Frank Lloyd Wright's Organic Architecture PDF

Department of Architectural Engineering HISTORY AND THEORIES OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE Lecture Organic Architecture Frank Lloyd Wright | Department of Architectural...

Department of Architectural Engineering HISTORY AND THEORIES OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE Lecture Organic Architecture Frank Lloyd Wright | Department of Architectural Engineering | ARCH 366 History and Theories of Contemporary Architecture | 3 Cr H Frank LIoyd Wright “The mission of an architect is to help people understand how to make life more beautiful, the world a better one for living in, and to give reason, rhyme, and meaning to life.” “The mother art is architecture.’’ – FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT Frank LIoyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright is an American architect, considered one of the greatest figures of 20th-century architecture. Was born in Wisconsin in 1867. He was educated at Second Ward School, Madison from 1879 to 1883. After a brief sting at the University of Wisconsin where he took some mechanical drawing and basic mathematics courses, Wright departed for Chicago where he spent several months in J. L. Silsbee's office before seeking employment with Adler and Sullivan. Against standardization and mass production. Use of new materials insofar as they encouraged and supported the architects inherited purpose  Frank LIoyd Wright Wright called his design philosophy "organic architecture," which, at its core, promoted the construction of buildings that exuded harmony with their respective environments, enhancing their surroundings rather than extruding from them. It promoted simplicity and necessity in layout and decoration and the Frank exposure of the true properties of materials, befitting their use. Wright, unlike the architects of the International Style, did not avoid or reject decoration, but used nature as inspiration for ornament. To achieve this organic design, he used geometric units, or modules, that generated a grid. The first modules were squares, but Wright later used diamonds, hexagons, and other geometric shapes, upon which he laid a free-flowing floor plan. geometric grids https://www.theartstory.org/artist/wright-frank-lloyd/  Frank LIoyd Wright Anti-classical and anti-European approach – followed organic ideal as sign of American cultural independence. “Every building should relate harmoniously to its natural surroundings and that a building should not be a static, boxlike enclosure but a dynamic structure, with open, flowing interior spaces.” Wright felt that a house should not be located "on" a site, but rather be a natural extension of the site. Another device Wright favored was the cantilever, a long projection (often a balcony) that was supported at only one end. The grid and the cantilever freed Wright’s designs from being merely boxes with openings cut into them. the cantilever  Frank LIoyd Wright Wright's huge ego meant that he was highly individualistic, and regarded himself as the foremost, if not the only, practitioner of modern architecture. At nearly every possible chance, he polemically positioned himself against the European originators of the International Style, in particular Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, whose work he believed was merely derivative (copied) of his and not innovative. Wright used the concept "Usonia" (standing for the United States of North America) to describe his vision for American society that he eventually developed, beginning with the low-cost Usonian Houses for average citizens. These formed the core of the decentralized communities Broadacre City represented by his prototype called Broadacre City. https://www.theartstory.org/artist/wright-frank-lloyd/ Frank LIoyd Wright Organic Architecture: In 1882 he started to work for the firm of Adler & Sullivan as an apprentice to Louis Sullivan. Beginning in 1890, he was assigned all residential design work for the firm. Louis Sullivan concluded on the basis of observation of nature: “that life is recognized in its expression that form follows function.” Frank Lloyd Wright expanded this definition: form and function must be one – introduced the term organic architecture: every part should have its own identity but at the same time it should be inseparable from the whole (always together) Its starting point revolves around discovering the basic laws of nature and the universe, then, apply them to form-making (architecture). Frank LIoyd Wright Organic Architecture: Some of these rules and laws are: Growth: Building forms are the end of a process similar to nature and they should follow the flows and be flexible and adaptable. They grow out of the site and be unique and