Architecture without rules : the houses of Marcel Breuer and Herbert Beckhard

An armchair tour through twenty strikingly innovative houses. Internationally famous for such buildings as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (as well as for the ubiquitous "Breuer" chair), Marcel Breuer thrived on experimentation. From the 1950s through the 1970s, he and his associate Herbert Beckhard created a radical new type of American housing. David Masello, a writer on architecture and urban design, interviewed Herbert Beckhard and many of the original clients. He introduces here twenty of Breuer and Beckhard's landmark houses, explaining how their aims are realized in the design, building materials, and use of each site. black-and-white and color photos

an Armchair Tour Through Twenty Strikingly Innovative Houses.

publishers Weekly

twenty Innovative Houses Engendered By The Collaboration Between Hungarian-born Bauhaus Architect Marcel Breuer (1902-81) And American Architect Herbert Beckhard (b. 1926) Are Examined In This Handsome Volume. Breuer (famous For The Eponymous Chair He Designed), Who Emigrated To The U.s. In 1937, And Beckhard, Who Now Heads A Manhattan-based Architectural Firm, Favored Large, Open Interior Spaces, Fieldstone Walls, Uninterrupted Glazed Surfaces And Structures That ``float'' Above Their Sites By Means Of Posts, Trusses And Supporting Walls. Despite These Similarities, The Houses They Designed Together, In California, Minnesota, New York, Vermont And Switzerland, Are Highly Individualistic, Modernist Compositions Reflecting Their Clients' Lifestyles. Masello, A Contributor To Architectural Record , Affectionately Walks Readers Through These Eclectic, Deliberately Asymmetrical Dwellings, Aided By 100 Black-and-white Photographs And 16 Pages In Color. (aug.)

Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater cantilevering over the rushing water, Philip Johnson's pristine Glass House, and the profile of Marcel Breuer's first New Canaan house with its projecting porch, angled roof, and floating form are among the established images of Modern American residential architecture.