Richard Neutra

Richard Neutra (1892-1970), American architect of Austrian origins, is known mainly for the splendid Californian villas he designed, capable of merging the dictates of Modernism with a more immediate relationship with nature and with the organic vision of Frank Lloyd Wright , an architect who had been his main source of inspiration since his youth and for whose studio Neutra had worked for a certain period. Other great teachers of his were the leading figures of the lively architectural movements that characterized the Vienna of his youth, Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos, where he took the first steps of a career that would then continue in Zurich and then in Berlin before emigrating to the States in 1923. Among his best-known villas are the Kuafmann Desert House and the one built and the Von Sternberg House, the latter built for a famous Hollywood director. The furnishings designed by Neutra were always an integral part of the project, often built into the spaces, and featured tubular metal or, more rarely, wood as the main material, as in the case of his famous Boomerang Chair. For this reason it is not possible to find re-editions of his furnishings on the market today, but Martinelli Luce is reproposing some of his lamps while the outdoor brand Kettal is reviving the design of its Neutra VDL pavilion.