use local materials. Organic unity: blending of parts in one larger uniting order. Wholeness: the whole in the part and vice versa. Individuality: the whole does not deny the individuality of the components. Form is not applied from outside, but evolves from within. Architects should be creative as nature and satisfy social, physical, and spiritual needs. Connecting buildings to nature Recognize the nature of materials and apply it accordingly. Simplicity: elegance of order and coordination among parts. Proportion: relationships among length, areas, volumes, masses, etc. Frank LIoyd Wright Timeline https://www.theartstory.org/artist/wright-frank-lloyd/  Frank LIoyd Wright Winslow House, 1893, Frank Lloyd Wright's First Prairie Style The Winslow house was Wright's new design, low to the ground, horizontal inclination with hipped roof, clerestory windows, and a dominating center fireplace. The new style, what would become known as Prairie Style, attracted great attention in the neighborhood. Wright himself has commented on "popular reaction to this new endeavor." Frank Lloyd Wright Pre-1900 - The First Prairie Houses (thoughtco.com) Frank LIoyd Wright Winslow House, 1893, Frank Lloyd Wright's First Prairie Style Prairie Style was the beginning of modern architecture. This style also implements common modern elements like large, flat planes. However, there are distinct differences between a prairie home and other homes from the modernist movement. Frank LIoyd Wright Winslow House, 1893, Frank Lloyd Wright's First Prairie Style The Prairie Style was one of the first styles of architecture to incorporate Prairie Style modern ideas that form follows Emerging from the Chicago area around the early 1900’s, function. the Prairie style movement of architecture was founded and popularized by Frank Lloyd Wright after he published building plans entitled “A House in a Prairie Town”. KEY FEATURES : Drawing inspiration from the Arts & Crafts era, this style Large overhang roofs of architecture uses common modern elements such as Lower Pitched Roofs wide overhangs, low or flat cantilevered roofs, large use Continuous band of windows of windows, and incorporated built-in handmade and corner windows craftsmanship throughout. Horizontal orientation These homes were thought to be “married to the ground” and compliment the long, low landscape of the Midwest. Brick exterior Frank LIoyd Wright The Ward W. Willits House These houses featured extended low buildings with shallow, sloping roofs, clean sky lines, suppressed chimneys, overhangs and terraces, using unfinished materials. The exterior walls of a Wright house are articulated in a relatively complex, asymmetrical manner, and the house is often visually united with the earth via broad, flat surfaces parallel with the ground. Interiors are open and flowing (rather than mechanically subdivided into small rooms), and ample windows (including windows that bend around corners) throughout the house merge the interior with the world outside. A mixture of building materials (e.g. brick, wood, stone, concrete) further contributes to the sense of the house as an organic feature of the landscape. Frank LIoyd Wright 1902-06: Larkin Company Administration Building: The Larkin Company's headquarters was Wright's first large-scale commission Constructed in the industrial complex in the expanding city of Buffalo, Wright's structure of reinforced concrete appeared like a monument wrapped in brick. It was organized around a large rectangular skylit atrium with gallery spaces that encircled it on four levels, not unlike the space of a Gothic cathedral. Although Wright rejected historical revival styles, one might well describe the building as a temple to work, whose straight-lined grid- like organization and open floor plan provided a sense of clarity and reassuring order, a quality matched by its advanced technology, such as the first large-scale use of air-conditioning in an office building. Frank LIoyd Wright 1902-06: Larkin Company Administration Building: The filtering of light from above gave the interior an ethereal, uplifting quality - the principal moment where Nature entered the structure - despite the adjacent urban environment. The balconies around the central space were adorned with encouraging mottos and slogans, comparable to the allegorical Biblical imagery seen in churches' stained-glass windows. Much like medieval cathedrals functioned as communal shelter in times of inclement weather, the Larkin Building also could easily be read as a safeguard against the harsh climactic conditions of industrial America at the turn of the century. The Larkin Building was unlike any purpose-designed office building of its time, so much so that contemporary critics and architects had difficulty understanding it