Frank Lloyd Wrights Architecture Style: A History

point-blank Lloyd Wrights architecture Style A HistoryHow fundamental is Frank Lloyd Wrights Architecture?Although Frank Lloyd Wright would be considered a practiti superstarr that embraced untold of what came to be vex sexn as modernism and the international style, itself a sp atomic number 18 and functional movement, most of his dissemble contains elements of the extreme1, tantalisingly original and un-definable which softens the edges and adds richness to what would be considered pure form and clean edge. This is in addition to a aboutwhat primal self- state native architecture, the general principles of which he followed for the rest of his professional life. Lind nones that (for instance) the Prairie Style makes are epitomes of Wrights organic declarations of fundamental principles, which were practised amidst the years from 1900 to the beginning of World War sensation. She reiterates that his definitions changed through his life, commenting that a definition of organic architecture that he gave in 1952 was more appropriate to the Usonian stick outs than the earlier Prairie Style ones. She does also invoke that his fundamental principles were interpreted in a variety of expressive styles, notwithstanding(a) that he never deviated from them. (Lind 1992 29-31). Nevertheless, the evolutionary trip that Frank Lloyd Wright pursued in his design and labor of what stand as some of the western earths most recognised and notable structures covers a foray into organic, from both an incorporation of his organic philosophy, from a motif hint of gaze, as well as the deliberate inclusion of both elements of the environment such(prenominal) as orchestra pit and timber, to the bitipulation of environment and building to create an organic mass that is essentially, ultimately building in the international or modernist style. His early work was positioned at a point whither the international discourses in architecture were battling amongst the mass produced and the hand made, reactionary to the production lines of the late nineteenth century industrial Revolution. Throughout his life, Wright certainly saw himself as practising architecture using an organic soil, as he declared in a 1958 television interviewBut organic architecture, which is the architecture of disposition, the architecture base upon principle and not upon cause. Precedent is all real well so long as precedent is very well but who knows when it is very bad? Now thats something to guard against in architecture- know when to leave your precedent and establish one.(Meehan1984 83-4). This was a declaration made in the late 1950s that right away sits in the context of a variety of many other architectural definitions of the philosophy. Indeed, the mere definition of the architectural applications of organic appears problematic2. Whether his declared philosophy had meaning in his buildings, and how his definition of organic relates to the buildings he com pleted is the comparative exercise. In approaching this, how this central philosophy, developed over the years, affected his approach to the buildings that he created, forms the bosom of my password when I consider specific examples. In addition, one housenot look at a central tooth root such as the quality of the organic in his architecture, without being able to appreciate the context in terms of materials available, the influence of the Boston Orientalists3, Nipponese arts and architecture, and his dimension towards nature and its incorporation on a number of levels.The philosophyThis stance that Wright held, where architectural precedent is mostly meaningless, and that the reality of the site determines the dampeniculars of the building to be constructed is mostly articulated in the series of interviews televised in 1958. Here, in a series on a Chicago network, two half hour programmes of Herit get on with hosted by William MacDonald discussed the Philosophy of an arch itect and constitutional Architecture.(Meehan 198475)Wright is voluble about the manner in which modernism and organic interface. Modern architecture, he declares, began as a striving to break drink down the cuff, a form characteristic of the ancient and traditional architectural paradigm. It is put down that originally his heads regarding the modernist movement were derived from enthusiasm that later waned when he realised that the sign ideas of extension of the cut did not necessarily have any greater impact on the environment. (Meehan 1984 59) Whereas the new idea was to eliminate the box and let everything that was in go outward and associate with its environment. So environment and intimate and life itself buzz off as one. Glass and stigma and architecture became what we squawk modern. Isnt it? So, to get the real idea of the thing weve got to use some word like organic means integral, of the thing, now and preceding from the interior of it outward. And, so there is something exterior chosen and utilize for effect. Therein lies the essential difference between what we call organic architecture and what is carelessly called, for the lack of a better term, modern architecture. (Meehan 198490) With regard to his production