Angelica Fuentes, The Schindler House

More than perhaps any other example of early Modern architecture in California, the Schindler House in Los Angeles epitomizes "architecture´s role as a critical art, either as a commentary on how we live in this city or as a model for how we might." Its claim to fame lies not only in its architectural expression of an experimental lifestyle – which was itself an attempt to transcend (social) conventions – but also in the way that it functioned as a "utilitarian object" for an aesthetic daily life practice.

These days, some 85 years since its construction, the Schindler House serves...