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The Modern Interior and the Excitation Response: Richard Neutra’s Ocular-
centric Phenomenology

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DOI: 10.5923/j.arch.20120203.02

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Architecture Research 2012, 2(3): 27-35
DOI: 10.5923/j.arch.20120203.02

The Modern Interior and the Excitation Response:

Richard Neutra’s Ocular-centric Phenomenology
Michael J Ostwald*, Raeana Henderson

School of Architecture and Built Environment, The University of Newcastle, NSW, 2308, Australia

Abstract While typically characterised as a canonical Modernist, Richard Neutra’s design theory repeatedly refers to
the central role played in his architecture by the works of experimental psychologist Wilhelm Wundt. In the late Nineteenth
Century Wundt used laboratory experiments to demonstrate that human responses to sensory stimuli were both immediate
and predictable. Despite Wundt’s importance in many fields, architectural scholars have tended to disregard Neutra’s fas-
cination with Wundt’s complex physiological and biological theories. However, this paper revisits Neutra’s design theory,
accepting, prima facie, his belief in the causal relationship between physiology and psychology to suggest an alternative
reading of his architecture. By tracing the influence of Wundt’s ideas on Neutra’s design theory, the paper identifies a sin-
gular ocular-centric, phenomenological tendency in the resultant architecture. The implications of this approach are then
considered in the context of three facets of Neutra’s domestic architecture in general and the Kaufmann Desert House in
particular. Computer models and diagrammatic analysis are used to support this reading of Wundt’s influence on Neutra’s
design.
Keywords Richard Neutra, Phenomenological Analysis, Interiority, Modernism

he attended the lectures of Wundt, who was at that time

1. Introduction formulating a way of isolating and measuring bodily re-
sponses to external stimuli (like heat or sound). Whereas,
Despite his reputation for producing stark, white, geo- over the following two decades the scientific world grew to
metric designs, which otherwise appear to conform to early embrace Wundt’s vision, Husserl rejected this paradigm and
Twentieth Century Modernist ideals, Richard Joseph Neutra began to formulate a counter-position that relied on the
repeatedly described his architecture as serving to choreo- primacy and irreducibility of human experience. Husserl’s
graph the sensory and emotional responses of the human philosophy of phenomenology argued that human knowl-
body[1-3]. Long before architects became interested in the edge and awareness is necessarily reliant on the experience
philosophy of phenomenology, Neutra called on the theories of the world through all of the senses[7]. Husserl’s student
of pioneering psychologist Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt, to Martin Heidegger developed this theory to support an in-
argue that the most important purpose of design was to con- quiry into the nature of being and existence[8]. However, in
trol the senses to clarify the body’s position in space. Su- the hands of architectural scholars, the spiritual dimension of
perficially at least, this view has much in common with those Heidegger’s philosophy was translated into an argument for
of Christian Norberg-Schulz[4] and Juhani Pallasmaa[5]; the existence of a transcendent quality in certain buildings or
amongst the key proponents of architectural phenomenology places. While it no longer bears a strong connection to its
in the late Twentieth Century. However, these authors have philosophical antecedents, in contemporary use architectural
been highly critical of both Modernism and of the privileging phenomenology is typically presented as a search for au-
of vision that accompanied the rise of functionalist thinking thenticity or truth, through the production of architecture that
in architecture[6]. The origins of this division, between the evokes a deep, sensory appreciation of place, space or tec-
theories of Neutra and those of the architectural phenome- tonics. A position which has several elements in common
nologists, can be traced to the conflicting views of their with Neutra’s call for architecture to strategically use space
predecessors; respectively Wilhelm Wundt and the phi- and form to shape each individual’s sensory response to their
losopher Edmund Husserl. place in the world.
While Husserl was a student at Leipzig University in 1879 The division between contemporary architectural phe-
nomenology and Neutra’s theory of sensory choreography
* Corresponding author:
[email protected] (Michael J Ostwald)
(called “biorealism”) is essentially one between, respectively,
Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/arch poetry and science. This is not to say that Neutra’s ideas lack
Copyright © 2012 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved poetry nor that Norberg-Schulz’s, for example, have no
28 Michael J Ostwald et al.: The Modern Interior and the Excitation Response:
Richard Neutra’s Ocular-centric Phenomenology

