The most striking feature of the exteriors is the green roll roofing. It covers the roofs and wraps down in horizontal bands over all the walls-even the garage doors (Figure 1). The bottom edge of each band is installed over triangular wooden strips that angle the roofing out from the wall (Fig 2 with notes from CD’s). This creates ridges and shadow lines that further emphasize the horizontal. Schindler used this same system of horizontal bands of roofing on part of another home, the De Keyser House1, at about the same time. The roofing was a response to the extremely small budget of both houses 2.
The Kaun Beach House (Figure 1) has always been a mystery to me-and I love a mystery. I knew it only from a small plan and a murky photo 1.
A few months ago, I came across a clear photo on the web. After some further digging around on the web, I got a scan of the original 1937 article with that photo, two more, the plan at a larger size and a description of the house (Figure 2). This new information inspired me to further research-which led to a 3D model and this series of articles.
What originally interested me about this house was the exterior material. It is completed covered in horizontal bands of green roll roofing (similar to a roll of green asphalt shingles), visible in the original black & white photos (Fig 2). This seemed such a strange choice. Once I started researching and modeling the building, however, I was fascinated by the wonderful design. I hope you will be too.
As I looked at the front of the Oliver House, I noticed that there are 3 different styles of architecture. They are tied together by the ribbon window and they have solid masses at each end. From left to right, from thickest to flattest, they are (Figure 1)
Exteriors
The most striking feature of the exteriors is the green roll roofing. It covers the roofs and wraps down in horizontal bands over all the walls-even the garage doors (Figure 1). The bottom edge of each band is installed over triangular wooden strips that angle the roofing out from the wall (Fig 2 with notes from CD’s). This creates ridges and shadow lines that further emphasize the horizontal. Schindler used this same system of horizontal bands of roofing on part of another home, the De Keyser House 1, at about the same time. The roofing was a response to the extremely small budget of both houses 2.
