CaseStudyHouse 22 / Stahl House by Pierre Koenig. Complete overview: history and walkthrough.

[Music] hello my dear audience this episode is about the most famous house in Los Angeles the stall residence it's the ultimate Californian pool house and with its minimalistic design it's one of the most iconic homes in the world placed on a spectacular location and built with prefabricated industrial materials it was constructed in a re lutionary way this video shows how the house was made and it gives a complete walkthrough of the Interior but first we going to take a look at the history the house was the dream project of book and carotta stall this middle class couple always wanted to live in luxurious pool house but they lacked the funds and they had to be creative to make their wish come true in 1954 they fell in love with a small Hillside overlooking downtown LA this building lot was available for Rock Bottom price because due to the many elevations it was considered by many as unsuitable for building still they believed in their dream and they bought a location with a mortgage and no money to build the house it took four years before the mortgage was paid off and until their financial obligations were met they were not allowed to build anything so it took a long period before they could even start building the stall family used this time to make the otherwise impossible land suitable for construction they legalized a part of the ground and with retaining walls they created a terrace-like structure to prevent landslides in 1958 the the mortgage was paid off and they had prepared the ground for building they took a second mortgage to build the house but still there was no design yet originally it was Ball's intention to design the house himself and he had already made a scale model in drawings that turned out to be not much different from the apparent results however stall was not experienced enough to design a complete house by himself and he approached several architects who all turned the job down by saying that it was simply impossible to build the house for such a limited [Music] budget finally stall came in contact with Pierre Kik who saw the project as a challenge he estimated that the construction costs would be about $34,000 that was way more than the mortgage of the stall family luckily he knew someone who could further Finance the project John antena the editor of the arts and architecture magazine this magazine had already sponsored the construction of a Ser of modernist houses known as the case study program and tensa did the following proposal the drawings of the house would be featured in the magazine as well as many photos of the construction process once the house was finished another series of photos would be published in a magazine in return arts and architecture would be funding the Furnishing of the house to reduce the required budget furthermore equipment and material suppliers would sell at cost in exchange for advertising space in the magazine the stall housee became the 22nd design that was partly financed by the magazine hence the name case study house 22 by sponsoring these houses an tensa wanted to inspire other Architects to build easily reproducible homes for the middle class showing the world that luxury houses can be affordable for people with an average income and hopefully ending the severe shortage of middleclass housing this shortage was caused by the economic depression in a 19 30s followed up by World War II during these periods hardly any new houses were built while during the economic boom in the 1950s the demand for new homes exploded without the sponsorship the stall housee could never have been funded so it was important to cover the history of the case study program in this video it was 5 years after the purchase of the building lot that the construction finally started the first step in the construction process was to place concrete piles in the ground on these piles concrete grade beams were placed interesting is that one great beam extended beyond the perimeter of the building ground therefore a part of the foundation is visible from below the hillside the extended Foundation created the possibility of a that partly can delivered the hillside making maximum use of The Limited building space on the foundation of great beams a series of 16 vertical steel columns were erected these steel columns were age beams who were 4 in thick and they were standing on footings and connected to the gr beams on on top of these pillars horizontal eye beams were placed these eye beams were 12 in thick it needed only one day and five construction workers to build the entire skeleton which was welded together once the frame was finished a floor made of forest concrete was costed over the great beams this floor also contained an underfloor heating system that consisted of metal tubes the roof was made by placing steel beams over the frame which then supported metal plates the great benefit of this construction is that the walls don't have to support the roof this allows floor to ceiling windows that provide an unbroken view over the landscape still though the house has one wall located in the back at the North side but this wall was only for privacy reasons because it prevented people to look inside when passing by from the street this wall was made by placing steel rip panels against the skeleton towards the west east and south side the entire construction was filled in with glass panels and only at the carport the skeleton was left open and no walls were placed at all finally the concrete swimming pool was placed and the house was finished when you compare bookstalls