Friday, August 06, 2010

The Folk Fantasia of Bruce Goff


I have been meaning to post Bruce Goff's Bavinger house for ages. So long that I almost forgot about it,
and then I saw it again in the very nice blog of Daavid Mortl.


I have to admit I find Bruce Goff's architecture to be super challenging, because its sort of ugly-pretty. Goodbad. Funnysad. That sort of thing.
I do appreciate the folsky expressionisim, which like what might have happened if Northern California hippies time warped to Germany in the early 20th century.


















looking at this I cannot believe that I'm living without a crystal garden (great photos here )
or a wooden carved bathtub? imaginary reception desk? suspended seating arrangement?
Whatever you are, I want you.

4 comments:

aaron said...

I live less than a block away from one of Goff's houses, and I must have walked past it a dozen times before looking it up and discovering it was thirty years older than I had assumed. Not only is his stuff charmingly weird, it's also incredibly varied - I found a portfolio of his houses and it's like a list of two dozen different alternative futures.

Andreas Angelidakis said...

indeed.. for more Goff check out the fantastically funky Friends of Kebyar

http://andreasangelidakis.blogspot.com/2007/12/friends-of-kebyar.html

love the dozen alt futures tho

Entertaining Women said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Entertaining Women said...

he last photo is actually the suspended "sunken" living room. The carpet used to be orange, but it faded over time. The second pod that you see behind it was Nancy and Gene Bavinger's master bedroom. The bed was built into the floor of the pod. During the day it was covered with carpet and became part of the floor. The third pod was their son, Bill's, bedroom. The highest level pod was originally Gene's studio. After their second son Bob was born, the studio became Bill's bedroom. Cherry Kay