more specifically the parents of one of his assistants, approached Lautner to design a modest home near their favorite picnic spot in Glendale, a dense oak grove. Lautner’s stepdaughter Elizabeth Harris Lautner recalls, “ He would walk the perimeter, sniff the air of the place, check out the trees…shoot sight lines, do little surveying on elevations, and then go home and marinate what he’d seen and smelled and felt.”Lautner sought to emphasize the natural assets of the oak grove site for the Schaffer Residence, and wanted this be integrated throughout the design. Therefore he placed the 1700 square foot home directly beneath the very oak tree the Schaffer’s would picnic under. In fact Lautner was proud to recall, “I didn’t chop down a single tree.” Building elements, primarily redwood, with concrete and glass aimed to blend the interior and exterior realms. Lines between the interior and exterior are blurred throughout the design. The high angled roofs separating the kitchen and living room yield a lower horizontal ceiling beneath them, which extends out into the landscape. The smooth concrete floor is interrupted near the bedroom wing, creating a large interior planter and this same floor extends outward continuing out of the structure to form a terrace beneath the trees. Lautner sought an organic fluidity in the design, while still utilizing the latest building technologies. ?

No significant alterations

Private Residence

Excellent

Situated amidst an oak grove, the two-bedroom, one-and-a-half bath house incorporates open plan living, dining and den areas with a laundry room and attached two carport. Composed of redwood, glass, concrete, and brick, the home’s appearance maintains a symbiotic relationship with the natural world surrounding it. All rooms occupy an at-grade single story, and exterior walls are a balance of horizontal redwood paneling, inset with glass, and pivoting glass doors. Above the five foot redwood and glass kitchen wall, glass slopes to meet the roof “echoing the tilt of a nearby oak” and as Lautner described giving one the sense of “being in the trees.” The kitchen space extends internally into an open plan, with pivoting glass walls. The living area has an angled beamed ceiling, which rises up beyond a contrasting lower horizontal ceiling separating the living and dining spaces. The beam’s patterning and eaves in a rich redwood create a dense sculptural element to the interior, which is contrasted with the pivoting glass walls. The main living space exists at the convergence of horizontal and vertical planes, which make one feel enclosed, with glimpses into the oaks just outside. At the entrance a redwood louvered screen, emphasizes a rare verticality, and provides privacy between the living and entrance spaces. A large interior planter separates the bedroom wing from the flow of the main living spaces, which is set into the floor.

1949

The Schaffer House was sited in an oak grove, and is still surrounded by many original trees.

According to Alan Hess John Lautner “brought to technology an organic opulence that mated nature and technology in the service of human habitation.” Lautner’s free-form work is grounded in technological advancement, and the pushing of forms to their threshold. In the Shaffer Residence the pivoting glass walls Lautner used were a very inventive variation on typical sliding glass doors, which were quite popular at the time of the house’s construction. The architect also weighted the doors, so when open to the exterior, they would be counterbalanced in a wind. Lautner’s concept of organic modernism sought to combine technology and nature to create the ideal environment.

In designing a modestly sized two-bedroom house, with an ideal of total design throughout, Lautner was contributing to the mid-century post-war ideal of the middle-class home. Lautner’s idea that the architect was responsible for creating a total environment, and like Frank Lloyd Wright believed that if there was to be any definition of architecture, “its to be totally concerned with everything.” In this way Lautner also echoes the historical role of the mater-builder, a role long divorced from mid-twentieth century architectural practice. ?

One of Lautner’s lesser known residences, built prior to his internationally acclaimed Malin Residence (1960) (better know as the Chemosphere), the Schaffer Residence deeply embodies his design philosophy, which although heavily influenced by his mentor, Frank Lloyd Wright, is also remarkably individual. It is clear that Lautner’s work springs from the “organic architectural theories” of Wright, under whom he trained for four years. This design mentality allow the site to develop a buildings design, and interior spaces are not broken into partitioned elements, but instead usually follow a large flowing plan, which interior motifs stretching outward into the surrounding landscape. Lautner’s work begins to differ from Wright’s in his abandon of the box-like form, with roof lines that soar and angle out to meet exterior walls. Unlike Wright, Lautner’s design’s did not adhere to grid in dealing with wall arrangement, but instead his use of glass diminishes the aesthetic weight of walls altogether. Lautner also does not utilize ornament as intricately as Wright, instead focusing on the natural and textural qualities of his materials and their forms to create timeless spaces. The wall planes and materials of the Schaffer Residence, are also a far cry, from the 1920’s textile block homes of Wright, also in Los Angeles, asserting that by the post-war period a new California organic Modernism was taking root. While Lautner borrowed from his mentor’s ideology, the design of the Schaffer House is clearly an advancement of Wright’s philosophy, and the beginnings of an individual style for Lautner. ?

Lautner’s buildings are diverse and unconventional and throughout contemporary history critics have had trouble placing his body of work in an architectural discourse. His private homes are not very well know, aside from the Chemosphere, despite their extensive influence within the development of mid-century west coast residential architecture. David Gebhard describes Lautner as “ a maverick of the American architectural scene”, going on the say, “Lautner’s work doesn’t fit in well.” Regardless Lautner’s work is incredible significant, and confronts the great themes of twentieth century architecture “the intersection of technology, the environment and human habitation.” On a local level Lautner’s homes, have the opposite effect of Wright’s Usonian structures. Lautner’s works are each individual, with varying forms and spatial conceptions, and varying materiality.