Sturges House created by Frank Lloyd Wright and John Lautner. History and walkthrough.

hello architecture lovers in this episode we're gonna visit a house that was designed by frank lloyd wright but with the construction supervised by john lautner the sturgis house is built on top of a small hill and the largest part of the building is cantilevering over the descent of the hillside built in 1939 it is almost unbelievable that this house was created so long ago and its revolutionary design was many years ahead of its time especially on these black and white photos the house looked almost like a sculpture i'm a movie lover and for me personally this house reminds me of the fan damn house in the alfred hitchcock movie north by northwest that fictional house was only a set piece but it was clearly based on a combination of different designs by frank lloyd wright but why and how was john loner involved in this project to answer this question we first need to take a look at the beginning of his career in 1933 when john lorna was only 22 years old he started to work with an apprenticeship at frank lloyd wright his office lautner was gifted with so much talent that he soon became one of wright's favorite pupils and he went on to work as a paid assistant for the old master lautner never had a proper education to become an architect and he learned everything about architecture during his employment and write his offices and talias and west and talias and east in 1939 the time was right for the young architect to accept the ultimate challenge to construct a building that was designed by his mentor and until then only exist in drawings frank lloyd wright was definitely the architect of this house however once the building process started wright began to work on other projects that was john lonner who oversaw the entire construction process it was not the only house on which john lorna did the construction but it was the final collaboration between him and his mentor and of all the designs by wright this one is the closest related to john loner's later work as is evidenced by as many designs that are built on the edge of a hillside after the finalization of the sturgis house john loner decided to stay in california and he would never leave in fact immediately after completion john loner designed his own house so that he could live in los angeles this house would be his first true design i will put a link in the description to see a video about dead house but first let's take a look in the sturgis residence the house is located in a suburban neighborhood and it's easily visible from the street when you're driving by you can oversee the entire structure after you climb up a small driveway you see the back side of the house with its many rectangular shapes the house belongs to the so-called usonian style by frank lloyd wright the usonians wear single story houses with flat roofs made of cheap materials like bricks and wood as it is common with all eusonian houses this house was a low purchase project this might come as a surprise to many of us due to the spectacular appearance of the house but the building was relatively cheaply to produce for eleven thousand dollars and ninety thirty nine which would be two hundred twenty thousand dollars in today's money the commissioner george d sturgis had a limited budget but he wanted the full-size house in expensive neighborhood of brentwood so for ten dollars he bought the cheapest piece of ground available a small hilltop that was considered to be unsuitable for building purposes sturgis then hired frank lloyd wright who saw the impossible task as a challenge he realized that the only solution was a house that was partially floating in the air but how do you construct such a building the first step was to eagle eyes the top of the hill then he placed two concrete walls with foundations buried deep in the ground after that he placed two iron beams between the concrete walls the fourth step was to cover the concrete walls with bricks which made them look like brick walls brick masonry was placed between the two walls for extra strength then four long iron beams were placed between the upper concrete wall and leaning on the lower wall the four iron beams are further supported by four diagonal placed wooden beams the empty spaces in the structure are filled in with many smaller wooden beams the outside underneath the balcony was made of many pieces of timber after the finalization of the balcony many pillars were placed between the windows at the facade of the house large horizontal wooden beams were placed on these pillars on one side and in the concrete wall at the other side these beams continue beyond the facade and they form a pergola that provides shadow over the balcony two of these large beams are extended and they continue at the back side of the house they support the roof of the carport and they form a pergola above the front door interestingly enough the roof does not rest directly on the beams the ceiling first rests on small pillars that were placed vertical between the roof and beams the lifting of the ceiling was done for many reasons and made the interior more spacial it provided a better sound reverberation and on hot days the temperatures went high above the heads of the people inside also it gave the opportunity to create clear stories after finalization of the roof outside walls were covered with pieces of timber the building process was difficult when many delays but john loner managed to succeed his challenge despite the many delays frank lloyd wright remained positive and he later said about construction one of the simplest things we've ever done and one of the best this drawing from above gives good indication of the size of the house it appears to be much smaller than looks from the outside with a living space of only 1200 square feet or 110 square meters it has a fairly large living room combined with two small bedrooms a bathroom and an open kitchen [Music] let's now take a walk to the house from the front door we step right into the living room the interior is very modest with not too much luxury just the beauty of the design is enough to create a great atmosphere there is also no paintwork only the natural colors of the materials like redwood and bricks [Music] due to the high ceiling the living room feels very spacious the brick chimney is also cantilevering the fireplace which echoes the structure of the house the house had a large renovation in 1969 which was done by john loner during this renovation he designed a built-in closet that was custom made for the house [Music] the custom-made dining table can flip over to become half the size [Music] here you see the open kitchen this is the corridor that leads to the bathroom at the end but first we step to the left into the kitchen the kitchen is cheap and simple it has one square window which you can see here at the outside [Music] all the furniture in a house was designed by frank lloyd wright himself this makes the house a very complete design it's like walking around in his imagination [Music] large windows fill the room with sunlight and create a panoramic feeling all windows in a facade can swing open on hot days so let's step on the balcony from the long unbroken balcony it is possible to walk from one room to another [Music] behind the first bedroom you see a stair that leads downwards this stair is placed directly under the other stair that leads to the rooftop terrace the descending stair leads to a cellar which is placed between the two concrete walls [Music] do [Music] to let go some steam and heat of the shower the bathroom has rectangular hatches in a wall which can be opened to the fresh air this was a solution that was quite common before the invention of ventilation systems okay enough for the interior let's now go outside behind the carport is a small pathway that leads to a grass field from which you can see the right side of the building [Music] when we go back to the house we see the opening of the stair that leads to the rooftop terrace from there you have a beautiful view over the hills and the houses of brentwood [Music] we end our tour with a sunset from the rooftop terrace this was your tour guidance thank you for watching and don't forget to like and subscribe i'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: John Lautner Architecture Videos

Views: 99,886

Keywords: sturges house, sturgeshouse, frank lloyd wright, franklloydwright, john lautner, johnlautner, architecture video, american architecture, modernist achitecture, mid century modernism, organic architecture, usonian, los angeles, hollywood, design, interior design, modernism, googie, space age, dwell, luxury home, home walkthrough, art history, fashion, architecture, lautner, wright

Id: 3sjc4Nj3_YI

Length: 12min 43sec (763 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 01 2021