original design with Pierre kik's final result you will see that the floor plans of both designs are not that different the only major contribution that pure conic made to the design was creating space for a swimming pool replacing the butterfly roof for a flat roof and changing the curving shape of the bedroom Wing into straight lines still though Pier kic deserves a lot of credit because he developed the brilliant building process in which the construction was minimalized to less than 60 different parts originally Buck stall wanted the house to be built out of wood but it was kic's idea to make the house so toally out of prefabricated elements that were industrial made out of steel glass and concrete this allowed the house to be built extremely fast and economic Pier kik's Progressive Construction techniques influenced the pre-fabricated way most houses are built today making the stall house an important milestone in the history of architecture [Music] because the design is so photogenic the stall residents became the most famous of all the case study houses especially the photos by Julius Schuman who worked for the arts and architecture magazine were republished in several other books and magazines making it an icon of modernism the house became even more famous for its use in countless fashion photo shoots and if that wasn't enough it was also used as location for many movies and TV shows including the first Columbo episode Galaxy Quest and even an episode of The Simpsons it also inspired many artworks making it one of the most recognizable homes in the United States at this moment the house is still owned by the stall family and on some days it is open for public and you can get a tour guidance for those who are never be able to visit I made this video so let's take a look [Music] inside we start our tour from the sky from here we see the tensely populated Hillside and we see how confined the building lot actually is behind the house is a street that curves over the hill from here you can still see the retaining walls that are once built by book tall for the largest part the house is located above street level but at the carport the street comes in line with the front door seen from the street the house feels enclosed and you can't see anything of the pool area but once you get closer you can catch a glimpse of the pool through the wall of breeze blocks we step through the glass front door and we are in the pool area let's now take a look at the floor plan the house is placed on a building ground which is only 5,000 square ft 12,000 ft if you count the slope of the lower Hillside the house itself measured 80 ft from west to east 70 ft from north to south and 20 ft in the wids when you exclude the cardboard the structure from left to right is only 60 ft long this makes the Interior Space 2200 square ft the swimming pool is 800 square ft which is very large compared to the size of the house house when you color the separated Parts you see that the house has an open floor plan with a limited number of individual spaces there are two directions that provide access to the living room you can walk over the pathway in front of the sleeping area or you can walk over the Terrace in front of the pool from the entrance we turn to the left to the outdoor dining table that looks out over the valley from here we turn to the left furthermore and we walk around the pool by placing the house in an L shape every room looks out over the pool and through sliding doors you can enter the swimming area from every living space this makes the pool the central part of the house almost like an external living room the house itself itself is not even that big and it is cheaply built but the pool combined with a breathtaking view over the valley gives the house a feeling of graciousness and extreme luxury this skill model shows how narrow the space between the pool and the valley is the stall couple had three little children who all grew up next to the pool in the edge of a cliff and this demanded many safety precautions so it might not be the safest family home but by God what an amazing view of the landscape there is a porch that throws a lot of Shadow over the Terrace this porch was made by extending the roof over the beams of the underlying frame at the South and West Side while at the north and east side the RO roof is almost in line with a skeleton the porch also throws a shadow over the [Music] windows through one of the sliding doors we step inside because the house has a skeleton internal walls are not necessary to support the roof which makes it possible to create any preferable layout the minimal use of interior walls ensures an optimal distribution of sunlight and you can see the landscape from anywhere in the house through a second sliding door you can step in outdoor jacuzzi while in the hot tub you can enjoy the Los Angeles Skyline while in just a few seconds you can leave the jacuzzi and take place in a sitting [Music] area the windows are placed very close to the edge of the cliff so from the interior you can see hardly anything of the underlying Hillside this creates the illusion that the house is floating High over the city behind the SL sling doors is a small Terrace from here you can look down into the valley which is 70 ft below this spectacular living room is placed literally on an edge of a [Music] cliff the horizontal beams extend a few inches beyond the roof leading the perspective outside this reveals the influence by Richard Nitra one of the Architects that inspired Pier Kik at the East side is a narrow pathway that is used for window cleaning next to the pathway the property already