Poor Butterfly

For the millions of U.S. families in search of a not-too-expensive house with the maximum of good living and good design, Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art put up a bid. Last week in the museum garden it showed a "suburban" house which had been painstakingly built on the premises.

It was the brainchild of a 47-year-old architect named Marcel Breuer, who made himself known 24 years ago by inventing tubular steel chairs (in Germany's longtime Mecca of modern architects, the Bauhaus school of design). Architect Breuer came to the U.S. in 1937, taught for nine years at Harvard under his old Bauhaus boss, Walter Gropius, before setting up in business in Manhattan.

Breuer had designed the museum's demonstration house to sell for $27,475, not counting the land, the furniture (which he also had a hand in) or the architect's fee. By lopping off the garage and one of the three bedrooms, the job could be had for about $21,960, which would still seem pretty steep to the typical "middle-income family" that Breuer had in mind.

Indoor Drainage. The most startling feature of Breuer's house was the "butterfly roof" which made space for a second-story bedroom under one wing and (by substituting a single indoor drainpipe) did away with outside gutters and drains. Despite such practical advantages, traditionalists might object that the tilting roof gave the inside of the house a slightly seasick air. Like the exterior walls, the ceilings were largely finished with unpainted cypress siding, which had a warm, luxurious look. The floors were of bluestone flagging and designed for radiant heating coils. Breuer, whose knack of combining materials to bring out all their best qualities is much admired by fellow architects, had taken the cold-stone curse off the floors with rugs of hemp matting.

The kitchen, a masterpiece of compact efficiency, was separated from the dining alcove only by a shelf unit with sliding doors through which food and conversation could flow freely. The kitchen also had a clear view of the children's playroom and the play yard beyond. There was no doubt about the convenience of this detail in a home with small children, as long as the children stayed put.

Semi-Private Master. The plate-glass side walls were curtained to insure the fact, if not the feeling of privacy. But the second-floor "master bedroom" could be called only semiprivate; it was separated from the living room by nothing except the chimney, a flight of steps, and a heavy curtain. The master, when the curtain was drawn aside, would be able to survey a large part of his home without -'stirring "from bed, for some walls stopped short of the ceiling, as in a bathhouse, to "suggest spaciousness." However, the top of the fireplace doubled as a stair landing, and the living room itself (mercilessly dominated by a Breuer-designed television set) was cramped.

For all its brilliant details and smart structural economies, Breuer's little house was probably not the answer that most home builders with $27,475 to spend were looking for. Like a lot of the paintings in the museum that loomed above it, Breuer's house was perhaps too uncompromisingly "modern" far its own age.

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