Craig Ellwood, Fields House, Beverly Hills, USA, 1947

Designed to provoke new thinking and construction techniques in the residential field, it is also part of the Case Study House Program. It is based on the idea that the mechanisation of residential construction methods would be the future for those with a tight budget.

It is a complete pre-fab house which doesn’t try to hide or camuflate this, it represents clearly the system used to build the house. The elements are strongly defined with different colours. The partitions of the house occur on modules or semi-modules, where structure and panel are completely separated.

The pre-fab panels have no defined material, as they can be chosen to be made from mateal, wood , plastic, ceramics or glass, depending on the flexibility needed due to the conditions of earthquake tenderness where it is built. On the other hand, the frames are made of steel, suitable for detail and connection simplification and standarization.

All of the rooms are open to the pool terrace and view the garden with glass sliding doors, excepting the small bedrooms, which are enclosed by panels to a private court. Plastic dome skylights are used to provide natural lighting in halls, baths and dressing areas.

Reference:

“Case Study House #18”. 2017. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me-CaU0TL4Y.

“Mid-Century Modern Freak : Photo”. 2017. Midcenturymodernfreak.Tumblr.Com. http://midcenturymodernfreak.tumblr.com/image/33839327059.

Reviewed March 2017 by:
Yue Shang
Xiaolin Lu
Lizhongyang Zhou
Adelina Muntean