Category Archives: How House

RM Schindler’s How House, 1925, part 4 of 4, form

Not so much building as analyzing

Form

I thought the How House was pretty simple, until I tried to draw a floor plan. I then started a model to help me understand it, and found out how complex it really is.  Although I present this analysis in a linear form, “building” the How House, it was designed as a whole and not in a step-by-step fashion. (figure 1) Continue reading RM Schindler’s How House, 1925, part 4 of 4, form

RM Schindler’s How House, 1925, part 3 of 4, many interesting things

Geometry

As soon as you see the house, you are aware of its obsessive geometry. (figure 1) One part of that obsession is the 16″ horizontal banding. It runs across all the exterior walls, and even over the living room corner window. All the design elements land on these bands: window tops and bottoms, door heads, changes in the building form such as roofs, walls and planters. Continue reading RM Schindler’s How House, 1925, part 3 of 4, many interesting things

RM Schindler’s How House, 1925, part 2 of 4, a change in orientation

But first, a discovery

Thanks to Jocelyn Gibbs and the Architecture & Design Collection at the University of California at Santa Barbara for permission to use Schindler’s original design plan for the How House 1, and confirming the direction of the north arrow on that plan.

Where’s the Sun? Continue reading RM Schindler’s How House, 1925, part 2 of 4, a change in orientation