IF YOU WANT TO BUILD A HOUSE
Elizabeth Mock, Robert C. Osborn [Illustrator]
Elizabeth Mock, Robert C. Osborn [Illustrator]: IF YOU WANT TO BUILD A HOUSE. New York: Museum of Modern Art, January 1946. First edition. Decorated, glazed boards. Matching printed dust jacket. 96 pp. 133 black and white photographs and illustrations. Former owners signature to front pastedown. Pages slightly tacky from humidity. Jacket with mild edgewear. A very good copy in a very good dust jacket.
7.5 x 10.25 hardcover book with 96 pages and 133 black and white photographs and illustrations. A discriminating photographic survey of modern architecture with a simply-written analysis of problems in home planning, designing, and construction, with emphasis on reasons for what makes good design. Numerous B&W photos of both exteriors and interiors. Highly recommended, since much of this information is still useful.
Photography by Julius Schulman, Ezra Stoller , Hedrick-Blessing Studio and others.
From the Book: "Modern architecture isn't just another imitative style. It is an attitude towards life, an approach which starts with living people and their needs, physical and emotional, and tries to meet them as directly as possible, with the best procurable means. Otherwise there are no rules. The results will be as various as the range of materials offered, the human problems posed, and the creative talent employed in solving them . . . The most delicate part of your job as client will be the selection of an architect."
- Needed -- A Fresh Approach: Choosing an Architect
- The Question of Size
- Space for Living
- Plenty of Light
- Small Houses can Seem Large
- An Opened House?
- The Use of Materials
- Furniture
- House and Surroundings
- Questions of Quality
- Postscript -- Must Houses be Expensive?
Designers, manufacturers, and artists whose works are shown and/or discussed in this volume include: Philip Johnson, Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, John Funk, Harwell Hamilton Harris, Alice M. Carson, George Fred Keck, Carl Koch, G. Holmes Perkins, John Yeon, Clarence Mayhew, Victor Hornbein, Edward Durell Stone, Walter Bogner, Oscar Stonorov, Constantin Pertzoff, John Lautner, Le Corbusier, Richard Neutra, Paul Nelson, John Porter Clark, Albert Frey, Marcel Breuer, Gerrit Rietveld, Serge Chermayeff, William Wilson Wurster, Gardner A. Dailey, Rudolf Mock, Walter Gropius, Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames, George Nelson, Henry Wright, Theodore Bernardi, Xenia Cage, L. L. Rado, Bruno Mathsson, Philip L. Goodwin, Pietro Belluschi, Alden B. Dow, Paul Thiry, Joseph P. Richardson, Huson Jackson, John Spaeth Jr.,John W Lincoln, Paul Schweikher, W Curt Behrendt, Thomas D Church, FJ McCarthy, Diedrich F Rixmann, Bernard Rudofsky, Oscar Niemeyer, V&S Homsey, Mario Corbett, Dinwiddie & Hill, and others.
From a MoMA press release: “An exhibition which attempts to prove to the prospective homebuilder that a new house need be neither an imitative "architectural portrait" nor an over-specialized, unfriendly laboratory, will open at the Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, on Wednesday, January 9. If You Want to Build a House is based on the forthcoming publication of the same name to be published by the Museum in February, and consists of explanatory panels of photographs and text, photographic enlargements, and cartoons by Robert C. Osborn.
”The photographs and enlargements which have been taken from the book indicate the variety of form possible, as well as the flexibility and adaptability to the individual which is the fundamental advantage of modern architecture. The exhibition labels, based on the book written by Elizabeth Mock of the Museum's Department of Architecture, present a simple, Informal analysis of problems in home planning, designing and construction, and discuss the advantages—and disadvantages—of modern design. Like the book, the exhibition is undogmatic and does not attempt to be a technical treatise but suggests the answers to many of the questions homebuilders must face.
”Specific panels deal with such problems—and their solutions— as Choosing the Architect—Choosing the Land, How Big is a House?, Small Houses Can Seem Large, Division of Space, Living-Play-Study, Outdoor Living. The Possibilities of Maximum Light. How Much Light and Openness Do You Want? etc. The cartoons point up these problems and particularly emphasize false and outmoded solutions and psychological hazards.
”The exhibition, designed by Janet Henrich O'Connell, has been prepared by the Museum's Department of Circulating Exhibitions which willl send it on tour after it closes at the Museum, Sunday, February 3.