The founder of the experimental Southern California Institute of Architecture, and the natural heir to Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra and R M Schindler, Kappe began his career in the 1950s by bringing together Neutra’s use of space with the more natural modernism of Harwell Hamilton Harris, to which he added some of Lloyd Wright’s love of landscapes.
The Kappe House (1967) in Pacific Palisades. Built on a slope around six concrete towers. In 1990, Kappe design using a high concrete retaining wall to create two distinct but cleverly connected spaces. One, with 20ft-high ceilings and glass walls, houses the downstairs living and dining areas. The other, on top of the hill, contains two bedroom suites, a library and separate office for Benton’s patients. Downstairs is all drama and space; upstairs, the delight is in the detail. Both spaces are under the same roof, which is split by a linear skylight.
‘Things are what they are in this house. Form follows function. There is no artifice and the structural elements are exposed. The concrete is rough, and it declares itself as concrete.’ – Dr Esther Benton. Climate and the light in LA, need to be bringing in the house. That explains the glass, but also the little details, like the grid of concrete tiles that is maintained inside and out; they’re the same material, just polished and sealed on the inside. The worktop slab in the kitchen was the same pour as the patio outside the kitchen window, so it flows straight into the house.
The structure was made apparent by the abundant use of glass which had minimal framing. Layering his residence horizontally in almost geological terms creates a form of stratification in which he expressed various levels of the home’s activities independently of others above or below. The family’s music room was the headquarters for his son’s activities. Dividing the space within the building through layers rather than walls has greatly changed my perception of how space is divided. It maximizes the space visually within the existing space without compromising the use of the space. It achieves functionality and design at the same time.