102. Memories and Legacies of Richard Neutra with Raymond Neutra
Original Drawing by Tori Haynes
“Design, the act of putting constructs in an order, or dis-order, seems to be human destiny. It seems to be the way into trouble and it may be the way out. It is the specific responsibility to which our species has matured, and constitutes the only chance of the thinking, foreseeing, and constructing animal, that we are, to preserve life on this shrunken planet and to survive with grace.”
Richard Neutra from Survival Through Design
What was it like to grow up in the Neutra household? What memories of Richard Neutra’s early and practicing life live on in his children? This episode explores the idea of legacy and memory with Raymond Neutra, youngest child of famous Mid-Century Modern Architect Richard Neutra.
Timestamp Outline
1:00 Introduction to Raymond Neutra, youngest child of Richard Neutra
1:16 Life and work of Aditya Prakash, new monograph book
1:45 Neutra Archive: The Neutra Institute for Survival Through Design
3:20 Frank Wilkinson, instrumental in the founding of public housing in Los Angeles
3:39 McCarthyism, a period in 40s and 50s U.S. history that describes the heightened suspicions of the U.S. government against suspected Communist sympathizers.
5:50 Survival Through Design manifesto: “Design is the cardinal means by which human beings have long tried to modify their natural environment, piecemeal and wholesale. The physical surroundings had to be made more habitable and more in keeping with rising aspirations. Each design becomes an ancestor to a great number of other designs and engenders a new crop of aspirations.” Richard Neutra from his book Survival Through Design
9:00 Vienna, Billy Joel
10:00 Memories of Vienna
10:45 Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem
12:30 Socialist Worker’s Movement
13:00 Habsburg Crown Jewels
13:10 Fin de Siècle
14:30 Aalto, Barragán, Soriano, Eames
16:45 Bruce Goff, John Lautner, Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles and Ray Eames, Richard Neutra, Jean Prouvé, Le Corbusier
20:00 discussion of Neutra Institute past and current work
28:00 What was it like growing up with Richard Neutra as a father? VP
40:00 The question of how to manage a father’s legacy