recourse to science. But rather, that Neutra’s ideas privilege the eye, as the primary sensory apparatus, which Neutra
a particular scientific or clinical foundation for his design believed shaped the actions of the body. Second, the time
theory while those of the architectural phenomenologists taken for the body to react to external stimuli. Thereafter,
tend to valorise the poetic and the metaphysical. In much the Neutra’s imagined narrative of the body’s involuntary exci-
same way that both Wundt and Husserl were fascinated with tation in response to the visual properties of one of his de-
the role played by the human senses in understanding the signs is analysed, finding similar themes to those identified
world, but resorted to different ways of achieving their on- in the previous review of Wundt’s influence. In the penul-
tological goals, so too Neutra, despite obvious differences timate part of the paper three examples of Neutra’s possible
with Norberg-Schulz and Pallasmaa, cannot be so easily adaptation of design to reflect his extrapolation of Wundt’s
detached from the phenomenological tradition. theories are traced in his domestic works, before particular
This paradox, as several scholars have noted, begins to examples from the Kaufmann Desert House are described.
explain why Neutra occupies such a contradictory place in These three examples include a planning strategy, a formal
Twentieth Century architecture[9-10]. He was a designer approach and detailing practice. The interpretation offered
whose work appeared to be defiantly modern but who was by this section of the paper is supported by several com-
more interested in the way the human body reacts to space puter-generated images, isovist views and diagrams that
and form. Moreover, Neutra’s theories were rarely easily broadly reflect Neutra’s arguments about the eye and
accessible, with Kruft describing Neutra’s books as “repeti- movement. Because the primary purpose of these computer
tive”, “unsystematic” and “hard to read”[11 p432]. The lack images is to illustrate the text of this paper, the full detail of
of clear connection between his ideas and his buildings their generation is not provided, but references are given for
served to exacerbate this problem, leading to a proliferation the techniques that have been used. Thus, these images and
of interpretations of his architecture with little regard for the figures support a particular interpretation rather than pro-
theory underlying them[12-13]. It is through such scholar- viding a universal proof. Just, as the evidence for architec-
ship that Neutra’s architecture has been repeatedly catego- tural phenomenology has been criticised for being
rised as a type of socially informed, technologically enabled, self-referential and arbitrary[17], so too this reading of
response to the zeitgeist. However, more recently researchers Neutra’s theory of how people will react in space is similarly
have begun to take Neutra’s theory more seriously and in conjectural. However, the purpose of this paper is not to
doing so have identified aspects of anthropology and Freu- justify a design theory or approach, or to debate the merits of
dian psychoanalysis that are deeply significant[14-15]. Fur- phenomenology. If Neutra’s claims about the way the body
thermore, Neutra’s dislike of elevations – he typically pre- will react in space are taken as argumentum a fortiori, then
sented perspective views and plans to clients – has triggered this approach is a reasonable way to posit a reading of one of
renewed consideration of the visual qualities of his archi- his buildings.
tecture[9],[16]. In all of these recent cases there has been an
attempt to reconcile Neutra’s complex psychological and
physiological theories with his architecture. 2. Ocular-Centric Phenomenology
The present paper, which is an extension of this recent
research, proposes a reading of Neutra’s theory and archi- Early Twentieth Century physiologists described the in-
tecture that is premised on reinstating the significance of voluntary muscular contraction that occurs in reaction to
Wundt’s ideas. This research is not concerned with whether external stimulus as a reflex action or excitation response[18].
Neutra’s (or Wundt’s) claims about the human body and An example of a reflex action is when a crossed leg is lightly
sensory perception are accurate, but only that they have been struck on the knee, the leg will respond with an immediate
used to make a particular case about the relationship between tremor. This is because the quadriceps muscle in the top of
the body and the environment. By using Wundt’s theories as the thigh contracts in response to the pressure, triggering the
a catalyst, it is possible to focus the research on a set of lower leg to move. A similar, but more complex reaction was
narrow but repeated assertions in Neutra’s writings about thought to occur when the eye reacts to something it sees. As
architecture. Through this new analysis, the centrality of the Wundt explains, we can readily understand that reactions to
eye in Neutra’s theory is affirmed, not only as enabler of light impressions can be released in the mesencephalon,
sight but also as a predictable physiological system. By without any participation of the principal path; released as
focussing on the importance of the eye in shaping bodily reflexes to the oculomotor system, by way of the trans-
responses to space and form, the immediacy of the interior ferences effected in the quadrigemina, and as reflexes to
experience in Neutra’s domestic works is stressed. Viewed other muscles of the body, by way of the other connex-
in this way, it is possible to interpret Neutra’s domestic in- ions.[19 p90]
teriors as a type of a laboratory apparatus, attuned to con- In this instance, Wundt theorised that the responsive cells
trolling excitation response. at the base of the eye (quadrigemina) send a message to the
This paper commences with a review of a critical passage midbrain (mesencephalon), which in turn signals the
from Wundt’s work, which Neutra was later to repeatedly muscles surrounding the eye, and at the base of the eyelid
paraphrase as an explanation for his design decisions. In this (the oculomotor nerves) to control the way the head is facing.
section two important themes are identified. First, the role of Such a reaction to visual stimuli was not only thought to be
 Architecture Research 2012, 2(3): 27-35 29

