Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Perched on a Los Angeles hillside is an unconventional, cantilevered house with expansive steel-framed glass walls offering dramatic views. Pierre Koenig’s 1960 Stahl House is an iconic piece of Modernist architecture, a vertiginous feat of engineering that looms over the city, impossibly glamorous in its night-time shots. But its aims were humble: built for a family whose income provided “ample but not elaborate living standards”, it was designed to be easily and cheaply constructed.The house was part of the experimental Case Study House programme, launched by the now-defunct magazine Arts & Architecture, which aimed to solve the postwar housing crisis by supporting and marketing plans for fast, affordable freestanding private homes. Roughly 30 unique houses were built, mostly in southern California, from 1945 to 1966, by architects including Koenig, Richard Neutra and Eero Saarinen — selected by Arts & Architecture editor John Entenza for their ability to “evaluate realistically housing in terms of need”.At the time, construction industries were reduced to almost a third of their prewar size and building materials were in short supply. And yet, architects were eager to integrate into their designs the material and technological advancements developed to support the war. These Case Study houses became showcases for inventive structural applications of aluminium and steel — the 1949 home and office of industrial designers Ray and Charles Eames even incorporated lightweight materials in its cabinets that were originally used in aircraft. Exposed steel beams that integrated the structure into the decor and moving glass walls that embraced outdoor living became a design signature. Eighty years later, these houses are not just stylish time capsules for mid-century modern living: they are beacons of innovative residential design; their pared back floor plans and economic use of materials a source of inspiration in an age of housing shortages and environmental awareness.But the current design-build era is taking things forward: for example, by giving more consideration to insulation and electricity. While the architects of the Case Study houses considered passive cooling techniques and sun orientations, today’s architects are prioritising this in addition to reduced construction time and costs, and active ways to reduce energy costs and carbon emissions. “Energy was [seen to be] cheap in the 1950s,” says Chris Botterill of Jackson Clements Burrows Architects, commenting that these homes did not focus so much on natural materials or energy use. Botterill has built a home for himself and his family in the Frankston suburb of Melbourne centred around efficiency and sustainability, and in the ethos of Australia’s similar postwar housing programme Small Homes Service: “Our house is everything Case Study architecture was. It’s exactly what it is all about.” Both Australia’s Small Homes Service, instigated in Victoria by The Age newspaper in 1947, and America’s Case Study House programme intended to provide plans for efficient, economically planned and built, single-family houses. However, the Australian scheme was open to all architects.In postwar Britain, more emphasis was placed on expanding public housebuilding with council houses to address the housing shortage. Private homes were also built, but in the manner of temporary, prefabricated homes under the Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act 1944. More than 150,000 were built as part of the Emergency Factory Made housing programme, and some are still standing with their innovative precast reinforced concrete panels and prefabricated aluminium kit form, despite being designed to last only 10 years.Botterill’s house near Melbourne was built during Covid-19 — a restrictive climate with similarities to the postwar era, with escalating costs and an industry-wide shortage of building materials, such as timber framing, and four lockdowns. Thinking quickly, and in the same vein as Case Study architects, Botterill chose to prefabricate construction with cross-laminated timber (CLT). A time- and cost-effective solution, the structure rose in three days. The timber was sourced nationally from sustainable softwood plantations in New South Wales, and the house is one of the first CLT houses in Australia. Nestled along a creek, Botterill’s Sweetwater House is a rectangular, single-storey residence with ceilings and walls of untreated, uncovered natural softwood. Laminated green cabinets, concrete floors, pale wool carpeting, minimal furnishings and plenty of windows result in a kind of contemporary wood cabin. Akin to the Case Study architecture, particularly Eames House’s use of steel and tallowwood from eucalyptus trees, it is “materially honest”, Botterill says, with the raw timber palette showcased in an open-plan living room and kitchen with glass doors overlooking the spacious backyard.Botterill’s home features a number of relatively