The Stahl House (Case Study House #22) was designed by Pierre Koenig in 1959 as part of the Case Study House program. Situated in the Hollywood hills, the house is a simple L-shaped pavilion overlooking the city of Los Angeles. The layout of the house turns its back to the street, with all major rooms facing the swimming pool. Access to the entry is gained from the carport via a footbridge over the pool made from precast concrete blocks.

One of the most radical and minimal houses in the Case Study program, the Stahl house was framed using only stock steel components. This allowed for the living wing of the house to be completely open, enclosed only by glass walls and steel columns. Together with the concrete footings cantilevering over the cliff face, the house created a dramatic and heroic setting famously captured in Julius Schulman’s photographs.

Photos: Julius Schulman

Floor Plan

Josh “Shag” Agle is one of my favourite lowbrow artists. Hailing from America, Shag is best known for his flat perspective, vivid colour paintings depicting lounge and tiki-themed scenes.

His paintings are visually influenced by avant-garde animation of the early fifties and sixties and usually have a subtle sense of humour to them leaving the viewer asking the question, “What’s actually going on in this scene?”

To me his paintings have a cool nostalgic feel, depicting the jet-setting high life of the 1950’s. Another great subtle feature in some of his paintings is his reference to classic mid-century modern houses. A number of his paintings have featured the work of Australian and American mid-century architects such as Robin Boyd, Harry Seidler, John Lautner and Pierre Koenig.

For more info visit www.shag.com

Above: Robin Boyd House II – Robin Boyd

Above: Robin Boyd House II – Robin Boyd

Above: Rose Seidler House – Harry Seidler

Above: Rose Seidler House – Harry Seidler

Above: Malin Residence “Chemosphere” – John Lautner

(I’ll put money on it that the photographer in this painting is a nod to the modernist architectural photographer Julius Shulman who famously photographed the Stahl House)Above: Stahl House (Case Study House #22) – Pierre Koenig (Photo – Julius Shulman)

Related Post:

• Stahl House (Case Study House #22) (1960) – Pierre Koenig