immediate, it was also assumed to be pervasive; that is, all with the belief that the eye can trigger involuntary responses
people with normal neurone and muscle connections would in the body and the second is about the time taken for this
react in a similar way. When Neutra began his architectural reaction to occur.
studies in 1911 at Vienna’s Technical University, he dis- One of Wundt’s most seductive propositions was that “the
covered a copy of Wundt’s famous Principles of Physio- reflex to the muscles that move the eye-ball is connected[…]
logical Psychology wherein this passage about the eye, body with contraction of the corresponding muscles for movement
and human experience is contained. Sylvia Lavin describes of the head”[19 p294]. By inference, Neutra argues that this
this text as a most influential work, “to which Neutra refers means that vision is a necessary precursor to movement.
countless times”[20 p35] in his design theory. Barbara While, on a quotidian level, this is almost always true, Neu-
Lamprecht[9] similarly observes that Neutra was repeatedly tra actually means that if the eye is involuntarily drawn to see
drawn to Wundt's text and Neutra attributed his abiding something, this will trigger the head to turn towards that
interest in “biological and behavioral heritage” to “the visual stimuli, which will in turn change the direction the
writings of[this] influential German physiologist”[21 p30]. entire body is moving in. Thus Neutra’s famous maxim is;
However, despite all of Neutra’s references to Wundt, “we ‘see not merely to see’ but see in order to act upon vi-
architectural scholars have tended to ignore this connection. sion”[23 p13]. Or alternatively, vision “will activate a per-
Alternatively, if they have broached the topic of Neutra’s son's locomotor urges”[23 p14]. In these claims, Neutra
singular view of phenomenology, they have interpreted it makes the first step towards conflating the eye and the body,
from a Freudian psychoanalytical perspective. But, as a tactic that was to later become a standard part of his design
Thomas Hines notes, in his youth Neutra rejected Freud’s rhetoric. Because the eye both guides the body and activates
theories drawing instead “on the more scientifically based the most powerful of its responsive urges, Neutra often dis-
revelations of Wilhelm Wundt”[10 p12]. According to Lavin, tilled the body and its actions into the responses of the ocular
to a young Neutra “Wundt's discussions of nerve endings, nerves and associated muscles. In essence, the human body
ganglia, modulations of the retina, and sensory receptors[…] was interpreted as a mass of responsive tissue in the service
was both progressively precise and reassuringly familiar”[20 of the eye.
p35]. It is through Wundt’s work that Neutra “sought to The second facet of Neutra’s design theory about the eye
identify the myriad steps involved in transferring a physical involves time; a factor which plays a paradoxical role in the
object in the world along the chain of perception until it work of both Wundt and Neutra. With the assistance of new
became first a sensation registered in the brain and then a laboratory apparatus in the late Nineteenth Century it had
