an affinity for curves

With the death of Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer on December 5, the world has lost one of the leading proponents of curved, rounded, wavy and spiraling forms. A modernist innovator, Niemeyer, who began working in the late 1930s, eschewed the straight lines and boxy shapes that had characterized modernism up to that time.

“Right angles don’t attract me. Nor straight, hard and inflexible lines created by man,” explained Niemeyer in The Curves of Time, his 1998 memoir. “What attracts me are free and sensual curves. The curves we find in mountains, in the waves of the sea, in the body of the woman we love.”

une petite maison ronde

Le Chasseur Français, a French hunting magazine, ran an article on round houses in December 1950.

The author, architect Gérard Tissoire, described a small round house, presumably of his own design, in exhaustive detail, from the entryway to the windows to the bedrooms to the closets.  He responded first to the claim that such a house was impractical -

Good people will say, “A round house isn’t ‘livable.’  How are you supposed to arrange furniture when you have round walls?” These good people forget that round houses are divided up by walls and partitions that form flat surfaces; that in general the rooms will be in a nice fan shape, with windows in an arc toward the view; that where necessary a cupboard can conveniently and usefully correct an irregularity, and that one can even, exceptionally, build furniture with cylindrical backs.

two fine cheeses

Built in the 1930s, the Martin Zech house near Sauk City, Wisconsin, is a two-story wood house with a cupola -

A columnist with the Wisconsin State Journal described its idiosyncratic style in April 1946:

“The Zech house is absolutely round … not octagonal … and the second story is somewhat smaller in circumferance than the first so that, from the distant road, it appears to be two fine cheeses of different sizes set one on top of the other.  Inside the rooms are pie-shaped, except that the tip of each is cut off by a small round central hallway.”

“Mr. Zech built it that way, he said, simply because he liked it that way, and the idea was original with him.”

A recent photo shows it looking much the same.

robert moses in the round

In Long Island, New York, “an exercise in how to fit circles together” -

Designed by architect Wallace K. Harrison in the 1930s, the Harrison Estate served as a laboratory for Harrison’s architectural ideas. “The home’s signature element, the circle, is found in the forms of the living room, small former dining room, pool, and even concrete pavers used for walkways . . . . Amongst the many artists and friends whom enjoyed the house were Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Mary Callery, Robert Moses, and Le Corbusier.”

“He builds landmarks,” Time Magazine said of Harrison in 1952.

His Long Island house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

1930s british modernism

A modernist round house at the Frinton Park Estate, in Frinton-on-sea, Essex. It was designed by architect Oliver Hill in November 1934, and altered by another group of architects before its completion in 1935 -

“no dusty corners in this house”

An article published in the Portland Journal, on March 23, 1930, describes the history of a round house in Cottage Grove, Oregon:

More than one architect has set forth the advantages of a house so built that the structure has no dark corners to catch dust, but until Joseph Landress of Cottage Grove, Oregon, built such a dwelling no one seemed to have sufficient courage to make such a radical departure from the accepted architectural forms for private homes.

When carpenters began the work of building the round dwelling, some of Mr. Landress’ neighbors smiled a triffle patronizingly and predicted that the owner had no idea how such a house would look among homes of the usual types and that he would soon tire of the place. Some of them inquired jokingly if Landress got the inspiration for his freak residence from a nearby railroad round-house or from the silos of adjacent farms.

Landress took these remarks good-naturedly and assured his friends that he was neither a modernist nor a dreamer, but that his curious house would have many sensible features which cannot be found in any of the traditional types of dwellings with square corners.

And now, with the house completed, the doubting citizens of Cottage Grove admit that a house built on the lines of a silo is not so crazy as it seems and that, even in outward appearance, the unique home is rather attractive. The windows are so placed that light is admitted evenly from all directions and in the daytime every part of the ground floor of the house is adequately lighted. There are no nooks and corners to cast shadows.

. . . The upper floor of the circular house contains three sleeping rooms and a bath, and has fewer windows than the downstairs part because there is no object in flooding the second floor with daylight.

. . . The lower floor of the Landress home is one big living room. A small “ell” attached to the rear of the building contains the kitchen and pantry, so that the beauty of the circular room is not marred by a partition cutting off a portion of the room.

. . . The smooth, continuous wall of the room, broken only by the windows, gives a pleasingly clean-cut appearance. And the circular floor, covered with a large round rug, makes possible an interesting arrangement of furniture that could not be managed in a room square or oblong in shape.

1930s streamline moderne

All I know about this house is what I can see on the postcard -

I wonder if it still exists. I like the casement windows and streamlined cruise ship detailing.

Visitors to Lake Wales, please look for it and let me know!