Ray Kappe
Experimentation with modularity and spatial fluidity, pre-fabrication, solar systems: Low cost and environmentally conscious building designs.
Ray Kappe is the master of warm, modern spaces, clearly expressed construction systems and environmental sensitivity. He is celebrated for his influence on Californian modernism, a style which emerged in the 1950’s.
His work demonstrates refined consideration with heliocentric energy and light play to inform shadow in the spaces he created, as we move through the space it opens and reveals itself through grand layering and rectilinear forms.
Master of warm, modern spaces, clearly expressed construction systems and environmental sensitivity.
The Kappe House (referenced in images) was designed for himself in 1967 on a steeply sloped site in the Pacific Palisades. Kappe created hollow concrete towers to form the foundation so the property could stagger up the hillside.
Large expanses of glass wrap the home, while concrete columns are hollowed to also form skylights for each level.
Ray’s more recent work resurged his earlier experiments with modular, steel-framed pre-fabricated homes that he started nearly 50 years ago. In 2006 he completed the modular Z6 House in Santa Monica, with all components built in a factory to reduce material resources.
Kappe rejected the social norms and had a willingness to explore and maintain moral and ethical values.
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