feeling”[20 p35]. become possible to measure smaller units of time that had
In a view that parallels Wundt’s theories[19][22], in his previously been dismissed as effectively instantaneous.
seminal 1956 book Life and Human Habitat, Neutra argues However, despite these advances, the technology was still
that, not able to measure response rates with any accuracy[25-26].
various and intimate are the nerve connections between This situation was problematic because Wundt understood
the emotional tract of the thalamus, the middle brain, that all sensation was transmitted through a sequence of
and those highly developed associations of the cerebral muscles and nerves before a reaction could occur. He rea-
cortex, the sensory reactions, the muscle activations, soned that this response could not occur without some pas-
and the secretion of internal glands, all of which in in- sage of time, but in practice the time interval between
tegration have deep meaning to our life and determine stimulus and response was so small as to defy measurement.
psychosomatic rhythm, tempo, and intensity.[23 p22] The solution was to imagine the reactions as occurring in the
From this conceptual foundation, Neutra developed the present. This was effectively a compromise between ob-
proposition that the human body is a responsive system and served and measured behaviour or a way of reconciling the
that certain sensory experiences will elicit immediate and relationship between the theorised understanding of the
predictable excitation reactions. Neutra goes on to argue, like nervous system and the apparent immediacy of the reflex
Wundt before him, that the human eye’s “influence on con- response. Neutra’s development of this idea is similarly
sciousness seems stronger than that of all our other sense fraught with compromise. For example, Neutra understood
receptors”[24 p138]. Furthermore, Neutra stresses this posi- that that body’s response to vision is “by no means instan-
tion when he proposes that “the human eye is much more taneous”[24 p181]. However, in practice, Neutra described
developed and more sharply focused than the ear”[24 p138] muscular responses as occurring in parallel with the moment
because it is “equipped to be stimulated not only by light and of stimulation. In order to accommodate this blurring of time,
colour but by form and movement as well”[24 p181]. While Neutra began to imagine the body experiencing and reacting
Neutra does not ignore the other senses – describing both the to stimuli in a sequence which was continuously occurring.
olfactory and auditory in some detail –he repeatedly privi- Thus, the body was thought of as not only reacting in the
leges the eye in his writing. In order to translate this way of present, but also as existing in a perpetual present state. That,
viewing the human body and its senses into a theory which in hindsight, the body always exists in a perpetual present
could support design, Neutra highlighted two qualities of the state is not important[25]. What is more interesting is the
psycho-physiology of the eye. The first of these is associated way in which these concepts – the role of the eye as surrogate
30 Michael J Ostwald et al.: The Modern Interior and the Excitation Response:
Richard Neutra’s Ocular-centric Phenomenology