of buildings where glass predominated, the material was regarded as a manner of connecting with the grace, rather than a barrier or sign of an ugly modernity. Elements that define contemporary architectures purporting to be modernist, such as simplicity were still very such(prenominal) part of Wrights ideal, with the paring down of the complicated to provide surfaces that had a life of their own and could be embellished or otherwise.He saw that an intrinsic connection with material and ornament was fundamental to the production of specific buildings and part of the responsibility of the architect. Giedion sees his work is being the sole definer of his philosophy, and that words cannot begin to express where he came from or what his intentions were (Giedion 1959 412) His comment to MacDonald, the interviewer on this occasion, regarding site was Well, it would seem from this that with this organic(architecture) choice of site would not exclusively be extremely important but would, in part, in part at least, determine the form or forms of the building. (Ibid 90). Indeed, the value of the site was deemed so important that not only did clients require his input, but also the office of the building to the natural landscape painting would be such that were the building to disappear, the landscape would be poorer for it. (Ibid 91) Throughout his life, Wrights attitude towards his organic architecture was to evolve and mature, thus one finds definitions, which he was fond of creationly declaring, often slimly contradictory.The Japanese influenceThe organic nature of the Japanese architectural form, siting and ornamentation was, contentiously, an integral part of the defining of Wrights ideas and designs. Tallmadge, (in Nute 2000 3)4 commented in 1927 that Wright had derived that intimate liaison between art and nature which makes his work sink into and be confused in the embrace of rock and shrub and tree. This was supported by Behrendt who declares the connection between the Japanese houses that are fitted into the landscape that the building almost imperceptibly blends with nature, the same tendency towards an organic structure (Ibid 4)Early on in his long career, connections with the Japanese culture were made, and these possibly had one of the most enduring philosophical contributions to his outlook. Initially, the customary culture of Japonaiserie5 that developed out of the Exposition of 1851, and supported by the Arts and Crafts and Ruskin in Europe, trickled through to the States6. Manson sees initial introduction to the Japanese being at the point of preparations for the Chicago Fair of 1893, where Wright was busy with the Transportation create for Adler and Sullivan. Pa rt of the exposition, a Japanese Imperial Government display of a Fujiwara Period Temple and its associated embellishment and furnishings, constituted the first wholesale introduction to the Middle West of Japanese Art and architecture. For Wright, the Japanese bring out was the confirmation of a dawning curiosity. (Manson 1984 34) Lind describes this building as Known as the Ho-Ho-Den, its fluid piazzas were covered by a broad, nurseing roof with generous overhanging eaves. Light poured in from all sides. The walls moved. Opening up spaces, releasing the box. (Lind 1992 27) Manson goes on further to note that It must be conceded that there is an affinity between Wrights concept of architecture, as it was to develop, and the art of old Japan. Whether this affinity amounts to actual indebtedness is a moot point and one which Wright has incessantly hotly debated. (Manson 1984 35) 7Whilst work on the Unity Temple (1905) in oak Park, Illinois, connections with the Japanese Ambass ador resulted in his being sent The Book of Tea by Lao-Tse, which articulated concepts that he had been considering for a while, particularly on this project. The principle of his statement derived from Lao-Tses the reality of a building is neither the walls nor the roof but the space within assisted him in defining the planning of the Unity Temple in such a manner that this could be achieved. Frustrations where he suggested that this human relationship between the interiors and the life that was led in them had not populateed for the put up five centuries was partly solved. (Meehan 1984 77). Further connections were established when a decade later he visited Japan on commission to build what was to fetch the Imperial Hotel, (Tokyo) constructed by the Mikado for his visitors. This had the secret ingredient of stigma that could be used in tensile situations, and responding to the mettlesome earthquake environment, became lauded as it stood throughout the great earthquake in 192 3. (Meehan 1984 15)The incorporation of the organicThe impact of Owen Jones book, a seminal Victorian work in the order and typic compartmentalisation of exotic detail, The Grammar of Ornament 8is seen by Manson to have possibly been an early influence, as whilst he was working with Silsbee, he is known to have made a hundred tracings of ornament from Jones book. (Manson 1984 21). However, gaining inspiration from the direct forces of nature as an influence in his work was instilled at an early stage, whilst still working