Wilfrid Almendra
Killed in Action (CSH #12, Whitney R. SMITH)
2009
steel, iron bars, teflon, cement
150 x 107 centimeters
Unique
The project n°12 (1946) mixes flat roofs, cement structures and wood boards. Wilfrid ALMENDRA combines these three elements in one reinforced concrete sculpture, in which the wood grain framework is visible, and completed by a monumental staircase made of concentric teflon arc of circles. The outstanding iron bars principally recalls the ones which often appear under the decrepit cement and the unfinished houses – iron skeletons and familiar outlines typical of Southern European landscapes.
Wilfrid Almendra
Killed in Action (CSH #13, Alpha, Richard NEUTRA)
2009
plaster, Baviera's stone, wood, silicon, lace
115 x 152 centimeters
Unique
The Case Study House project n°13, or 'Alpha' house (1946), should have been the neighbor of the CSH n°6, or 'Omega' (cf. infra) and in harmony with it. The project consisted in an elegant wood boarded residence, remarkable for its impressive interior / exterior fireplace and for the large shot-through terrace. Wilfrid ALMENDRA uses anew those elements, but imagines the becoming of the house, widely covered by a thick plaster which is typical of the pavilions aesthetic and characteristic of the artist's autobiographical signature.
Wilfrid Almendra
Killed in Action (CSH #19, Don KNORR)
2009
reinforced concrete, plasterboard steel, cement, gel-coat
108 x 102.5 centimeters
Unique
The CSH project #19 (1957) 'proceeds from the idea of a controlled environment in contrast with the surrounding nature; (...) the manmade environment will be here defined by a platform elevated 6" above grade' ('Arts and Architecture'). The design of the project downplayed convenience in favor of formal concerns in both the setting of the house and its relation to its environment. Just like sculptures on a pedestal, various geometrical objects were to be placed on the square platform: an H-shaped house and a garage, both with a flat roof, and a swimming pool, inconveniently set apart from the house – it's in California in the 1950s that pools started to develop in private residences, before proliferating worldwide as an emblematic part of a certain lifestyle standard. Wilfrid ALMENDRA creates a platform of the same height as the one originally planned; therefore disproportionate compared to the other elements, its scale evokes the 'above the street' urban planning very common in France in the 1960s. The pedestal is covered with deactivated concrete paving slabs, a product first used in collective housing before spreading to the terraces of private houses in the 1970s. The house and the garage are rendered through surfaces of plasterboard on metal rails – an industrialized building technique imported to France after WWII –, here coming from the renovation site of a 15th century castle, whereas the blue shape of the pool stands out from the composition. Through materials and shapes, Wilfrid ALMENDRA plays a constant back and forth between the individual and the collective.
Wilfrid Almendra
Killed in Action (CSH #21, Richard NEUTRA)
2009
black metal sheet, mesh, steel, paint
124 x 1072 centimeters
Unique
The project n°21 (1947) bears the same number as a Pierre KOENING house which has been built. Richard NEUTRA's project has rarely has been included among the others. It is the least documented and the most mysterious, only mentioned by the architect in a brief text. Wilfrid ALMENDRA considers this last work to be both the beginning and the end of his project, building lot and tabula rasa, here a black metal sheet - obtained through an industrial process consisting in an oil dip – characterized by a strong aesthetic charge, partly enclosed by a fence borrowed to the SNCF. This fence was used to close an abandoned track where from came the metal sheets made in the factory where the artist found the one used in the masterpiece, thus coming full circle.
Wilfrid Almendra
Killed in Action (CSH #24, Archibald QUINCY JONES and Frederick E. EMMONS)
2009
tiles, steel, reinforced glass, rubber
142 x 73.5 centimeters
Unique
The project n°24 (1961) contributed to a profoundly innovative approach, not only, to the idea of community planning but also to the design of individual houses. Envisioned as a unit of 260 houses on land near Northridge, the master plan provided space for a park and a recreation center for the community made of the sharing of the individual building lots. To optimize the sound proofing and cater the need for privacy, the houses where protected by a seven-feet retaining wall and the floors were lowered approximately two feet below the conventional level. Constructed on a sloping ground, each house was topped by a monumental flat roof consisting in a perforated metal structure, and including an air-conditioning system. Wilfrid ALMENDRA, to whom this architectural radicalism reminds the social constructions' one, imagines a base made of industrial tiles, like the ones often used to plate building fronts when aesthetics considerations give way to durability needs. A steel and reinforced glass roof rises from this base, a totem streaked with a warm rust color. The metal corrosion creates an intensive contrast with the tiles durability which, in spite of his frail aspect, is much more resistant to the passing of time.
