Cinematic Views: John Lautner's Architecture and Masculine Spatial Types

The architecture of John Lautner has had a particular affiliation with male heterosexuality in the 50 years since his buildings first entered the American consciousness. This paper examines the representation of Lautner's architecture in the popular media (particularly film and magazine) as the dominion of stereotypical heterosexual masculinity. The paper considers Lautner's architecture as an example of the bachelor pad type; a peculiar model for architecture that elevates intimate domestic settings (such as the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom) into extroverted platforms for recreation. By transcending the presumed banality of domestic life Lautner's houses unconsciously embody, and even celebrate, male fantasy projecting an architectural model that continues to be promoted by the popular media. However, the paper also notes that there exists a curiously negative and occasionally violent undercurrent in the cinematic representation of Lautner's houses which provides an important alternative means of interpreting mediatised depictions of the "bachelor pad".