JOHN LAUTNER’S SHEATS-GOLDSTEIN HOUSE

Modernism Week kicks off its annual celebration of mid-century Modernist architecture, interiors, furniture and lifestyle throughout California from the 13th February. Sarah-Jane will be hotfooting it over to Palm Springs and Los Angeles to visit significant pieces of architecture that have inspired the way we live in an our homes and love them today. Derived from the International and Bauhaus movements of the very same era, American mid-century Modernism evolved into its own style influenced by the environment resulting in less formal and more organic designs.

Pre-empting the start of Modernism Week, we thought we would share with you one of the houses that will be part of Sarah-Jane’s tour. The Sheats-Goldstein House is one of American architect John Lautner’s most famous homes and you may recognise it from several movies and music videos. Lautner, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright was inspired by Wright’s principles of American Organic Architecture and as such the house is conceived from the inside out and is built into the sandstone ledge of the hillside; a cave-like dwelling that opens to embrace nature and view. Like Wright, Lautner designed not only the house, but extensively detailed the interiors, windows, lighting, rugs, furniture, and operable features. The holistic experience of the materiality of the interior elements and the sense of shelter despite the blurred lines between inside and out invoke a harmonious celebration of the senses. The Sheats-Golstein Residence represented an iconic vision for a home that is uniformly of it’s place functioning wholly unto itself in nature and a celebration of the individual accomplishments of mankind.

The Sheats/Goldstein residence continues to be a work in progress for Lautner, with construction beginning in 1963 and continuing today despite his passing in 1994.

Credits: John Lautner Foundation
1: homedit
2: Youonlyliveonce.com.au
3 & 4: homedit, DesignBoom
5: LA Observed
6 & 7: I know, right?, Faustian Urge
Video: Vimeo