John Lautner was one of the most important American architects of the twentieth century, and perhaps one of the most misunderstood. His career spanned fifty-five years and left an incredible mark on the building designs of Southern California.
Lautner was born in 1911 and raised in Marquette, Michigan. His remarkable natural surroundings made a deep and lifelong impression. He had his first building experience at the age of twelve when he helped his father construct a chalet designed by his mother.
After graduating from college, Lautner’s mother got word that Frank Lloyd Wright was accepting applications for his Taliesin Fellowship in Wisconsin and encouraged him to apply. Young, shy, and still trying to find himself, Lautner interviewed for the program and was accepted. He would come to admire Wright. Lautner became heavily involved in the fellowship, he worked on projects such as Herbert Johnson House and helped build the Campus for Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona. Lautner took the cross-country treks each fall and spring with Wright between Arizona and Wisconsin and spend valuable absorbing his philosophies.
He began practicing in Los Angeles in the late 1930s. The reason he moved to Los Angeles was to supervise the construction of Wright’s Sturges House. Lautner later ended up designing over fifty significant structures in Southern California alone, each a unique expression of his constant exploration of new ideas and materials.
Unlike Michigan, the Southern California climate and light allowed Lautner to use large planes of glass, exposed wood, and other elements that brought nature into his designs. He was an engineering genius. He was able to use different angles and shapes to create forms that were futuristic. He pioneered the use of concrete as both a sculptural and architectural element.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Lautner’s single-family homes became popular structures. In this time he completed houses such as the Carling House (1947), Gantvoord House (1949), Shaffer House (1949), Bergren House (1951) and the Tyler House (1953).
In the late 1950s, Lautner would begin the design for the Malin Residence, often called the “Chemosphere.” Initially, the site had been deemed “unbuildable” by several architects and contractors due to the steep 45-degree downhill slope. Lautner’s solution to the house was to embed a 5-foot-thick, 27 foot high reinforced concrete post into the hill, which would support a floating octagonal pod. The 2,208 square foot home is accessible by a funicular and was a true engineering feat for the time.
On October 24th, 1994 Lautner passed away in Los Angeles. Lautner made a significant contribution to the field of architecture, especially in Southern California. One of the reasons Lautner’s work gained such widespread acclaim was his ability to craft the experience of the user from the interior. He began his design process thinking about how he wanted the user to feel in the space, the views that the user would see, and how to connect the inside of the architecture with the unique features of each site. At a time when many architects were thinking of buildings as objects, Lautner remained firm in the fundamental belief that architecture was for people to experience.
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