body and as agent of the present – were to find a role in both reflex response are accepted as a primary mechanism shap-
Neutra’s design theory and in his architecture. ing his approach to design, then it should be possible to find
Neutra identifies four types of ocular-centric reflex re- evidence for their use in his architecture.
sponses; a base state, a “defence reflex” and two excitation
responses, “startle” and “orientation” (figure 1). Each of
these behavioural patterns is a result of visual-spatial stimuli
that cause involuntary reactions in the body’s nervous sys-
tem. This belief is not only founded on Wundt’s ideas, but on
anthropological research which argued that human physi-
ology is a result of evolutionary processes derived from
primitive human survival instincts. Thus, the “fittest” of the
human species are those who have developed a type of con-
stant sensory awareness of their surroundings that is condu-
cive to survival[2-3]. It is this concept that Neutra ultimately
adopts to justify a transparent architecture; one with appro-
priate prospect or surveillance potential. However, before
examining the connection to architecture in detail, the four Figure 1. Diagrammatic and hierarchical representation of the types of
reflex response mapped to the Kaufmann Desert House examples in this
types of reflex situation, which make up the core of Neutra’s paper. (A) directional; (B) defence; (C) orientation and startle
evolutionary thought, are further considered.
In any interior, a primary or first-order, directional reflex
governs the normative position of the body, the head and the 3. Designing Reflexive Architecture
eyes in a space. This reflex could be thought of as equating to
the longest internal vista in a space; the primary vector in- In Life and Human Habitat, Neutra outlines the principles
tuitively selected by the body for maximising orientation. of biorealism; a theory which he had primarily developed
However, various forms of visual stimuli will cause the eyes through his residential designs. In this work he identifies the
(then the head and the body) to depart from this line and look home as the single place on “the surface of the globe which
or move in a different direction. A secondary or second-order, we get to know intimately”[23 p21]. Neutra believed that the
involuntary defence reflex is the force that causes this constructed environment is “full of[…] visual collision, of
change in direction to occur. This reflex is innately associ- turmoil to the eye, and of neglected optical litter” and that it
ated with peripheral vision; a physiological system which is the most intimate spaces of the home which are often the
has the capacity to put the body’s nervous system at ease or cause of “visual conflict”[23 p166]. In response to this
to alert it to danger. According to Neutra, the defence reflex situation he set out to produce designs that could shape the
exists “for the purpose of alarm in the vision field, so that we combined physical and psychological responses of the body.
can turn quickly to any point within this visual realm wher- In practice, this meant that he not only presented his designs
ever something suspicious in movement or colour or as perspective drawings, an approach which accentuates the
brightness might occur”[23 p13]. Moreover, peripheral vi- centrality of the eye, but he also provided a parallel, imag-
sion affects eye movement leading Neutra to state, “it almost ined account of the experience of the design. These accounts
continuously causes us to reset and turn the eyes in quick, typically focussed on the visual connections between the
small movements whenever we take in a wide interior or body and form. For example, when describing the experience
broad exterior”[23 p13]. of a house, he provided the following imagined account.
In contrast, the orientation reflex is a third-order of re- As we approach we raise our head to recognize the house
sponse which is concerned with the way in which the eyes number, and in the motion we possibly glance over the roof,
are drawn towards external stimuli for the purpose of locat- its configuration and skyline. As we tilt our head upward, the
ing the body in relation to the source of the new stimulus. equilibrium or inner ear organ immediately functions and
Thus, Neutra explains, auditory stimulation (sound origi- combines the manifold record of our body position with pure
nating from the side or back of the head) triggers the face to vision and its ever-changing perspectives. We roll our eyes
move, because it “has its eyes, its visual receptors, lodged in by means of that ingenious muscle cluster around our eye-
the front of the head”[24 p161]. This orientation reflex oc- balls which is intricately and neurally tied up with those tools
curs because “the receptor areas are turned for best exposure which we use unconsciously for turning and tilting the
to the stimulus or in the direction of its impact”[24 p219]. head.[…] Now, with our hand touching the knob of the en-
Neutra also associates the brightness or contrast of light to trance door, tactile and thermal experience of conductive and
the orientation reflex, which he identifies as a Pavlovian polished metal comes to us through the fingers and palms of
response, arguing that “a noise, a flash of light, makes a dog the hands, while at the same time the muscle senses faithfully
and us as well sit up.”[24 p219]. Neutra’s final type of re- report from below about the rubber mat on which we have
sponse, the startle reflex, is also a third-order reaction which stepped.[23 p13]
is a more instantaneous and dramatic version of the orienta- In this account Neutra immediately connects sight with
tion response. If Neutra’s descriptions of the three orders of physical response; “we raise our head to recognize the house
 Architecture Research 2012, 2(3): 27-35 31

