Lamel House [1953]

Koenig’s Lamel House, more than his other early works, gained traction in the architectural sphere (though Koenig did not hold the title of ‘architect’ himself) with the assistance of articles published within Arts and Architecture, San Francisco Examiner and Living For Young Home-makers in 1953. A small 93m² footprint with a primary composition of glass and steel, this was, however, far from clinical modernism with Margaret Stoval writing: ‘there is nothing cold and desapacible in this contemporary home.‘ Certainly, the oak tree surround and the stark slope assisted Koenig’s fusion of the Organic with the Modern and the Lamel stands as a remarkably concise, low-cost portrait of purported future home-making.