July 28 – September 8, 2018
Curated by Douglas Fogle and Hanneke Skerath
Neutra VDL Studio and Residences
Summer 2018, the historic Neutra VDL Studio and Residences in Silver Lake became the home of the Paris and Berlin-based design studio BLESS (Desiree Heiss and Ines Kaag) in a project curated by Douglas Fogle and Hanneke Skerath. BLESS No. 63 Neutra Dasein (“Dasein” being the German word for “being”), follows in the footsteps of Worker‘s Delight and included several architectural and design interventions into Neutra’s house that mesh the architect’s ideas about health and modern living with their own philosophical take on living in the present moment. Looking at the optimistic architectural vision that was offered by Neutra’s modernism and reinterpreting it through their own contemporary lens, BLESS investigate and expand on the architect’s ideas about the house as a therapeutic structure. The project’s name, Neutra Dasein, flows naturally from the influencing presence of Neutra’s work and his approach to design which valued architecture’s psychological support of the human being over its outward appearance. BLESS shares this outlook in their work.