number.” Furthermore, by referring to a house number, mann Desert House (figures 2, 3 and 4).
Neutra infers the presence of a suburban street and, as the
viewer’s gaze rises over the roof, they observe nature, which 3.1. Pinwheel Plan
possibly suggests an affluent neighbourhood. All of this Neutra was an advocate of the “pinwheel” floor plan, a
information constructs a picture, through the visitor’s cruciform spatial arrangement which is found in many of his
imagined sensory response, of a desirable setting. Notably, houses[9-10][27]. In such plans, each quadrant typically has
Neutra’s description is constructed from a collective, uni- a circulation edge with a solid wall to one side and a glass or
versal perspective; magnified through the use of the open wall on the opposite side. Thus, each quadrant has a
first-person, collective pronoun “we” throughout. dominant visual orientation that is controlled by the location
Of similar importance in Neutra’s narrative is the use of of screens or walls. This planning strategy is evident in the
present tense to describe physical reactions as they occur. Moore and Kramer houses where specific “transparent walls
This is not only a literary conceit, but it reinforces the idea open upon a panoramic view of mountains and valleys”[12
that universal anatomical reactions are constantly occurring p18]. Neutra argues that such planning directly responds to
in parallel to the visual experience of environmental condi- human visual needs, claiming, “the architect would have no
tions. Thus, Neutra identifies that the muscles around the eye chance to impress human beings in space if there were no
are connected to muscles of the head; recognising that both peripheral vision”[23 p13].
eye movement and head movement are inseparable. Because
Neutra argues that vision precedes any movement of the
body, then external visual stimulus must first prompt the
combined reactions of both the muscles of the eye and of the
head. Hence, in his description of the approach to the house,
sight always precedes reaction, although the response is
effectively instantaneous, occurring in a perpetual present
state. Thus he describes how, “we raise our head” and
“glance over the roof.”
The presence of gravity and the depiction of perspective in
the account confirms the eye’s complicity in the loss of the
body. First, the “eyes[…] discern the ceiling, walls, and
window frames in perspective related to the horizon”[23 Figure 2. Kaufmann Desert House, Palm Springs (1946), Richard Neutra
p18]. The presence of the horizon affirms the role of the body
both resisting gravity and as armature of the senses. Neutra
theorised that “gravitational sensibility[…] deeply affects
our appreciation of[an] architectural environment”[24 p53)].
The body’s internal responses to gravity also combine with
the “visual impressions” recorded by the eye, creating
“oblique perspectives” through which the design is experi-
enced[24].
On the pages of his seminal books, these imagined ac-
counts were presented alongside photographs, plans and
perspective drawings of Neutra’s houses suggesting
graphically that the designs somehow illustrated the accounts.
Nevertheless, meaningful connections between the text and
Figure 3. Kaufmann Desert House, Perspective view
the designs are rare, with most operating at a very general
level. For example, if the text stressed the importance of the
landscape, a photograph might be presented of a building
against a natural backdrop. Similarly, if the text described
the role played by an entry in framing the experience of the
living room, the accompanying image would be of the door
to the living room. Without further annotation or description
the connections implied by this juxtaposition of images and
words remains abstract. However, there are three partial
exceptions to this rule, associated with a specific planning
strategy, a form-making approach and a curious detailing
practice. Each of these three are considered hereafter, first as
applied in various different buildings, before their presence
is traced in one of Neutra’s most famous works, the Kauf- Figure 4. Kaufmann Desert House, Perspective view
32 Michael J Ostwald et al.: The Modern Interior and the Excitation Response:
Richard Neutra’s Ocular-centric Phenomenology