for Sullivan.His need to have a direct involvement with the tactile and textural natural environment is mentioned by his son in the undermentioned passageOne Sunday morning he had on the table beside him a group of shells, conchs, turbans, clams, pectens, cowries, murexes and volutes. He pointed to the shells and told us to observe how this one germ of an idea for housing a creature in the nautical could take so many shapes. He noted the intricate fluting and s culptured patterns on assorted shells, the wide range of colours and designs, and how no two shells of even the same substance were identical. (Eric Lloyd Wright in Dunham 1994) This similitude was continued by Wright into the discussion of an oak tree and its manifest units. Nature will show you the way to build. (Dunham 1994 8-9) Dunham notes himself that Nature played a major role in the designs of Wrights buildings the nature of the client, the society, the geographical location, the materials and the qualification of the workmen. (Ibid 16). McCarter reinforces this need for experimentation with form and material by saying that He would stop work each day in the studio, sending his draughtsmen out into the nearby fields to collect wildflowers, which he would then arrange.. (McCarter 199766). Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging was usually the result and was situated for comment or criticism in his studio. His continual flirtation with the elements of Japanese archit ecture, in definition much connected with the landscape, natural materials and a eldritch philosophy again reinforces this incorporation of the organic elements of nature.MaterialsA short discussion of materials is important at this point as not only were the indigenous materials of a region intrinsic to the aesthetics and feeling of a building, but the possibility of new material stretched boundaries which made much of his work possible, and further enabled the possibilities of the organic materials that were used. Importantly, as in the Imperial Hotel (Tokyo, 1905), the use of morphologic steel that had strength in tension meant that the structure could be reinforced, and to that degree match the landscape that it inhabited. Another example is the development of pre-cast concrete products, which made elaboration and decoration of internal and external surfaces more possible, thus intensifying the levels of detail and organic expression of, particularly, his houses built in the 1920s. (Fleming et al 1980351) Also, the raking organic form of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, 1960) could not have easily been achieved without the use of modern materials in particular, structural steel and concrete. (Ibid 352)More importantly, it was Wrights attitude towards the material that was to prove so important in his philosophy. His mechanical press that the tactile qualities of the material have to be ascertained through handling and use is often quoted. ..a man cant do much in architecture unless he gets his hands into the mud of which the bricks are made. (Meehan 1984 105) But, the intrinsic life of the materials is what makes them and determines their positioning in the building and the landscape. We are learning now that materials themselves all live- that stone has character, that brick has character, wood character that they all have characteristics that may become alive in the hands of the inventive artist through sympathetic interpretation in desig n, (Wright in Meehan 1984 60)The early yearsManson suggests that much of what happened in Frank Lloyd Wrights early life and the upbringing that he had influenced the singularly independent character that he became both as a person, and as an architect. (Manson19841-2) A strongly defined Welsh ancestry, together with a father that initially was forceful and With a certain ferocity he had taught young Frank, by the age of seven, to play Bach upon the piano. (Ibid 2) His father later forsakeed the family, leaving his mother, a very integrated and determined person whose character is intimately bound up with the development of her son (Ibid 3) in care of Frank and his siblings.His early professional years are seen as being up until 1910 (Manson 1984) just after he left to work in Germany for a short period in what Larkin called his Exodus and New date of prolongation(Larkin 1993 105). These included an initial apprenticeship under Silsbee, then a significant and influential period with Louis Sullivan, who was to guide his early ideas to a large degree.Frank Lloyd Wrights association with Sullivan from 18889 situated him in an office environment that feed much off the contemporary architectural environment, and in the words of Wright, were considered radical and the only moderns of the time. (Meehan 1984 12) Sullivan took the idea of the high rise building to unprecedented limits and could only have encouraged the idea as to the limitlessness of boundaries in his student. Not only was he responsible for this physical and material influence, as Sullivan was emphatic about the connections between mankind and the cosmos, and the need for a building to be intimately connected with its natural environment. (Menocal 1981 3)Frank Lloyd Wrights