Projects by Name

Peter Ustinov, the actor, playwright and director, asked Breuer to design a house for him after seeing the Staehelin House in Feldmeilen, near Zürich. Breuer and his associate Robert Gatje provided a variation on the binuclear house format with a large glass walled living and dining area sheltered underneath a double-hyberbolic-parabaloid concrete shell roof. Flat roofed volumes of stone and glass housed private spaces such as bedrooms, a library and study. Tension between architect and client prevented the construction of the house. The clients were unhappy with the higher-than-expected costs associated with the unusual roof, and the architects were frustrated by the Ustinovs’ requests for changes to the design. Breuer based two later house designs around a hyperbolic-parabaloid roof. The first for José Soriano was also stymied by building costs, necessitating the substitution of a more traditional butterfly roof for the hyberbolic parabaloid of the original design. Breuer was finally able to build a version of the Ustinov House for Louis Saier in 1972.