Figure 5. Parallel perspective (upper) and isovist (lower) views of the

Kaufmann Desert House, annotated to identify predicted reflex response Figure 6. Parallel perspective (upper) and isovist (lower) views of the
Kaufmann Desert House, annotated to identify predicted reflex response
The Kaufmann Desert House is not only one of Neutra’s
most well known works, but it has also previously been the The single longest visual path through the interior of the
subject of a comprehensive visual and geometric mapping Kaufmann Desert House connects the servant’s wing,
analysis which informs the present reading[28-29]. In this through the entry foyer and living room, out to the pool
house, the entry doorway provides one of the strongest di- terrace[29]. This directional reflex path crosses the previous
rectional reflexes; a path initially defined by a long garage one in the doorway between the entry and the open plan
wall which then steps into the plan, before continuing living area. The key moment in this house occurs at this
through the dining area and by way of a semi-enclosed intersection, not coincidentally the site of several famous
courtyard to the guest wing. While traversing the early stage photographs of the interior[9,16]. While the primary direc-
of this route, the visitor is enclosed within a stone-lined tional reflex draws the visitor through the living room, and
corridor, but thereafter a clear visual path leads across the along the edge of the terrace, a series of substantial second
dining area, parallel with a long stone wall, and towards a order reflexes pull the eye, and the body, towards the pool
small, vertical orientation reflex view, to the left of the and the landscape beyond. The pool itself, like the courtyard
original directional path (figure 5). However, soon after paving in the previous example, steps out from the cruciform
passing only the direction path, and a peripheral orientation walls at the heart of the plan, drawing the eye and accom-
view to the south-east, a major vista, elicited by the sec- modating the body’s movement along the new path[29].
ond-order defence reflex, between the arms of the pinwheel Neutra argues that it is possible to choreograph human
plan draws the body to look towards the distant mountains in experience, using space and form to cause the eye “to jump
the north-east. The courtyard surface is paved in a stepped to the perception of accentuated points or features in the
pattern to accommodate the body’s involuntary passage design, and thus the eye, the head, even the whole body will
towards this vista. Walls or banks of louvres tightly control turn readily towards such attraction”[23 p13]. This is the
all other views along this original path including framing case in the two examples of vision and movement in the
(figure 6). Kaufmann Desert House.
 Architecture Research 2012, 2(3): 27-35 33

3.2. Planar Juxtaposition parent walls”[12 p16]. This approach is especially evident in
the corner of the living room adjacent to the pool terrace. As
described in the previous section, in plan this space is notable
for having a directional reflex parallel to the walls of the
house, and a defence reflex angling the body to the south east
of this line of sight, across the terrace itself. The horizontal
roof over this area, which other than a single supporting
column (described in the following section), is sited above
the intersection of two glass walls. From the interior the roof
is extended to the east, narrowing the cone of vision and
directing the view through a large pane of glass accentuating
the original directional impulse[12]. However, the roof does
not extend beyond the line of the glass wall to the south,
meaning that the primary directional reflex is tightly framed
by the roof, while the defence reflex path is more sudden,
twisting the viewer to the south, possibly causing Neutra’s
third-order, startle or orientation responses (figure 7).