using conventional standards of beauty, and many showered it with negative reviews  In this office tower, Wright introduced the first concept of open plan and atrium in office buildings. Wright collected all the services and vertical circulation on two sides, freeing the interior space for flexible arrangements. Larkin Administration Building, Buffalo, New York, 1904 Frank LIoyd Wright 1905-08 Unity Temple The project received less critical attention than the Larkin Building, and those who did comment on it remarked that it looked much like a "Mayan handball court." The church's entrance is indirect, from the side, and to reach the sanctuary, one must make three right turns, arguably emphasizing the link with a long spiritual journey to enlightenment. Once inside, the visitor enters a hallway sunken beneath the main sanctuary floor and then climbs a few steps up to emerge into its square central floor space, as if climbing up to a raised platform. Frank LIoyd Wright 1905-08 Unity Temple The seating is arranged in balconies on three sides and in the central square, with the altar occupying the remaining side, thereby reinforcing a sense of community as the congregation is assembled to face each other in an intimate setting. The green, brown, and golden tones of the interior, typical of Wright's early period, evoke the connection with Nature, which is underscored by the natural light filtering in through the skylit ceilings and clerestory windows. The placement of the windows in the monolithic concrete structure - also chosen by Wright due to its low cost - helps to reduce noise from the street. As a result, the atmosphere of the interior comprises a sense of extreme serenity, calm, and comfort. Unity Church (Unity Temple), Oak Park, Illinois, 1905 First reinforced concrete building. Heavy, monumental Egyptianizing in its expressive language. Elevations are the same on all sides expressing unity. Division of building into two parts: secular and religious, but united. Equipped with built in, ducted hot-air heating. Unity Church (Unity Temple), Oak Park, Illinois, 1905 Frank LIoyd Wright 1908 K.C. DeRhodes House, South Bend, Indiana In more recent years, they have become crucial links to Wright's debt to Japanese artists and designers. Throughout his life Wright was a serious collector and dealer of Japanese prints, publishing a book on them in 1912 Many of Wright's presentation drawings exhibit rendering techniques that mirror effects seen in Japanese woodblock prints, including this one, done in 1908 by Marion Mahoney, one of Wright's most trusted designers and drafters. Frank LIoyd Wright 1908 K.C. DeRhodes House, South Bend, Indiana Several of these visual strategies are visible in this presentation drawing. The framing of the main subject matter - the house - in the center, with trees on each side and foliage in the extreme foreground, for example, was a favorite convention chosen by Hiroshige and Hokusai, among other printmakers. Finally, the loading of the foreground to block the view as space recedes in perspective and the spilling of certain objects out of the frame that otherwise encircles the elements of the scene also are favorite techniques of Japanese artists Frank LIoyd Wright 1908-09 Frederick C. Robie House The Robie House exhibits a dichotomy between openness to the landscape and an emphasis on domestic privacy. The long, low, horizontals of the walls, emphasized by the Roman brick, overhanging eaves of the roofs, and projecting terraces, instantly locate it within the flatness of the Midwest. From the exterior, the house almost looks like a fortress with horizontal slits (openings) between the roof and walls to accommodate the windows, with the private aspect of the residence underscored by the nearly hidden placement of the main entrance at the rear, away from the sidewalk. Frank LIoyd Wright 1908-09 Frederick C. Robie House Once inside, though, the main floor opens up, flowing around the centralized hearth that anchors it and provides the division between the dining room and living space. Typical of Wright's Prairie residences, the fireplace, with its permanent seating, symbolizes the locus of the family unit and the generation of life-sustaining warmth during the frigid Chicago winters. Wright underscores the residence's organic connection with the exterior world through ribbons of windows encircling the spaces (many of which use abstracted wheat motifs), the natural materials of wood, and brick, and the gold, brown, tan, and green tones of the interior surfaces. Robie Residence, Chicago, Illinois, 1909 Wright also integrated the lighting and heating into the ceiling and floor, and designed nearly all the furniture. Interiors The rich wood molding, ceiling beams, bookshelves, and niches found throughout the