Under the Influence: Harry Weedon's Villa Marina and Richard Meier's Ackerberg House
“Sometimes we have to explore the past to find inspiration for the future. At its most noble, architecture is the embodiment of our civic values.” – Norman Foster
The central themes of Modernism have remained remarkably consistent and still have resonance in today’s residential architecture.
Showcasing some of the beautiful black-and-white photography from our Directors’ new book, Ornament is Crime, this week we’re considering the continuity in Harry Weedon’s 1930s Villa Marina in Llandudno and Richard Meier’s 1986 Ackerberg House in Malibu.
British architect Harry Weedon is most widely known for developing the signature Art Deco style of the Odeon Cinemas over the course of the 1930s. A rare residential commission, Weedon personally designed Villa Marina at the height of his commercial success in 1936. Highly influenced by the International Style, the design also referenced the Streamline Moderne aesthetic that was emerging in the period and characterised so much of Weedon’s commercial work.
While undoubtedly an evolution, completed 50 years after Villa Marina, Richard Meier’s Ackerberg House demonstrates a similar play of curved and rectilinear forms and balance of horizontal and vertical space. There is further continuity in the streamlined railings and original window proportions of both residences.
As Meier observed, “We are all affected by Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Alvar Aalto, and Mies van der Rohe. But no less than Bramante, Borromini, and Bernini. Architecture is a tradition, a long continuum. Whether we break with tradition or enhance it, we are still connected to that past.”
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