Ken Kellogg's High Desert House

[Lewis Wadsworth]

The other day I picked up a book called, "Organic Architecture: the Other Modernism" Alan Hess (text)/ Alan Weintraub, (photos), published in 2006 by Gibbs Smith. It's a big, glossy, coffee-table-type book.

I had barely heard of any of the presented architects, except for Goff and Brad Prince, but it's clear that they are all, to some degree or another, heirs or followers of Wright, with everything (including the persecution complex) that entails.

Most interesting of all the projects is the house by Kendrick Banks Kellogg that graces the cover of this book: his 2004 "High Desert House" in Joshua Tree, California. Unlike most of the works presented in the book, this piece does not seem both formally extravagant and oddly dated (shag rugs and conversation pits, anyone?). The Desert House instead looks like something from a reworked version of"The Martian Chronicles"...it's not dated, it's alien, as if it's the final product of an architectural tradition that wasn't just off-the-mainstream, but off-the-planet.

And there are a few images online:

http://www.arcaid.captureweb.co.uk/A...&Submit=Search

http://www.kendrickbangskellogg.com/HDHome1.html

http://eng.archinform.net/projekte/13851.htm

(The architect's own website is a bit...odd. He's not a happy puppy, it seems.)

Notice how the even the furniture in this house, in the best Wrightian tradition, is architect-designed and built-in...of course, here, it crawls up the walls like a giant centipede.

EDIT: this is the image of the house from Kellogg's own page above.

[Larry Bates]

Well,

Interesting, but, can you say Arcosante?

And, he sure doesn't like Italy for some reason.

[Lewis Wadsworth]

Well,

Interesting, but, can you say Arcosante?

And, he sure doesn't like Italy for some reason.

Nor does he like the AIA, at all.

Kellogg says: "Although the ‘architectural school’ taught basic engineering, it also inadvertently taught me what not to do. Architecture cannot be taught. Beauty comes from within. I learned early that license does not make Architecture. Competitions are, for the most part, political. The technology of any time is only a tool. The AIA is composed of those, with and without license, who primarily are in the business of promoting themselves rather than Architecture. And a committee will never be composed of anything more than another level of mediocrity. (from the architect's website)

There's definitely some shared DNA between this and Arcosanti, but I would venture that Kellogg's house is more formally unique than any of the photos I have seen of Soleri's project in the desert (for whatever that is worth).

[Larry Bates]

Nor does he like the AIA, at all.


There's definitely some shared DNA between this and Arcosanti, but I would venture that Kellogg's house is more formally unique than any of the photos I have seen of Soleri's project in the desert (for whatever that is worth).

True enough, but seeing the site of organic architecture made me think of Paulo Solari. I'll see if I can dig up a couple of shots of it. Went through it a couple of years ago because I happened to be passing by it on a road trip. A very "communal" feel.

Larry

[euro_z]

that house looks awesome! very otherworldly though, no tea kettles, no sinks, no chairs, no doors lol

[lavardera]

I am surprised that this house has not made appearances in science fiction movies - its wild.

Looking at the construction and the custom furnishings it strikes me as being outlandishly expensive. It does not look new, but not very old either. Is there any indication of who the owner is? When it was built? Perhaps that is why its been held so close to the chest.

I agree with Lewis' observations in comparison to Arcosanti. Arcosanti, from my memory, has a much more formal geometric ordering - reminds me of FLW's geometric patterning. Where as this house is much more organic if you will in its organization - reminds me more of a seashell.

[Lewis Wadsworth]

No indication of the client, but the project was completed in 2004.

Interestingly enough, that book notes its environmental "goodness"...thermal mass for cooling, heating, shading, etc.

[primocordara]

What do you guys think of this "organic" architecture?
Just yesterday I watched an interview to Siza, were he claimed " the human need for geometry to organize space", quite the contrary to this organic ideals I guess.
My problem with "organic" is that it seems like an aestetic interpretation of ecological, enviormentaly friendly, natural, but in the end might not be so.

I do value it as a sculpture, an artistic expresion, but I think architecture is more than that...

Kind of reminds me of the attitude of the early modernists, like Le Corbisier using the "machine aesthetics" but with brick and mortar, as oposed to Buckmister Fuller's real intentions to make "living machines".

[gaffaman]

What do you guys think of this "organic" architecture?
Just yesterday I watched an interview to Siza, were he claimed " the human need for geometry to organize space", quite the contrary to this organic ideals I guess.

I think most "organic" architects have some sort of geometric ordering system in their projects. The forms are not arbitrarily arrived at. In the case of this house, the forms are so sculptural that the ordering system isn't obvious, but I bet it's there. It's easier to see in some of his other projects.

[Lewis Wadsworth]

Did everyone see this, from the architect's site?