Wilfrid Almendra
Killed in Action (CSH #26, KILLINGSWORTH, BRADY, SMITH & Associates)
2009
asphalt, steel, linoleum
91 x 130 centimeters
Unique
The project n°26 (1962) concerned a purified structure pillars / roof, which in the sketches of the original project was conceived to be located on the edge of an impressive black cliff. Wilfrid ALMENDRA cut with a lapidary an impressive asphalt piece from a road, which turned over becomes the lunar ground on which a thick sheet metal, cut by laser, is fixed via thins columns – in short the combination of two radical cuts, the crafty and the industrial one.
Wilfrid Almendra
Killed in Action (CSH #27, CAMPBELL and WONG)
2009
wood, cement, rubber, steel
100 x 104.9 centimeters
Unique
The project n°27 (1963) is the only one that has been conceived on the East coast of United States, it could have been the first one to leave the city and its suburbs for the country and a wooded environment and a pond – becoming an anticipation of the coming change of rural areas. The house was a prototype for mass production of residence made with prefabricated concrete. It consisted in a group of five units, the goal being to allow each unit a direct relationship to the natural surroundings. Topped by pyramidal roofs, the prefabricated concrete modules, required no interior walls or columns, and their shapes contrasted with that of the flat-roofed passageways serving as connectors between them. Wilfrid ALMENDRA does a composition piece in which the origin of each material has a specific sense: the chestnut door of his family house in Portugal, more than 150 years old, becomes the platform; the pyramidal covering of the cement pillars wall, taken from a working class housing development, -and replaced by identical ceramic ones-, becomes the five blocks roofs, and a rubber treadmill strip taken from a Michelin factory becomes the connection corridors between the modules. All at once the artist evokes the history of his family, the memory of the workers and the memory of the residential area bred from a scolding and familiar capitalism.
Wilfrid Almendra
Killed in Action (CSH #4, Greenbelt House, Ralph RAPSON)
2009
plaster, mesh, slate, zinc
148 x 172 centimeters
Unique
All the project n°4 sketches, or 'Greenbelt house' (1945), stage a model family, in which it is usual for the father to come back home in his personal helicopter which would be the common vehicle in a naïf and optimistic perspective of the future. Wilfrid ALMENDRA combines the helicopter blades with the three pavilions which compose the house. While the plaster is crumbling down, the blades metal appears to be the only everlasting element of the structure.
Wilfrid Almendra
Killed in Action (CSH #5, Whitney R. SMITH)
2009
wrapping, steel, cement, idle asbestos, lace, ceramic
138 x 128 centimeters
Unique
The Case Study House project #5 (1945) was implementing the idea of an open house, walls mainly made out of glass abolishing the limits between the inside and the outside of its four pavilions. Noting the utopian aspect of this principle, which in a suburban environment almost certainly ends up with a thuja hedge, Wilfrid ALMENDRA offers a cement barrier as the border between the interior and the exterior. The pavilions themselves become varnished wainscot compartments, a typical material of the 'Do it yourself' approach which characterizes the interior decoration of the 1970s and 80s. Through the transformation of the architecture into interior decoration, a tendency emphasized by the presence of a vase typical of the wainscoting era, the artist reminds us of the fact that often furniture was included in the ‘complete' programs of the Case Study Houses.
Wilfrid Almendra
Killed in Action (CSH #6, Omega, Richard NEUTRA)
2009
galvanized sheet metal, plastic, wood, aluminum, polyurethane
130 x 210 centimeters
Unique
The Case Study House project n°6, or 'Omega' house (1945) should have been the neighbor of the CSH n°13, or 'Alpha' (cf. infra) and in harmony with it. It shows off an industrial sheet metal roof and exemplifies the typical Richard NEUTRA architectural features visible in the slight slope and in the large excesses. The low cost of the construction and the efficiency of the materials corresponded to the purchasers needs. Covered by white light reflecting gravel and made to prevent the penetration of warmth, this roof ensures a very good isolation to the whole construction. Finally the cruciform plan allows the inclusion of four courtyards, each having a specific function. Wilfrid ALMENDRA uses the sheet metal roof principal and imagines the various it could have suffered, possible additions or perforations. He also evokes the four courtyards through a geometrical paving made of four polish polished steel plates, which are reminders of both Carl ANDRE' s theories and Frank STELLA's shapes.
