The Neutra Philosophy

Goals and Means

In 1969, the last year of his life, Richard Neutra prepared a brief recorded statement to accompany a slide presentation as part of an exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution on the body of work done by him and his architect son Dion. It summarizes their emphasis on well-researched design that serves humanity and the planet. Listen to it below.

One hears that their goal was to accommodate what clients do and how clients socialize while serving their health and wellbeing as well as delighting them. There was an emphasis on a simplicity that could make such environments affordable and responsive to climate.

The means for achieving these goals included modern technology and the sensitive inclusion of nature and landscape, or when nature was not available to recreate its essential features.

To hear Neutra’s own account on how his childhood experiences in turn-of-the-century imperial Vienna impelled him to this kind of architecture, you can listen to this brief section of his autobiography read by Viennese actor Marcus Kupferblum: