Lauck House

Marcel Breuer, Princeton 1950

Marcel Breuer built the Lauck House in 1950 in Princeton, NJ on an isolated 16,000-square-foot piece of land.
Breuer's design followed his model of a "house in the garden" commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and exhibited in the museum's garden in 1949.

Breuer's project introduced various innovations that have since become a common practice in the design of a single-family house: the kitchen open to all the living rooms of the house, the children's area with bedrooms and playroom separated from the bedroom. of the parents, various entrances from outside areas of the garden and variable ceiling heights.
The large windows incorporate the surrounding landscape, generating a feeling of continuity and connection between internal and external space.
The south-facing glass facade captures direct sunlight and heat during winter days, while the strong overhanging roof creates shade during summer.

The house was commissioned by New York advertiser Gerold Lauck for his son and wife. In the mid-1980s, a second owner added a veranda and gallery in the southwest corner, extending the roof slope while carefully maintaining the footprint of the original design.