“Architects must have a razor-sharp sense of individuality.” — Richard Joseph Neutra
Richard Neutra was born in Vienna, Austria, on April 8. He was educated by Adolf Loos and influenced by Otto Wagner at the Technical University of Vienna, graduating in 1917. He also studied at the University of Zurich.
After working for Erich Mendelsohn in Berlin, Neutra moved to the US in 1923 and became a US citizen in 1929. At Taliesin East, he worked for Frank Lloyd Wright in 1924, but after a few months in 1925, he worked in California with Rudolf Schindler. They shared space in Schindler’s house with their wives.
Neutra split from Schindler when Neutra got a larger commission from one of Schindler’s best clients, Philip Lovell. They rarely interacted after that. But they met again in the hospital room in 1953 when Neutra had a heart attack, and Schindler was dying of cancer. According to Neutra’s sons, they made their peace before Schindler died.
Ayn Rand, the novelist and philosopher, based part of her character Howard Roark in her seminal novel The Fountainhead on Neutra. She also lived in his Sternberg House.
The Time magazine featured Neutrta on its cover in 1949, and he ranked the second after Frank Lloyd Wright in American architecture. After that, he had all the work he could ever want. Between 1927 and 1969, Neutra designed more than 300 houses in California and a few elsewhere. Neutra coined realism, which means “the inherent and inseparable relationship between man and nature.
On December 13, 1957, Richard Neutra was a guest lecturer at the NCSU School of Design. He decided to lead the class in writing a letter to Frank Lloyd Wright: “Certainly today all serious architectural students are aware of your tremendous contribution to both the fiber and spirit of the art, and almost all are in sympathy with the means you have used in giving your ideas form, even though our own incipient philosophies and forms may be directed in many different ways. With these thoughts in mind, we would like to join with Mr. Neutra in sending you heartfelt greetings at this Christmas season. With respectful wishes– [Signed by fourteen students.]”
His best architectural marvels are the Austrian Werkbund House, designed in 1932, the Ernest and Bertha Mosk House, made in 1933, the Nathan Koblick House and the Anna Sten-Franke House of 1934. He made different houses, and most of them are situated in Los Angeles, California. Many celebrities and business people now own these architectures.