A perfect Case Study House Nr16 by Craig Ellwood Complete overview and walkthrough

Hello my dear audience. It's time to visit case study house number 16 located on a hillside in Los Angeles and placed in the curve of a road. Seen from the street the majority of the house is hidden behind a wall made of translucent glass panels. The only part that is clearly visible is the carport and in the background we see yet another screen of frosted glass. The carport has space for two cars placed next to each other and the pathway towards the front door is separated from the carport by a brick wall which is somewhat misleading because nothing of the actual home is made of bricks. Three skylights provide daylight underneath the carport. A funny detail is the front door that is almost hidden because it is decorated with the same wood paneling as the surrounding walls. Can you see it? Here it is. Only the doorknob reveals the position of the front door and we step inside the hallway but before we go any further we're first going to take a look at the floor plan. Case study 16 or Zeltsman house is a compact residence measuring 1660 square feet located close to the street and placed on a confined lot with a terrace at the edge of a sloping hillside, a garden at the left and closed by neighboring houses on higher parts of the hill. When we remove the roof and color the parts that are inside we see that a large part of the space underneath the roof belongs to the carport and that a part of the garden is enclosed by walls creating an interesting interaction between inside and outside. We name the functions of the different spaces. There is a large living space with an open kitchen and there are two small bedrooms with adjacent bathrooms. A typical trademark of the case study movement are the many large sliding windows that connect every part of the interior with the garden. Now we're going to take a walk from the hallway to the living room. This is one of the very few case study houses that is still completely original. Over the years it's perfectly maintained and never changed or remodeled. It looks exactly as it was more than 70 years ago. The living room has many large floor-to-ceiling windows that look out over the landscape giving the economic build and modest sized home a luxurious feeling. In contrast with the openness of the living room is a den that has an enclosed and private feeling and is used for watching television. By closing a curtain the den can be transformed into a guest bedroom. From the den we walk towards the two sliding windows that open in opposite directions and we step on a terrace. The size of the terrace is limited by the hillside that is rapidly descending into the lower valley but the view over the hills with Los Angeles in the distance still gives the small terrace a spacious and glorious feeling. We return inside and go to the open dining space. The bar counter in front of the dining area makes the room more spacious. It divides the living room in different areas while still maintaining the large open space. This is a good alternative for an internal wall that would have enclosed the room and therefore limited the feeling of space. A clever decision made by architect Greg Elwood who was an important contributor to the case study project. Also designing number 17 and 18b. But unfortunately these two other homes were altered beyond recognition so number 16 is now the only house we could make a video of. Elwood was known for using industrial materials like steel and concrete and used them in a formal minimalist style like Pierre Koenig and Mies van der Rohe also did. But other than Koenig and van der Rohe Elwood also used informal and playful elements like rock stones, wood decorations, brick walls and bright colors. These elements are more common in other architectural movements. The combination of styles is embodied in rock stone fireplace that looks very organic and forms a sharp contrast with the straight lines of the steel and glass construction. To understand the look of the house we first need to take a look at the construction. How was this house made? Most designs from the case study program are constructed with a steel skeleton made with H&I beams. But number 16 is created with the use of hollow steel beams that are arc welded together. The frame of red brown colored beams is clearly visible in the glass fences and the skeleton supports a hollow roof that is made with H beams placed horizontally over the skeleton. Small holes are drilled in the beams and wooden supporting arms are attached with screws to the holes. Finally the roof itself was made of thin wooden roof plates placed on top of the construction while the lowered ceiling was made by attaching plasterboards at the underside of the roof beams. The steel frame is still visible in the seams between the various plasterboards and the red brown lines form a strong contrast with the white ceiling. Thanks to the roof structure the walls no longer need to support the roof allowing many floor to ceiling windows and a minimal number of interior walls making the small home very spacious. Most interior walls do not even reach the ceiling leaving a space open at the top creating an even greater sense of space and a better distribution of daylight. The two brick walls are placed outside and no part of construction while the rock stones were only used for the chimney. A small but interesting design detail are the windows that are placed in the chimney without any window frame. The glass plates are slid into saw cuts and sealed with putty or caulk. This makes the windows almost invisible and it takes away the verge between inside and outside. The chimney has another fireplace on the other side. This fireplace forms the center of a sitting area in the garden. From the fireplace we walk through the garden and we arrive at the porch that is more like a trellis. It is an extension of the steel skeleton beyond the outer walls of the home. The lines of the ceiling continue in a trellis at the other side of the glass and point in the landscape. This leads the perspective outside and it makes the living room feel larger. Mixing interior with exterior. The steel rods of the porch look like louvres and they throw a striped pattern of shadows on the terrace. You might be wondering what this steel structure on the left side of the photo is. This is a wall sculpture that was also used as a jungle gym by the two children of the Zaltzman family. The two children could climb on the steel rods and sit on top of the brick wall making this a unique integration of form and function. Through the glass sliding doors we step in the dining area. Behind the dining table is the open kitchen with a bar counter that can be closed off with a curtain. Everything in the house is in a pristine condition like it was in the 1950s and even the kitchen appliances are period correct. Next to the kitchen is another glass sliding door that gives access to a patio with a barbecue space separated from the garden by a brick wall. Behind another brick wall is a place to store garbage. The patio is separated from the carport by a screen of translucent glass panels. We have now arrived at the other side of the glass. The place where we started our walkthrough but we aren't finished because we have not taken a look in the bedrooms yet. So we go through the front door one more time. The hallway is illuminated by two skylights. At the end of the hallway is the door of the master bedroom. A vanity and sink are built in at the other side of the headboard of the bed. The dressing table also functions as a room divider separating the clothing space from the sleeping space in one bedroom. Steam from hot water is exhausted through a ventilation pipe that goes to the roof. Because the bedroom is very close to the public road the screen of the translucent glass is necessary for privacy. But the screen also looks like the wall of the bedroom while the actual bedroom wall is made of transparent glass. This brings the garden into the bedroom almost like an atrium which makes the bedroom appear to be larger. Here was once the bedroom where the two children of the Zeltsman family slept. On this photo you can see hardly the difference between interior and exterior. Once filled with flowers and plants the garden creates a beautiful atmosphere in the bedroom. The frosted glass provides privacy while still the sunlight can enter the garden. Number 16 might not be the most spectacular of the case study houses but i think it is the perfect embodiment of the principles of the case study program. It's constructed very industrial and therefore economic and reproducible but still it feels very homey and comfortable at the same time. The case study movement was intended to create affordable modernist homes for people with an average income and this house fits the description perfectly