low-intervention energy solutions: a gravity-fed rainwater harvesting system for toilets and irrigation, photovoltaic panels and eaves and shading to limit the sun’s penetration. A row of square-shaped clerestory windows span the front of the house, meeting the roofline; they capture the sea breeze to help cool the house, unlike expansive portions of glass that allow too much heat gain from sunlight. British architect Will Burges, co-founder of 31/44 Architects, has also built a Case Study-inspired home for himself near London’s Crystal Palace Park — on a triangular piece of land that was part of the side garden of a 1950s house. A simple concrete frame with red brickwork, the house has oiled, unpainted pine cabinets and cupboards that can be rearranged and moved around. Behind the dining table bench, a large wooden wall slides open on rollers, revealing a sitting nook with a bright green couch. For Burges, this ability to open up the house is ideal for entertaining.These houses are not just stylish time capsules for mid-century modern living: they are beacons of innovative residential designThe architect adds that Case Study houses are also inspiring when it comes to outdoor living: “They seemed to be the ultimate integration of indoor and outdoor living. Because the movement was centred in California, they have the most amazing lifestyle potential — spending much of the year with their huge doors wide open. Having grown up in older houses in the UK countryside, this was an enticing image of another way to live.” Many Case Study houses, such as Stahl House, feature low slanting roofs that project beyond the exterior to create outdoor patios shaded from the California sun. Useful in the UK too, even if it’s just to protect from rain. Another way to draw the outdoors inside is to place indoor plants next to the view, like many of the Case Study Houses. “Some have internal walls that extend out into the exterior to capture parts of the garden and reinforce the sense of living in the landscape,” Burges adds.Sections of Burges’s house have glass windows to the floor, their frames pushed towards the walls and ceilings, to establish open relationships between outside and inside. In addition to passive solutions such as considering the size and placement of windows to mitigate solar heat gain, the house has an air-source heat pump for heating and hot water, underfloor heating and triple-glazing where possible. Last month the home was awarded one of 26 RIBA National Awards.In an age of mid-century modern mania, people are reappraising what some would once have considered ugly buildings, says architect Louis Hagen Hall. Postwar homes are being sought after and reimagined as buyers and clients are appreciating the openness, the abundance of natural light, and the potential for remodelling that comes with modern building techniques and structures. “We have a wealth of amazing postwar properties that are getting attention as potential refurbishments, more so now than ever.” A terrace renovated by him for a musician couple, in London’s Primrose Hill, is very reminiscent of Case Study architecture. Called The Canyon House, it was originally built in the 1970s. One of its most appealing attributes is its windows: wider and allowing for more views and light than those of typical Georgian or Victorian homes. The postwar truss roof also enabled interior walls to be more easily shifted, because it spans front to back. “Few postwar properties are listed, so you have carte blanche to create something unique,” Hagen Hall adds.Like Hagen Hall’s project, many of the Case Study houses have simple and functional interiors, but nevertheless, they are warm and comforting. Hagen Hall cites Craig Ellwood’s Case Study House #16 from 1952, which has dark wood, red brick, and translucent glass. “There is a real sense of craft, even if the structure is simple,” says Hagen Hall. “The joinery is often minimal but beautifully made.” When updating houses like this, it is essential to be restrained and use four materials or colours, at most, he believes, in order to keep the aesthetic authenticity of Case Study House architecture. Unlike the US, however, there is not much opportunity for single-level living in the UK, and the country is full of narrow Victorian terrace houses. Given this, one way of incorporating the philosophy of Case Study architecture is to create long, linear views via the length of the house, by adding moving doors, creating openings, and changing window positions to create “axes”, says Hall, so you can see through the property front to back.But it’s not just about sunlight and wood panelling. The Modernist, quick-build houses that emerged after the second world war had an ethos of craft, resourcefulness and simplicity that — paired with today’s advancements, such as double-glazed windows and prefabricated timber frames — could be a blueprint for future residential design.Find out about our latest stories first — follow @FTProperty on X or @ft_houseandhome on Instagram
