California Arts & Architecture and Postwar Domestic Architecture: The Design for Postwar Living Competition, 1943

Abstract

The World War II was decisive in the experimentation with American housing, driven by new postwar needs and technological advances that emerged during this period. In response to this situation, John Entenza, editor of California Arts & Architecture magazine, launched the “Design for Postwar Living Competition” in 1943 with the aim of gathering innovative ideas on domestic space from some of the leading architects of the time, such as Eero Saarinen, Raphael Soriano or Ralph Rapson. The objective of this study is to analyze the different proposals submitted to this competition in order to understand the process of change in postwar housing and its influence on subsequent projects. The aim is to establish the invariants of these designs, which incorporated prefabricated units based on the concept of the mechanical core, as well as others that explored the technification of the home and the use of new materials developed during the conflict. These issues will take shape in innovative functional typologies, including Marcel Breuer's first sketches of binuclear dwellings, presented as a possible response to the demands of the families of soldiers returning from the front. This diversity of experimental proposals allowed a deeper exploration of the new postwar way of life and raised, years later, to the Case Study House Program, which, unlike the Design for Postwar Living Competition, reduced its experimental nature to focus on the construction of modern shelters that became landmarks in the hills of Los Angeles.