house unify the interior. Robie Residence, Chicago, Illinois, 1909 This long elongated rectangle three-story structure stands no taller than the surrounding two-story houses. A roof cantilever extends 6.40 m from the western wall of the house over a west-facing veranda. On the south facade, 14 glass doors open onto a main-floor balcony, which shades the 10 windows and 4 doors on the ground floor below. The house spreads in to landscape by means of low parapet walls which integrated the building with nature. The main living level is one long space, divided into living room and dining room by a freestanding fireplace. Robie Residence, Chicago, Illinois, 1909 At every point the horizontal line is stretched and emphasized, internally as well as externally. A shallow roof overhang enables sunlight to enter through the main floor doors in winter but keeps sunlight out in the hot summer months. Wright used steel beams to have large span living room. Cantilevered steel beams create long, uninterrupted spaces that extend through windows onto porches and balconies. Fireplace breaks the horizontality of the building with Un-plastered brick providing a sole vertical element. Frank LIoyd Wright 1916-22 Imperial Hotel The Imperial Hotel was arguably Wright's first significant commission where his skills as an engineer was prominently and dramatically revealed. he was asked by the Japanese government to design a Western-style lodging complex that would appeal to foreigners. The hotel represented a Wright-ian total work of art, as Wright designed virtually everything associated with it, down to the dining room china and tableware. These qualities, combined with Wright's use of new technology such as reinforced concrete, reflect how his architecture of the middle of his career reflected both the traditions of the Arts & Crafts movement and the advances of the modern age. Frank LIoyd Wright 1916-22 Imperial Hotel On September 1, 1923 a major earthquake destroyed Tokyo. The Imperial Hotel stood. Frank Lloyd Wright began designing the Imperial Hotel in 1915 (early preliminary drawings are dated 1913), and used many mediums throughout the Imperial Hotel. Brick, carved Oya stone and perforated terra-cotta blocks, to name a few. The original perforated terra-cotta blocks were embedded with glass, woven together with Oya stone and brick, creating built-in light columns throughout the lobby and the rest of the hotel. This reproduction was cast in white high strength hydrostone. https://www.dezeen.com/2017/06/15/imperial-hotel-tokyo- japan-frank-lloyd-wright-150th-anniversary/ Frank LIoyd Wright 1934-37 Fallingwater Wright's most famous building, and likely the most famous modern house in the world, Fallingwater is often seen as the commission that revived Wright's career. To a large extent, Fallingwater is Wright's response to the International Style architects in Europe such as Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, among many others, whose work was seen as cutting edge at the 1932 Modern Architecture - International Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Frank LIoyd Wright 1934-37 Fallingwater https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AIPbJRP71E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7cO_cvg95Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC9ipWcYnQc Fallingwater, Mill Run, Pennsylvania, 1935-39. Wright’s greatest achievement and one of the masterpieces of modern architecture is Edgar J. Kaufmann House “Fallingwater” in rural southwestern Pennsylvania. A creative synthesis of organic architecture, Cubist and functionalist (rationalist) influences. Set on and over a stream at the point where it breaks into a waterfall. Free floating platforms over a small waterfall and anchors them in the natural rock. Free floating platforms over a small waterfall and anchors them in the natural rock. House is thoroughly fused with its site. Traces of prairie style and some recognition of the International Style represented in interlocking geometries of the planes; flat, textureless surface of the main shelves. Horizontal emphasize the horizontal line to connect with earth. Levels are made of parallel surfaces of smooth concrete extending into the nature and almost bridge the small valley. The chimney is a focal point, like all vertical supporting elements, made of freestone attached to vertical plane orthogonally superimposed horizontal levels. Lively, complex play of interlocking spatial penetrations making radical use of the possibilities of reinforced concrete dialectic between interior space and the landscape is resolved through subtle transition points in this unique poetry. Falling water is notable for its relationship with the environment, it appears to emerge from the rocks above the waterfall. It