scale and studio (Oak Park, Illinois, 1899-1909) can be considered the epitome of this early period10, Wright moved his office into his home in Oak Park in 1897 and was to be his operating base until 1909. This house was purp ose built for him and his family, and itself existed as an organic structure, being continually altered and added to throughout the course of the family living in it. A geometric basis provided the form of the building, which, contrary to his later work, was roofed with a steep pitch. McCarter asserts that much of the interior spaces are evocative of the Japanese approach and that its is extremely probable that the influence was available at this period through publications and that Wright used the constant remodelling of his house as a basis for experimentation of idea which would be later utilise or not, if that was the case. The important elements of this building are the use of light and space, and the use of materials such as brick and black-market timber shingles. The house as a space for experimentation during the development of his ideas and philosophies is notable, and its own organic nature and evolution can be considered a justifiable example of the level of abstractn ess to which the term organic can be interpreted.The Prairie House (1899 1910)The Prairie house, a basically cruciform or windmill plan shape, was initially seen as being a building that was specifically appropriate for the American suburban home, a type of house characterised by a degree of both spatial freedom and formal order previously uncharted in either the Old or New World. (McCarter 199743) The connection with the early American house has reference in the centralised position of the hearth or fireplace, whether it forms the junction of the cross or the centre of the pinwheel wind collector/ windmill. This was recognised by Wright as being able to access natural light from three sources (Giedeon 1959399) The initial publicity for the Prairie house as a style came in the form of publication not in an architectural magazine, but in the Ladies Home Journal in 1901. His recognition that the design needed to aggregation directly to the functional user was paramount in its succ ess as a plan and suburban housing type.The contact between landscape and building is epitomised in the quotation from Mumford, who writes that Mr Wrights designs are the very products of the prairie, in their low-lying, even lines, in their flat roofs, while at the same time they defy the sluggish gray or black or red of the engineering structures by their colour and ornament. (Mumford 1955182). Frank Lloyd Wright, as a son of the prairies, was driven by his response to the landscapes, the long low and flat and the simplicity of the space. This cut the rooflines, where the building was seen primarily not as a cave but as broad shelter in the open, related to vista vista without and vista within. (Wright in Larkin1993 36) his destruction of the box meant that rooms were interlinked and flows between then were largely uninterrupted.In the Dana-Thomas House, (Springfield, Illinois 1902) the directly organic is particularly evident in this house, where not only is a rich and abstrac ted display of the sumac plant embossing glazed plaster panels that cover the house, (Lind 199227) but the interior displays include butterflies, ferns, leaves and stalks.(Larkin 1993 46) the flows between the majestic spaces are largely uninterrupted, both horizontally and vertically- it was the first of Wrights buildings to have a double volume living room, yet the massiveness of this structure is broken down by the enjoyment of the external walls. The treatment of surface also owed much to the impostion of an organic ideal, where walls were scumbled to create a dappled effect, the timberwork was rich and prolific, and in this case, the surfaces were embossed with ornament. The decorative influence is from the outside prairie environment Scrub shrub , cacti, and the yellow coloured stone (Knight 200142). In addition, it is important to note that the Dana house has elements of the Japanese influence in its upturned eaves, reminiscent of pagoda type temples (McCarter 1997 47)The R obie House (Chicago, 1908) is considered by Lind to be an excellent example of Wrights organic fertilizer architecture ideal, (Lind 1992 28) This is largely in its response to the environment is perfected to the extent that the cantilevered overhangs are placed to trammel light in summer and to maximise sunlight in the colder months. (Knight 200174) but also in its manipulation of material with glass and steel and concrete, creating the soaring cantilevered overhangs and at the same time bands of floating light, contracting with the fanaticism of the brickwork that characterises most of the exterior of the house. His use of material here is notable- the bricks used were long and thin, and the pointing used to create effect. The perpends were pointed in a brick coloured mortar that was flush pointed, whereas the horizontal coursing was expressed by deeply raked pointing in a white mortar bed (McCarter 1997 95) Flowing spaces abound, but, at the same time, elements are used to sma sh function such as the fireplace