With 36 prototype designs, the Case Study House program created paradigms for modern living that would extend their influence far beyond their Los Angeles heartland. This essential introduction features 150 photographs and plans to explore each of these model residences and their architects, including Richard Neutra, Charles and Ray Eames, and...

Sponsored by John Entenza's Arts & Architecture magazine, the Case Study Houses program brought new thinking, techniques, and materials to post-war California house building including Los Angeles. Contains the work of Charles Eames, Eero Saarinen, Craig Ellwood.

Includes eight main essays as well as contributions from Elizabeth A.T. Smith, this volume documents the Case Study House Progam, carried out between 1945 and 1966 where 36 experimental prototype houses were built by leading Californian architects.

The Stahl House: Case Study House #22, The Making of a Modernist Icon is the official autobiography of this world-renowned architectural gem by the family that made it their home. Considered one of the most iconic and recognizable examples of mid-century modern homes in the world, the Stahl House was first envisioned by the owners Buck and Carlotta Stahl, designed by architect Pierre Koenig, and immortalized by photographer Julius Shulman. This 1960 glass-and-steel home in the Hollywood Hills has come to embody the idealism of a generation in search of the American dream. As one of the Case Study Houses designed between 1945 and 1966 under the vision of John Entenza and Arts & Architecture magazine, this was an affordable yet progressive design experiment to address the postwar housing shortage. The result—a two-bedroom, 2,300-square-foot house with glass walls that disappear into a 270-degree panorama of Los Angeles—became Koenig's pièce de résistance. The Stahl House broke rules, defied building codes that discouraged building on cliffs, and expanded the possibilities of residential architecture. The glass walls blurred the boundary between indoors and outdoors. The building seemed to merge with the city itself, the lines of the structure aligning with the geometry of the city's gridded streets. "Los Angeles becomes an extension of the house and vice versa," Koenig said. "The house is just a part of the city." The book shares the never-before-told inside story by the Stahl family's adult children who grew up there and still graciously give home tours to fans from around the world. Through extensive research and interviews, historical information and personal photos are featured. This includes Buck Stahl's initial vision of the home with his own DIY schematic model for how to build on the complicated site. It also includes blueprints, floor plans, and sketches by Pierre Koenig, as well as Julius Shulman's renowned photographs. Additionally, photographs of the house used in high-end, fashion ad campaigns and film and television are also included, cementing The Stahl House's prominence in contemporary culture.

An ironic take on the Case Study House Program--initiated in 1945 by Arts and Architecture magazine in an effort to develop low-priced single-family homes by architects such as Richard Neutra and Charles and Ray Eames--German photographer Peter Bialobrzeski's Case Study Homes was shot at the Baseco compound, a squatter camp near the Port of Manila, which is home to an estimated 70,000 people. As Bialobrzeski was considering the series--startling images of provisional structures fashioned from slats, cardboard, corrugated metal and other cast-off materials and refuse--Lehman Brothers Bank collapsed and the media declared a global economic crisis. These recent events lend resonance to Bialobrzeski's images, which recall the photographs of impoverished rural Americans commissioned by the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s. Conceived as a sketchbook for a larger project, the images evidence the human will to survive and a profound resourcefulness.

The drawings, models, and images highlighted in the Overdrive exhibition and catalogue reveal the complex and often underappreciated facets of Los Angeles and illustrate how the metropolis became an internationally recognized destination with a unique design vocabulary, canonical landmarks, and a coveted lifestyle. This investigation builds upon the groundbreaking work of generations of historians, theorists, curators, critics, and activists who have researched and expounded upon the development of Los Angeles. In this volume, thought-provoking essays shed more light on the exhibition's narratives, including Los Angeles's physical landscape, the rise of modernism, the region's influential residential architecture, its buildings for commerce and transportation, and architects' pioneering uses of bold forms, advanced materials, and new technologies. The related exhibition will be held at the J. Paul Getty Museum from April 9 to July 21, 2013.

This is the first volume of in-depth case studies of zero-net-energy (ZNE) residential structures. Following the same descriptive approach and format of Volumes 1-3 of the previously published Zero Net Energy Case Study Buildings, this book focuses entirely on examples of housing archetypes in the United States. These include the single-family private house, one-off spec houses, manufactured housing, tract house developments and mixed-use multifamily projects. In this well-illustrated book, all the case study projects are described in terms of how they were built to achieve verified ZNE performance, that is, the energy used by the building over the course of a year was equal to the amount of energy supplied by its on-site renewable energy system. This book goes beyond recent publications on ZNE buildings with its reporting and analysis of the actual measured energy use and renewable energy production, including graphs and charts of this performance over a full year, verifying actual achievement of the zero-net-energy goal. As in the previous volumes, each case study concludes with a candid discussion of post-occupancy issues and "lessons learned" for the project. Enhanced by many beautiful photographs, architectural drawings and illustrations, it is attractive and easy to read, while still providing detailed technical information common to all the case study residential projects.