"Breakfast with Beverly" Interview with Dion Neutra
San Francisco Design Center
January 19, 2001

Interview by Beverly Russell, editor-at-large for Interiors & Sources magazine and host of Breakfast with Beverly, the first Internet video talk show devoted to the architecture and design industry.

To view the streaming video of the interview click here. You must have the Real Video plug-in installed.

Beverly Russell (BR): You've told me the theme for your firm is MAN IN RELATIONSHIP WITH NATURE; can you expound on that?

Dion Neutra (DN): Man grew up in central Africa in nature for his first two million years; that what we're used to. It's only been 20,000 years that we figured out how to build shelters, and 200 years since we've learned to enclose and climate control them. For the most part we've been going downhill since then, putting people into windowless offices, basements and cheerless environments with minimal openings in the name of energy conservation. Our practice espouses maximum exposure to the drama of nature, with much higher percentages of glass than allowable under today's codes.

BR: Our subject is 'green architecture.' How 'green' is our country?

DN: Not as green as it should be. Others in Europe are ahead. Worldwide, we are on a crisis trip. Alternate fuel research and development incentives have been largely supplanted by emphasis on "finding the last drop of it" and burning it!.......The Bush regime may bode badly for the causes of the environment. Under his new Interior Secretary, they may seek to reverse the last actions of the Clinton administration to preserve wilderness or the coastline against drilling and logging. The world's environment doesn't know about states' rights.

BR: What would you advocate to change the course of priorities?

DN: Focus on the bigger picture. We've got to stop thinking about what is expedient for business to turn a profit. Look at what deregulation has done for the California electric suppliers. The almighty dollar must yield in the name of a national comprehensive energy policy addressing the power needs of ALL of our country by region, if not the world. As designers, we can point the way to preservation of nature as well as the built environment. Let's hope there are enough voices in Congress to neutralize the expected repressive efforts of conservatism.

BR: In your introduction to the 30th anniversary collector's edition of your father's book Survival by Design, you talk about the need for a comprehensive world view rather than short-term thinking. How can architects and designers influence this comprehensive world view?

DN: Architects and designers are in a position to demonstrate new approaches to design and building. The principles of the Case Study houses in California and the architects of that generation -- of which my father was one -- are still not fully appreciated for their major programmatic elements: the quality and responsiveness of the built design to the living environment and nature... Contemporary students could well revisit these programs to discover their message, as well as devise their own versions of these issues translated into today's challenges and issues.

BR: Explain what your father meant by 'biorealism.'

DN: My father was a lonely advocate for the application of the insights of the biological and behavioral sciences to the problems of architecture, as opposed to always deferring to 'the bottom line.' This is what he called 'biorealism' [see this site's Aims and Purposes for more information]. To give an example, a spacecraft like the Endeavor can only accommodate a small segment of the spectrum of human behavior, but through design of this complex vehicle, and the observations of human interactions in a weightless environment, much can be learned of relevance to our everyday environments, not to speak of those who will soon spend weeks in the new space station.

BR: Frank Lloyd Wright was called an organic architect. He was reputed to have strived to make the natural environment part of his architecture. He was designing houses in California in the 1920s; did he influence your father?

DN: My father paid homage to Frank Lloyd Wright in his book Survival Through Design...still in print; in fact, Dad named his first-born after Wright. RJN [Richard Neutra] was an architect who exploited all the senses, and was aware of their possible interactions with the environment he created for clients. Aside from their common philosophy of relating their works to nature, I see no specific influence that Wright had on Neutra.

BR: What is the best education for an architect or designer today?

DN: A combination of higher technical education with an appreciation of the liberal arts, as well as the engineering and design aspects of design training. This, coupled with practical applications such as CAD and other skills honed for use in summer apprenticeships, might well be the ideal kind of training all would-be architects or designers should undergo. A summer or two of study-travel abroad would be a desirable enrichment as well.

BR: What advice would give a young student starting out in the profession today?

DN: Accept the notion that the design professions are among the lowest paid of all. Gain some actual field experience somehow in an designer's office. You will get practical exposure to what it's like in a professional office; what sorts of things happen there; what are the challenges of this profession!

BR: What 'green' architect or designer do you most admire?

DN: I'm not up on specific names; I have admired Lord Norman Foster's work where he tries to address related issues; there are many now focusing on this. I admire their inventiveness and energy to use many related technologies. It's definitely the buzz word of the era; long overdue, I might add.

BR: Who have been your most important mentors, in your career and in your life?

DN: My dad, of course. Several of the draftsmen with whom I came in contact early on were impressive to me on different levels from the point of view of my development. An English teacher helped establish my foundation as a writer. My violin teacher taught me rigor and tenacity, as well as an appreciation of classical music, as did my grandfather, who was a ruthless disciplinarian from the piano keyboard when we played trio with my mother. His thing was "Keep time, even if you get lost!"

BR: In looking over your life, what have been the important highpoints?

DN: Living in the [Kings Road] Schindler House, and later the [VDL] Research Houses. My time in the Navy; at SC and in Europe during my junior year. Juggling marriages and career early on. A hole-in-one in my one and only time playing golf at St. Andrews!

BR: Would you change your life in any way, if you could?

DN: I would have liked to have the wisdom of age earlier on, to perhaps have figured out how to preserve my first marriage and save my sons the trauma of divorce. To have had the wisdom and resources to save my third wife from death from lung cancer.

BR: Who are the pioneers in the field that you really respect?

DN: I like the sound of [Adolph] Loos from what I've read and heard. My dad had great depth, and his philosophy in approaching his solutions is still awesome to me. I have immense admiration for those practitioners who can convince their clients to go along with bizarre or 'far-out' solutions to what would seem to be relatively simple programs.

BR: What word do you prefer in the English language?

DN: What is that long word used in 'Mary Poppins," SupercalifragelisticŠexpialidocious?

BR: What sounds mean the most to you?

DN: I love the sound of a great Bach suite on the cello or violin. Mozart selections are a close second.

BR: Aside from the new blockbuster book just published by Taschen [Neutra: Complete Works], including 300 of your firm's works, how can the general public experience this architecture?

DN: Visit houses, projects, tours, exhibitions, other books, publications... and our Web site at www.neutra.org. You can purchase the Taschen book or others we feature in our site's bookstore.

BR: How difficult is it to maintain this legacy? Do the buildings require repairs? How can they be prevented from inappropriate remodelings?

DN: They do require maintenance; repairs and loving attention with an eye for the original intent of the design. Too often people acquire these projects and subject them to a personal view of 'What the Neutras would have wanted.' Would you retouch your Picasso to match your personal taste or decor?

I offer consulting services on a very reasonable basis, with a unique insight to our original intent. For more information, you can visit our Web site at www.neutra.org.

Dion Neutra is principal of Richard and Dion Neutra, Architects and Associates, the Los Angeles firm founded by Richard Neutra in the early 1920s. He has continued the practice since the death of his father in 1970. He can be reached at 2440 Neutra Place, Los Angeles, CA 90039-3141; phone/fax (323) 666-1806, e-mail dion@neutra.org.

Top