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Southern California
Buildings with Soul
The Merging of Timeless Designs and Sustainability
by Lance Charles
Isn’t it funny how we sometimes think that because it’s now, it has to be new? We might think that we are at the top of our game and what came before somehow doesn’t matter.
This concept reminds me of a quote from Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New World: “History is bunk.”
And those who do not learn from the past are destined to repeat the mistakes of the past. Another relevant quote: “If we’ve learned anything from history, it’s that we’ve learned nothing from history.”
When I look at a building my eye will quickly take in the exterior and then float over the datum of the windows and doors. I look for rhythm and the clues as to whether the designer had any idea of where he was in time. I can tell by the “language” of the building whether the designer was in the context of the moment. Usually I am disappointed and find that many buildings have a kind of lifelessness; that the designers were probably driven only by ego. This type of isolated thinking will lead them to create yet another lifeless box. This might affect the people who have to live in this box for years and generations, because other, bigger egos allowed this type of building to continue being built and no one had the nerve or the knowledge to say, “No, don’t let them build this trash!”
The standardized shopping mall is a perfect example of lifelessness. Buried behind a vast parking lot (so big you can never even find your car), is a collection of brand name stores ready to suck the money out of your pockets faster than a Dyson vacuum cleaner sucks the fleas from your carpet. You know these stores well: the Mac Store, Macy’s, Crate and Barrel, the Gap.
And then one day it happens, you get to experience some real architecture.
What is it that makes some buildings just sit there and take up space while others are altogether different? The latter are like the finest wine you’ve ever sipped; the most delicious meal ever eaten; the best love you’ve ever made or the most beautiful sunset you’ve ever seen.
The building that first comes to mind when I search for an example of real architecture is a tiny place in Desert Hot Springs California. I had the great joy and honor to know Steve Lowe, the owner of the Lautner Motel, just before he passed away in early 2008. Because of this friendship I was given access to these buildings and I was told in great detail the special meaning they had.
John Lautner was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright and was able to master not only the art of building, but also the use of light. The building I speak of is a small, four-room motel. From the outside it doesn’t look like much. It seems to fit neatly into the landscape. If you drove by and blinked you would have missed it. But when you are inside you are transformed.
It’s about the light, the light, the light.
I have heard stories about architectural students and professors entering those rooms, stripping their clothes off and lying on the beds for entire weekends, perhaps with loved ones, watching as the sun moved slowly around the room, up and over them. As the sun goes down the show has just begun and it’s time for the moon and the stars to have a turn. Lautner put a window just over the bed so that visitors can clearly see the stars (and the moon as it passes over head.) You experience a connection to the planet, the desert and the universe that is timeless. And of course the bed is oriented so that your feet are in line with the rising sun.
I am told that the guests awaken refreshed and relaxed and usually run to the front desk to book the room for the same time next year. Steve said that with very little advertising the rooms were always booked, except at Christmas and that is when I was there.
How Do New Technology and Creativity Work Together?
In my own practice I am very sensitive about such things. I was fortunate to meet Steve Lowe and experience the Lautner Motel just as I was finishing up my own project in Twentynine Palms. Being at the motel gave me peace of mind that I somehow was “getting it right” in my own practice.
Even though timeless designs are beautiful and important, new technology should be used wherever and whenever possible to save money on construction costs; to save energy and to create carbon neutrality by any and all means. It is our duty as designers and architects to find new ways to express the relevance of the buildings we create. Lautner knew about the poetry of a building and its relationship to the land but he had little care or understanding for the energy consumed by his buildings. Energy saving was not a concern in the 1940s and 50s.
Thanks to Steve Lowe and John Lautner my building had a soul. I will work twice as hard to make sure the next one does too.
But as we move into the future using new technology we cannot forget what it is that makes a building come alive—the merging of timeless designs and environmental responsibility and sustainability.
“It is a process which brings order out of nothing but ourselves; it cannot be attained, but will happen of its own accord, if we will only let it. The Timeless Way.”
—Christopher Alexander
For more information visit www.wholearthbuilder.com or call Lance Charles at 818.266.3834.