When architects design a house for themselves, the often tense
relationship between clients and builders is usually absent. That is why
in many such buildings the architect-designer's artistic stance and
political position, preferences and antipathies, temperament and
character are more pronounced than usual. Moreover the architectonic
theories, debates and trends of an epoch also leave their traces in them
in a particular way. Building for oneself has a special connotation
under the conditions of migration and exile. Among the most prominent
examples are the private homes of Rudolph Schindler in West Hollywood
(1922), Richard Neutra in Los Angeles (1932), Ernst May near Nairobi
(1937), Walter Gropius in Lincoln, Massachusetts (1938), Bruno Taut in
Istanbul (1938), Ernö Goldfinger in London (1939), Josep Lluís Sert in
Locust Valley, New York (1949), Max Cetto in Mexico City (1949), and
Marcel Breuer in New Canaan, Connecticut (1948 and 1951).