between the living and the dining room. The unexpect placing of the walls and the fragmentation of expected mass, together with the long low walls and punched out openings brought about much debate at the time of its verbal expression (Giedion 1959 408). Yet again, material, space and environment combine to create a building disregarding its precedent and standing alone in its own landscape.The Usonian Period (1932 1942)This period, a term coined by Wright from the author Samuel Butler11, embraces the notions that define America as a country, such as unity, freedom, and unity of all. (Meehan 1984 96-7) The term eventually gained connotations of freedom and unity, particularly in the means of uniting the inside and outside spaces in buildings integrations of interior and exterior landscapes. The changed architectural environment that existed as a result of many different socio- economic factors meant that the approach towards planning, forms and ma terials had to reflect the new order. In addition, mechanical press on the cities as suburbs rapidly spread as a result of the ever more cheap motor car meant that a total rethink in social housing became applicable, thus projects such as Broadacre City (1934), a proposed series of isolated tower blocks connected by roads where the Organic principle brought the functioning elements of the city into a defined space in a country fareting.One of the most enigmatic of the houses from this period is Falling Water, the Edgar Kaufmann House, (Mill Run, Pennsylvania) built in 1935. Not only is the building in complete and active harmony with its landscape, but its form incorporates those materials from which is arises, stone, timber, glass. The site especially spoke to Wright, and rather than having the waterfall as something that should be looked at, the situation of the house directly over the waterfall means that it becomes an active part of its site12. The form of the house is not monolithic, but moves both vertically and horizontally on the site, creating its own set of ledges and alcoves. The vertical planes of stone and glass and the horizontal planes of concrete create juxtaposition as well as a dynamic that is in keeping with the continuity of the stream to a lower place it. Open planes that lead nifty out into the environment Larkin sees as a participative exercise one cannot appreciate directly the cascades below the house unless one moves out onto the horizontal and planar terraces to explore further. Also, he notes of the synergy between the horizontal and planar surfaces, reflecting the huge slabs of rock that lay in the river below, that Although this is pure conjecture, it was not unlike Wright to read apace the conditions of a building site and to let its most salient features, even accidental ones, inspire his design. (Larkin 1993 155) quake from the landscape was directly incorporated, down to the hearthstone that was previously a bathing rock for the Kaufmann family. The manner in which the fieldstone was laid was carefully detailed, and a variation introducing a softer edge in the rounding of the parapet walls acted as the progenitor to other buildings, both domestic and industrial in the future (Ibid 157) Wrights embracing of the new materials of steel and concrete, much loved by the Modernists in their boxlike applications, had an early application in the cantilevered slabs that are expound as nothing short of daring (Ibid 161).However daring the structural applications of this house, its setting and synergy with its landscape are the elements that endure, creating an organic mass which would leave the landscape poorer were it to be removed.More problematic displays of the organic in buildings are naturally going to be found in the industrial and public applications. An industrial building from this period that highlights the Usonian notion as well as a need to incorporate the outside without lessen the practic ality of the box is the S.C Johnson and Sons Administration building (Racine, Wisconsin 1936) . First impressions of the interior are of mushroom-shaped dendriform columns floating in a sea of light. (Larkin 1993179) Like Falling Water, it pushed the boundaries of materials, in this case, cold drawn steel mesh columns that were designed in an unusual manner and continually given organic metaphorical comparisons, and extruded glass. Wright commented on the socio- architectural applications of this building by saying that Organic architecture designed this building to be as inspiring a place to work in as any cathedral ever was in which to worship. (Larkin 1993 181) A later, and more like a shot recognisable laboratory extension to the factory had as its design rationale a central core with the various levels cantilevering from a central core, embedding the notions of space and boundless freedom in line with the Usonian tradition. Wright saw this as a successful example of his organi c principles in that it responded to the nature of the materials, and its relationship with the landscape and its extension into the landscape between inside and outside using the mechanism of glass. (Meehan 1984 86)The later years (1943 1959)This period is important as the buildings here reflect, in