1. ARCHITECT I PLACE+PROGRAM I SPACE+ORDER I CONSTRUCTION+EXPRESSION
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01 Case Study House No. 4, the “Greenbelt House”
02 Floorplan of “Greenbelt House”
Case Study House #4, “Greenbelt House”
Designed 1945
Never executed
Approximately 1800 square foot, including roofed interior “greenbelt”
Widely considered one of the most progressive of the Case Study Houses

2. ARCHITECT I PLACE+PROGRAM I SPACE+ORDER I CONSTRUCTION+EXPRESSION
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01 Ralph Rapson
02 Rapson’s Glass Cube
Ralph Rapson was born in 1914 in Alma, Michigan. He is one of the world’s oldest practicing architects, and also one of the most prolific. His work is predominantly in the Modernist style, but Rapson also held a deep appreciation for vernacular and traditional building types. Rapson was educated at the University of Michigan and Cranbrook Academy of Art under Eleil Saarinen. Rapson led the architecture department of the New Bauhaus School in Chicago and practiced in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Stockholm, and Paris before becoming head of the architecture school at the University of Minnesota in 1954.
Some of Rapson’s most visible projects include the United States embassies in Stockholm and Copenhagen, both 1954, the Pillsbury House, 1963, the Guthrie Theater, 1963, the Cedar Square West housing complex, ,and Rarig Center, 1971.
He also designed furniture and accessories for Knoll Furniture in the 1940s, took place in the Case Study House program, and had his own furniture line in the 1950s.
As of 2007 Ranson’s office, Ralph Rapson & Associates continues to work on a variety of projects.

3. ARCHITECT I PLACE+PROGRAM I SPACE+ORDER I CONSTRUCTION+EXPRESSION
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01 Early diagram of interior courtyard scheme
Case Study House #4 was based “on the premise that it must create its own environment—and it must look completely in rather than look out.”
The house reduced to a microcosm Buckminster Fuller’s Autonomous Living Package (an artificial environment created under cover to shelter great numbers of people)

4. ARCHITECT I PLACE+PROGRAM I SPACE+ORDER I CONSTRUCTION+EXPRESSION
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01 Late study for Case Study House #4
Architecture, “Ralph Rapson Rules.” March 15, 2005.
“Dymaxion House.”
“Ralph Rapson.”
Hession, Jane King. Ralph Rapson: 60 Years of Modern Design. Afton Historical Society Press: Afton, Minnesota
“Rapson Greenbelt by Weiler.”
“The Glass Cube.”
McCoy, Esther. Case Study Houses: Hennessey and Ingalls, Inc: Los Angeles, CA

5. ARCHITECT I PLACE+PROGRAM I SPACE+ORDER I CONSTRUCTION+EXPRESSION
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01 Exterior of Greenbelt House
Single family
Single-story: living-dining, kitchen, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths
Two pavilions: public and private
02 Public and Private pavilions, bisected by greenbelt

6. ARCHITECT I PLACE+PROGRAM I SPACE+ORDER I CONSTRUCTION+EXPRESSION
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01 Wall Types: Solid, Opaque, and Operable
02 Model suggesting how nature could be brought into the greenbelt
Integration of inside and outside with “greenbelt”
“It seems fundamental to bring nature within the house—not in small, pretty planting areas, but in a large scale that will do justice to nature.”
--Ralph Rapson
Adjustable louvres below the glass controlled the amount of light and heat in the in the interior courtyard
All interior walls except those surrounding the bathrooms could be folded up to open up the house to the courtyard

7. ARCHITECT I PLACE+PROGRAM I SPACE+ORDER I CONSTRUCTION+EXPRESSION
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01 Late study proposing parking underneath the house
02 Late study proposing parking underneath the house
Designed for a hypothetical city lot in a built-up neighborhood
Only case study house not specified for an open suburban lot
All of the rooms were positioned towards a central glass-enclosed courtyard, which provided a focal point for all of the rooms, a built-in view, and privacy from the neighboring houses
Late studies considered elevating the house to provide parking underneath, although the final design was only story and had parking beside the house