In the high desert on the south slope of a large rock outcropping appears a giant bird from some prehistoric time. 26 gracefully arranged wings of gently curved concrete forms, all resting on cantilevered, shaped, concrete platforms, span up to fifty feet and ten feet across. This home is designed for energy gains from the thermal mass. The wings are separated by glass to allow for natural light and the various frequencies caused by California earthquakes, and is designed 30% above the highest earthquake standards there are. The on-job design-build details in this home include the specially shaped fine-crafted wood, specially treated steel, individually cast bronze door trim and latches, semi-sand-blasted doors in implied Jurassic designs. Better than museum quality, there are no better built-in art works in the world. I predict one day this home will be the entrance to the adjacent National desert park. This home is designed for the life style of the owners. To save the natural landscape, the home is separated from the subterranean garage below by a 200 foot rock path that winds up and around the existing boulders. For those who prefer not walking, an electric conveyance carries people and goods up and down the path. The site is thus enhanced by the design.

Doesn't this seem a little rife with contradictions? I wish there was a better plan of this structure than that tiny sitemap on Kellogg's site.

[joHanneum Z]

The site with the building as attachment.

As the building doesn`t have to reflect other buildings (`parts), urbanism thoughts in the surroundings because of its nearly standalone for me the building more has the chance to go in dialogue with the landscape.

[lavardera]

Doesn't this seem a little rife with contradictions? I wish there was a better plan of this structure than that tiny sitemap on Kellogg's site.

Please elaborate - am I seeing/reading the same contradictions as you?

[Lewis Wadsworth]

Please elaborate - am I seeing/reading the same contradictions as you?

A home designed for the life style of the owners (who? what? is this like a desert vacation home for Great Cthulhu when R'lyeh gets dull?) is imagined as the entrance to a national park (I can't see the feds ponying up to purchase this...I've worked for them). To save the natural landscape, an underground garage is separated form the house...but connected by some sort of conveyor belt or people mover. (It's at least not obvious, but how much was the natural landscape disturbed for that?)

Things like that.

But if you go through Kellogg's site, this is true of everything he writes. The man's thoughts and motives seem bizarrely compartmentalized...I don't think he sees contradictions in what he designs or writes. And he's really, really bitter about the profession...I was tempted to write him about this house, but it occurred to me that he might respond even to a compliment with invective. His words and website imply an "end-game" extreme version of the sort of paranoid-prophet mind-set that characterized FLLW, just as this house seems like an end-game development of Wrightian "organic architecture."

I'll write a bit more later...busy day.

[lavardera]

Ok - I am seeing the same. I think the contradiction in his save of the natural landscape via an underground garage lies in the tremendous disturbance that would have been required to build the underground garage, vs a modest parking area. I think he sees a modest parking area as an ongoing blight, where as his garage is now out of sight. Which is or was more destructive?

[Lewis Wadsworth]

I've been trying to develop a better understanding of my response to this house, and unfortunately aside from the book in which it was published (listed above), the inevitable two or three FLLW biographies we have all read, and a monograph on Bart Prince, I don't have too much of a critical sense for Wrightian Organic. But gaffaman has posted a link to a fanatical "organic architecture" site in another thread, and I thought I would copy it here (thanks gaffaman).

http://www.architetturaorganica.org/...anica/HOME.htm

Of course, they have Greg Lynn listed among their "organic" icons...which suggests a certain lack of discrimination. Lynn and Kellogg don't seem to have much in common, other than the English word "organic" used to describe their architecture. I feel like quoting Andre the Giant to whoever decided to lump them together: "I don't think that word means what you think it means."

(Actually, the color scheme, fonts, and general layout of that website also suggest an eye-popping lack of discrimination...but it's still a nice set of links to architects I have never heard anything about.)

[euro_z]

To save the natural landscape, an underground garage is separated form the house...but connected by some sort of conveyor belt or people mover. (It's at least not obvious, but how much was the natural landscape disturbed for that?)

maybe he means the aesthetics of the landscape, an underground garage is completely hidden from view and therefore not interfering with the natural aesthetic, an above ground garage would be very obvious. Also his building almost disappears into the landscape, it blends with the surroundings very well..

[Lewis Wadsworth]

maybe he means the aesthetics of the landscape, an underground garage is completely hidden from view and therefore not interfering with the natural aesthetic, an above ground garage would be very obvious. Also his building almost disappears into the landscape, it blends with the surroundings very well..

Indeed, I'm sure that is what he means. He's confusing aesthetics with environmental impact.

[Lewis Wadsworth]

I just remembered something:

The 1980's televised version of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. The series itself, except for the Martian war masks, was a distinctly watered-down version of the classic book (for a pre-teen, I was really well-read in certain areas of literature). But the Martian "ruins"! They were these strange shapes plopped in the middle of deserts, uninterpretable as anything. And they sat in or next to these miraculous waterfalls and pools...just like this one in Kellogg's house (it's hard to see here...there's an non-obscured copy of the photo in the book).

I foresee that I'm going to have to track down a copy of that mini-series now. There don't seem to be any images of the sets online.

So, with this house Kellogg is "channeling" a 1980's television version of a visionary 1950's science fiction parable. How's that for an obscure critique?

Or perhaps, more likely, there's something utterly out-of-place and out-of-planet in common between the old miniseries and this relatively new house.

[lavardera]

Have you tried IMDB for images?

[Lewis Wadsworth]

Have you tried IMDB for images?

Yes...they have images of a few other items, but not the "ruin" sets.

(Those Martian war masks are still sort of terrifying, I have to admit.)

I did find a DVD set...I just have to decide if I want to spend the money on this.