many cases, a culmination of his life works, ideals, and approaches. In addition, it marks the period in which his output was most prolific, and the maturity of his ideas could be expressed without fear of lifelong ridicule, although projects such as the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum were not without acerbic criticism and opposition. Taliesin West (Scottsdale, Arizona, 1937-1959) is in many senses a seminal example, as not only was it built over the last decades of his life, but it was a house that he inhabited and a space from which he taught. Frank Lloyd Wright described his approach as being derived from the site- space, colour, texture, which were extant landscape forms. Ogilvanna, h is ordinal wife, remarks that the buildings look excavated from rather than constructed on the landscape (Wright 1970 104) Local materials13 were incorporated in a variety of ways, desert rock was combined with cement in a rough off shutter reminiscent of the ad hoc landscape. Redwood and canvas provided the bulk of the other materials, harmonising with the colours and the textures of the landscape. Ogilvanna comments on the harmony with landscape, supporting the deconstruction of the box in terms of Wrights Organic Philosophy, that The sense of space permeates Taliesin West so breathtakingly that the buildings, the desert and mountains become fused, the walls vanish and at times the camp looks like a mirage in the desert appearing and disappearance in a shimmering, ethereal light. (Wright 1970 106). Also, the means that Wright demanded for appropriate engagement with the natural environment was emphasised here in the manner in which the students in his programme were made to ph ysically react with the desert, climate and materials. In addition to the means by which the apprentices were trained, they were also a large part of the building force that constructed Taliesin West. (Larkin 1993 302). and so the levels to which this building reflects any definition of the organic exist strongly in its visual and structural relationship to and with the landscape, the materials that it incorporates in the structure, the means by which its apprentices are drilled in the art of organic construction, the incorporation of water and pools and sound and light and texture.From a non- domestic point of view, it is important to look at a public building in order to see how the elements of the organic were incorporated. Perhaps one of Wrights best known buildings, the highly contentious Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York City 1943-1959), is a good example, as not only is its mere form derived from, perhaps, some of his conch drawings, but the manner in which it opens hor izons for the continual display of art works fits in with his approach towards his organic philosophy. Indeed, Larkin notes that this building represents a culmination of all his ideals regarding his organic architecture and was the fore-runner in the means in which steel and concrete would be used in the balance of the twentieth century. (Larkin 1993 202) It is also testimony to his pushing the boundaries with regards to the inseparable abilities of the new materials. Wright himself stated that The whole building, cast in concrete, is more like an eggshell- in form a great simplicity- rather than like a criss- cross structure. The light concrete flesh is rendered strong adequacy everywhere to do its work by embedded filaments of steel either separate or in mesh. The structural calculations are thus those of the cantilever and continuity rather than the post and beam. (Wright 1970 167) Descriptions by Wrights wife upon the initial visit are permeated with organic references, such as mother- of- pearl a cloud of subtle blue-grey light the ramp being likened to a swans curved neck (Wright 1970 164) the spiral culminating in a delicate ribbed oculus window that casts a suffused light below sufficient to view the art works on display. This example as a culmination of his lifes work, and one that continued to uphold all his precepts of organic architecture also proves the permeability of the boundary that would appear to exist between the organic architecture of today and the modernist paradigm in which he was often forced to work. deathThat the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright cannot exist in an environment devoid of connections with the organic is impossible. Not only did he have a strong idea as to what he considered organic himself, based on a few simple but strong guiding principles, largely where the building is accountable to itself and its site and its justness is a large part of this combination, but also the incorporation of the directly organic at triplex levels from material to ornamentation displays this. His early tracings of Owens book on ornament, his lifelong flirtation with the elements of Japanese art and architecture, his collection of Japanese prints and woodcuts, all contributed in a manner in the production of such building and landscape related projects as Taliesin West and Falling Water. The relationship between the building and the site, the building and the landscape, the spare yet engaging spaces, the enrichm