226 A RUDOLF SCHINDLER GEM

Following an eight-year restoration, designer Pamela Shamshiri now lives in the Richard Lechner House high in the Hollywood Hills. «Historical houses can support modern lifestyles, while embracing the past»

«There was a time when I would talk about Rudolf M. Schindler as if he were family. I constantly asked myself: ‘What would he do in this case? Would he approve?’». Faced with trying to strike the right balance between professionally restoring the work of a visionary mid-twentieth-century architect and creating a functional house for her family, Pamela Shamshiri often found herself talking to - and even fighting with - a ghost. Born in pre-Revolution Iran in the 1970s, Shamshiri’s childhood was spent playing with her brother in their father’s seven-storey furniture showroom. «I remember that each floor was dedicated to a different part of the house and that my father was infatuated with Italian design. Growing up surrounded by Castiglioni, Ponti and Colombo surely had an influence on me. That’s where it all began». Years later, Shamshiri, her brother Ramin, and their business partners Roman Alonso and Steven Johanknecht founded Commune, the LA design firm that has drummed up quite a bit of success for the unique ability to rethink interiors and residential style. Subsequently, the two siblings branched out on their own with the launch of Studio Shamshiri. «We both come from a background in film; a sense of narration is what guides us. I like the idea of interior design as a portrait of the client and architecture as the identifying pillar of the house, revealed layer after layer. I’d say we’re a multidisciplinary design studio built on experience». In 2008, pushed by her desire to preserve a historical building, Shamshiri bought the Richard Lechner House, designed by Schindler and nestled high in the Hollywood Hills. «I only wanted an authentic, intact old house and I knew I wanted to live in the hills. Schindler’s creation fit these requirements perfectly». Unfortunately, the eight previous owners had suffocated the initial design under 60 years of ‘improvements’. Layers of plasterboard covered the original fireplace and plywood walls. The incredible matchboard ceiling was hidden under sixteen layers of paint and Schindler’s made-to-measure ergonomic furniture had disappeared over time. «It was terrible. The soul of the house had been gutted», Shamshiri said with a sigh. «For years, I beat my head against the wall, giving in to frustration: ‘Why can’t I seem to furnish this space?’. The central living area radiates outwards from the hearth, symbolically placed on the ground. Schindler had anchored this fulcrum in stone, then expanded the house upwards and outwards, shaped like a ‘V’. There was no dining room in the original plan. The architect wanted meals to be eaten around the fire, so he made asymmetrical ergonomic sofas and small carts to serve food and drinks. All the original furniture was designed and crafted by Schindler to bring his vision to life and, so it would seem, to challenge the home’s owners. Armed with photographs of the original project, floor plans found in an archive in Santa Barbara County and unstoppable determination, Shamshiri completed a nearly impossible eight-year restoration. In the end, she managed to recreate the architect’s aesthetics and even figured out how to meet the needs of a modern family. «It was a very slow process, in which I felt like the cobbler whose children have no shoes. The work went forward only when we had the time, so it all happened gradually, when my commitments at Commune and day-to-day life allowed for it. Then, each component required some sort of customisation. You can’t just throw any old furnishings in a Schindler house; there are only a few pieces that really work. He didn’t conceive of the presence of furniture, or art for that matter. He believed the house should be able to exist on its own». What was the take-away from this restoration? «Respect for the past. Look at the way people lived and designed with intelligence and an open mind and keep what’s