8. ARCHITECT I PLACE+PROGRAM I SPACE+ORDER I CONSTRUCTION+EXPRESSION
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01 Open floorplan
02 Kitchen Diagram
03 Public/Private Diagram
Open plan
Kitchen is the “heart” of living activities, so it is positioned to give direct visual control over entire house
Two parallel pavilions, public and private, bisected by “greenbelt”
04 Building Diagrams

9. ARCHITECT I PLACE+PROGRAM I SPACE+ORDER I CONSTRUCTION+EXPRESSION
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01 Postwar Americans pursuing leisure-time activities
02 Model suggesting how nature could be brought directly into the house
Bringing nature inside the house would help to overcome the disadvantages of the city lot and would offer a built-in view while giving the family a space in which to pursue healthful leisure-time activities
Kitchen: emphasis on functionalism, efficiency, and space articulation—large amount of storage and counter space, room for deep freezer, washer and dryer, ironing board, etc.
Beds and storage units in bedrooms were completely mobile
Furniture will be designed by the architect and kept lightweight and mobile
Bright, textured fabrics used inside to compliment the lively façade
Greenbelt: could be planted, or could have emphasis on space for additional living—pool table, small pool, etc.
03 Initial interior relationship diagrams

10. ARCHITECT I PLACE+PROGRAM I SPACE+ORDER I CONSTRUCTION+EXPRESSION
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01 Section showing the four basic functions of the house
02 Wall Section
Wood or steel post and beam framing
03 Post and beam framing system

11. ARCHITECT I PLACE+PROGRAM I SPACE+ORDER I CONSTRUCTION+EXPRESSION
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01 Detail of folding wall
02 Perspective of bedroom opening up to greenbelt
No fixed interior walls except those around the bathrooms
The use of folding walls permitted each area complete privacy or physical and visual enlargement of the entire enclosed space

12. ARCHITECT I PLACE+PROGRAM I SPACE+ORDER I CONSTRUCTION+EXPRESSION
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01 Louvres of greenbelt roof/ slats over exterior glazing
The floor would be warmed by either radiant heat under glazed tile or by a circulating hot-water system under a concrete pad
Adjustable louvres below the glass controlled the amount of light and heat in the in the interior courtyard
Wooden slats covered exterior glazing for shading

13. ARCHITECT I PLACE+PROGRAM I SPACE+ORDER I CONSTRUCTION+EXPRESSION
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01 Study of the roof section
Wood or steel frame, depending on the family’s budget, painted light grey
Facade of prefabricated panels: a flexible, interchangeable combination of fixed or moving panels of glass (opaque or clear), plywood, and brightly painted Cemesto board
Plaster ceilings, painted off-white
Frosted glass ceilings with concealed fluorescent light in bathrooms
Cool-lite wire glass or thermag semi-vacuum insulated glass roof over “greenbelt”
Stainless steel countertops, sliding wood cabinets
Greenbelt: extensive plantings, very little, or completely paved, as the family saw fit
02 Elevation showing various materials

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01 The Greenbelt House constructed at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 1989
02 Influence of the greenbelt in Edward Killinagsworth’s architecture
Prototype
Unfortunately, the house was never built. There were questions of budget and aesthetic sensibilities.
However, it was constructed at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 1989 for the exhibition Blueprints for Modern Living: History and Legacy of the Case Study Houses
It also influenced several later designs:
Edward Killingsworth designed interior courts reminiscent of “Greenbelt”
Rapson submitted an updated version of his Case Study House #4, which he called The Greenbelt, to the Dwell Home Invitational in 2003.
The public responded so favorably to the updated home that Wieler is selling a series of Rapson Greenbelt homes, improved with almost 60 years of experience in architecture and design and updated to take advantage of the latest modular construction technologies. The Greenbelt is available in several different configurations, and is typically built in a factory then delivered and assembled at your home site.

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01 Updated versions of the Rapson Greenbelt available through Wieler
02 Updated versions of the Rapson Greenbelt available through Wieler