Date posted: April 21, 2008

Kaufmann House For Sale and Philippe Starck Speaks Out

The Kaufmann House by Richard Neutra is up for sale. And no, I'm not the one who is selling, because of the credit crisis. And the girl in the photos isn't my girlfriend either and I didn't even take the photos. Alas.... (3x).

Interestingly the house will be auctioned as a work of art at Christie’s New York May 13, 2008. Edward Heathcote, architecture critic for the Financial Times has the full story. The New York Times has another. The New York Times also has a slideshow from which I took two of the photos included here.

The Kaufmann house is one of the greatest houses ever designed. It is the quintessential masterpiece of Desert Modernism and the apex of cool.

When I was in Palm Springs last year I wanted to look for it, but I abandoned my plan after failing to get near the Elrod House, which is on a private road. I didn’t expect to just be able to ring the doorbell and have a look around and take some photos, but I was hoping I could at least get to see it from a distance. Maybe another time.

Incidentally, the LA Times of April 10, 2008 featured a photo gallery of the architecture of John Lautner, architect of the Elrod House and the Chemosphere House.

You may recognize both the Elrod House and the Kaufmann House. The Elrod House features in the James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever and the Kaufmann House is a favourite among fashion photographers. The photos are from the Spring/Summer 2008 advertising campaign of 7 For All Mankind.

The girl in the photo is Carolyn Murphy by the way. Yes, I do know who she is, but I don't know her.

In an interview with German Die Zeit magazine of March 27, 2008 Philippe Starck declares that everything he has ever designed is unnecessary and that design itself is useless. This may sound a bit odd from the world’s most celebrated designer. He admits that it took him a while to come to this conclusion.

Philippe Starck sort of voices my own position in terms of design. Sure, I like beautiful shapes and I can appreciate innovative takes on the concept of a chair, but as far as my own life is concerned I like to have as little “stuff” as possible and only things that are functional. Yes, I think I could live in a modernist masterpiece.