Dr. Fred and Mrs. Alicia Adler House

Dr. Fred and Mrs. Alicia Adler House

Neutra designed this home for Dr. Adler, a physicist who approached him in April of 1955. Neutra wryly wrote on a note in the couple’s office file that they were “labouring under the delusion of square footage,” something common among many of his middle-class clients. The resulting 1,870 square foot house demonstrates Neutra’s accommodation of many of the clients’ preferences, including in the wall colors. While Neutra was known for favoring muted palettes, this home has walls in strong colors such as yellow, orange, and poppy red. Neutra offset these bold tones with the more neutral ash cabinetry, and he strove for creating an integrated scheme. For example, he used the same color paint as the fixtures in the bathroom to “minimize the forms of the fixtures and to avoid their looking like sculpture.” Neutra also supervised the selection of furniture, and after he refused a table the Adlers planned to order given its undesirable diagonals, the couple purchased Neutra’s own design—the Camel Table—for their home.

Adapted from Neutra – Complete Works by Barbara Lamprecht (Taschen, 2000), p. 299.