3.3. Dematerialising Columns

Hines considers the idea that, because Neutra was “striv-
ing for industrial effects to suggest the possibilities of rep-
licable mass production” he painted many surfaces in his
designs silver; a practice which might be regarded as “’dis-
honest’[…] according to modernist moral canons”[10 p131].
However, if technology is of less importance than the body’s
response to visual stimulus, then Neutra’s well-known prac-
tice of painting particular columns silver, might have another
explanation. For example, some of Neutra’s residential de-
signs, including the Beard House (1935) and the von Stern-
berg House (1936), required protective coatings as they were
entirely steel-framed and these may have been painted for
practical reasons. However, when using stainless steel clad-
Figure 7. Parallel perspective (upper) and isovist (lower) views of the
Kaufmann Desert House, annotated to identify predicted reflex response ding, such as in the Brown House (1955), Neutra particularly
chose to use silver “only in those places where the sightline
Neutra’s use of the flat, horizontal planes in his houses is is affected”, a decision he claimed was specifically in order
another common formal strategy. This approach is typically to “dematerialize” the structure[qtd in 9 p34]. Furthermore,
used in combination with pinwheel planning strategies to in his later works, such as the Clark House (1957), the silver
control the vertical extent of a person’s cone of vision. For paint was applied in accordance with sightlines generated
Neutra, these horizontal planes situated over transparent only from within the home “because it was the view out that
walls “allow a wider scope for peripheral vision”[9 p48] mattered”[9 p34]. In both cases it is clear that the silver paint
which controls the defence and orientation reflex responses, was not applied to artificially conform to modernist expec-
thereby connecting vision and movement. An example of tations but was motivated by the desire to shape the visual
this is found in Neutra’s Bailey House (1946) which features impact of the structure on the body’s reflex system. Thus, in
a horizontal roof and floor to ceiling glass walls. This com- Survival Through Design Neutra maintains that in certain
bination of forms lead the client to observe that the design circumstances the visual dominance of columns could pre-
“does not just sit here passively” rather it “acts on[him] in a vent the “natural gratification in feeling visually unimpeded
most beneficial manner”[qtd in 10 p235]. Attracting atten- and in being free for action, at liberty, not caged and incar-
tion from visitors, Bailey also records that the house caused cerated”[24 p219].
physical responses from such people who were always “ad- In the previous two sections, on the pinwheel planning
justing their gazes” within the home. Bailey even wondered strategy and floating roof planes, a critical location in the
whether, as Neutra proposed, the visitors felt the same way Kaufmann Desert House was identified where the longest
about the home as Bailey did, asking “is it that the building visual path across the plan, corresponding to the first-order
acts on them too[and] tells them some archetypal truth which directional reflex, is momentarily diverted, through the use
sets them free?”[10 p235]. of horizontal and vertical forms, by a second-order defence
McCoy describes the Kaufmann House as a structure reflex, and thereafter by a third-order, startle or orientation
dominated by “horizontal planes[which] hover over trans- reaction. This progressive transition from first, to second to
34 Michael J Ostwald et al.: The Modern Interior and the Excitation Response:
Richard Neutra’s Ocular-centric Phenomenology

third-order reactions in the body is reliant on the combina- Yet, throughout his life, Neutra remained committed to
tion of uninterrupted glass walls, from the south and east producing an architecture for an eternal present, a type of
sides of the living room, which meet in the corner of the endless, instantaneous reflex response apparatus, where the
space. These glass walls share a single joint, which is also the eye (and the body as extension of the eye) responds to a safe,
only structure supporting the overhanging roofline, a silver controlled environment; a place where fear is minimized and
painted, steel and timber post (figure 8). This moment in the delight is choreographed. Neutra’s architecture is not that of
house is singled out by Lamprecht as the most important in a physician advocating wellness –the other traditional inter-
the entire house because “[t]o stand there is to be engaged in pretation – but of an experimental psychologist, tuning his
a physically charged moment”[9 p179]. This moment, which spatial laboratory to achieve excitation control.
previous scholars have identified as being central to the While past research has acknowledged Neutra psycho-
experience and presentation of the house[9-10,12,16], is a logical proclivities[14-15,20] the particular ocular-centric
rare instance in Neutra’s architecture when his phenome- phenomenology that Wundt promulgated has not previously
nological agenda may be traced, by way of his imaged cho- been considered in this way, nor has an attempt been made to
reography of human visual experience, in the design and trace evidence for this position in his architecture.
detailing of a single project.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
An ARC Fellowship (FT0991309) and an ARC Discovery
Grant (DP1094154) supported the research undertaken in
this paper. All figures by Michael Dawes and Michael Ost-
wald.

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Figure 8. Parallel perspective (upper) and isovist (lower) views of the

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