ends and a neighboring lot starts again illustrating that every inch of the available building space was used for the house luckily the neighboring residence is placed lower on a hill so there's still some privacy when you turn to the left you see the dangerous looking part of the house that is Cy lering over the hillside back inside we take a look at how the linear perspective and a many windows make the small living room look larger this perspective is created by the lines of the many construction beams that are visible because there's no lowered ceiling there was no money for a masonry fireplace and therefore a steel framed fireplace was made nowadays the steel frame is filled in with rock stones but originally plaster boards were placed in the frame the fireplace separates the living room into a sitting and dining area thus functioning as dividing wall while retaining the transparency of the large open space because it has openings on both sides it can heat a sitting area and dining table at the same time most kitchens in the 1960s were enclosed stucked away spaces but this house has a kitchen that is fully open and placed Central in the living space while cooking you can look at the landscape in each Direction in front is a bar in the middle is a cooking Island and in the back is a kitchen unit placed against the only wall in a living room the kitchen is illuminated by a light box that is placed in a lowered ceiling the L-shaped house can be divided in three different parts the sleeping area in the left has Windows to the south then the living room which has Windows towards the South West and East and finally there's the part which holds the more private spaces like toilets bathrooms and dressing rooms very wisely this part is located where you have the least amount of Windows the place where the two arms come together through this door next to the kitchen we step in a master bedroom the wall and the back has a striped pattern of vertical mirror that again enlarges the amount of sunlight and the feeling of space yet the mirrors are narrow enough to maintain the private character of a bedroom because the internal walls don't have a loadbearing function they don't need to go all the way up to the ceiling allowing space for a clar story which again provides more sunlight and makes the room more spatial through this door you can enter the walk in close closet which has closets on both sides covered by curtains behind it is the bathroom which is the only space in the house that has half height windows we walk through the laundry unit and we return towards the master bedroom but first we take a peek in a toilet which is accessible through a sliding door bookstall wanted the bedrooms to be as transparent and large as possible so there was no place for a corridor to reach the second bedroom you have to walk through the master bedroom this is not very practical but again athetic were chosen over Comfort all the three children of the stall family slept in this bedroom by placing a small dividing wall you can easily make two bedrooms out of this single space this explains why the bathroom in the back has two entrances each with her own individual washing tables [Music] both the first and second bedroom have sliding windows that can open towards a small concrete Terrace from there you can jump straight into the pool two concrete slabs are resting on both sides of the Terrace these slabs are the bridges of a pathway that connects the carboard to the living room underneath the bridges the pool continues to the edge of the bedroom windows the pool is located so close to the house that you can jump from the roof into the water there are two reasons for the close placing of the pool First Sunlight is reflected from the water inside the house and second the temperature of the water creates natural cooling which is very welcome on hot days this was was cheaper than air conditioning which was very expensive in the 1960s we walk over the bridge and we are back at the front door the place where the tour started when you compare number 22 with the other case study houses you will notice strong similarities between all designs this similarity is the result of John anda's own taste in architecture namely intensa preferred minimalistic and transparent houses with straight lines based on this preference the sponsorships were granted therefore the case study houses form an architectural movement with her own trademarks this also explains why organic Architects like John lner and Frank LR were never approached by intensa they simply didn't fit with his taste in architecture still though John laer designed a few houses that have some similarities with the case study movement whether you prefer the organic style b lner or the minimalist style of the case study movement is up to you I like both Styles but lner always remains my favorite we end this video with a look over the nightly Skyline of Los Angeles this was your tour guidance thank you for watching and I'll see you next [Music] time

Channel: John Lautner Architecture Videos

Views: 97,934

Keywords: pierre koenig, pierrekoenig, buck stahl, stahlhouse, stahl house, case study house 22, casestudyhouse22, case study houses, case study house programm, csh, american modernism, modernism, mid century modernism, californian pool house, hollywood house, poolhouse, luxury house, home walkthrough, architecture video, interior design, minimalistic architecture, minimalism, mies van der rohe, john lautner, richard neutra, frank lloyd wright, john entenza, los angeles

Id: ps1wartdgGM

Length: 23min 40sec (1420 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 11 2023