brings the outdoors inside. Wright had many choices to locate a home on this large site, but chose to place the home directly over the waterfall and creek creating a close, yet noisy dialog with the rushing water and the steep site. The horizontal striations of stone masonry with daring cantilevers of colored beige concrete blend with native rock outcroppings and the wooded environment. Natural stone cladding from a nearby quarry The layout of the building is broken down in a series of rooms that intersect around the central nucleus of the living room. Site Plan Vertical elements such as stairs and chimneys faced in rough stone and from a nearby quarry. Horizontal windows and projecting terraces embrace the surrounding natural scene. Not only does the waterfall become part of the house a staircase in the living room leads down to it. The wooded glen that surrounds the house is visible from every room. Concrete balconies cantilever at right angles from the house’s vertical stone core, and a balcony off the main living space extends over the waterfall. Corner window without frame at the corner considered invention of Wright. Falling water, detail with tree Falling Water Interiors Falling Water Interiors Frank LIoyd Wright 1936-45 Johnson Wax Administration Building and Research Tower Wright decreed that there would be no exterior windows. The Johnson Wax Headquarters were set in an industrial zone and Wright decided to create a sealed environment lit from above, The Johnson Wax buildings are Wright's consummate statement in the Art Moderne style, a more austere, streamlined offshoot of Art Deco. The headquarters and research tower are constructed of Roman brick with raked mortar and rounded corners to emphasize the structure's horizontality (the rounded corners particularly connect to Art Moderne). Frank LIoyd Wright 1936-45 Johnson Wax Administration Building and Research Tower Even though the enclosed space is walled off from the exterior, the interior contains numerous references to nature. The main interior space, or "Great Workroom" as Wright named it, is organized by a grid of dentiform columns. Wright filled the ceiling spaces in between the columns with skylights of Pyrex glass tubing - which proved difficult to seal, but is nonetheless used extensively elsewhere as one of the building's signature features. Frank LIoyd Wright 1936-45 Johnson Wax Administration Building and Research Tower The glowing quality of the Workroom when flooded with natural or artificial light and buzzing with activity has prompted comparisons with a beehive. Meanwhile, the design of the columns produced another triumphal moment for Wright's reputation as an engineer. The state of Wisconsin insisted on a proof that they could support 12 tons of weight as required by law. In the demonstration that followed the columns successfully held 60 tons of material before buckling.  Frank LIoyd Wright 1943-59 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Guggenheim Museum ranks at the top of his best designs list. It is one of only two Wright buildings in New York City (the other is a small house on Staten Island), and to his credit, he displayed considerable insistence in the long struggle to get the Guggenheim built, knowing that it was essentially his one chance to leave his mark on the country's largest city. In so doing, Wright essentially shifted the entire discourse on what museum design should be. Frank LIoyd Wright 1943-59 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum While Wright was commissioned to house and highlight Solomon Guggenheim's significant collection of modern art, he decided instead to create a museum that would itself compete with the art as the actual showcase. Its design of a main gallery that consists of a spiral ramp encircling a skylit atrium was a radical departure from all previous museums, and allowed Wright to finally explore a form - the spiral - which he been musing about for years but never realized. Frank LIoyd Wright 1943-59 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The spiral shape of the main display space tapers outward as one ascends through it, meaning the interior walls are slanted and making them difficult to use for hanging artworks. When revealed to the general public, Wright's plans provoked a storm of protest from several major modern artists who insisted on the impossibility of properly exhibiting their work there. Frank LIoyd Wright 1943-59 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum  Robie Residence, Chicago, Illinois, 1909 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmjw_c_T-EM  Fallingwater, 1935-39. Mill Run, Pennsylvania https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBH7vlPqX6M Taliesin West is Frank Lloyd Wright’s desert laboratory in Arizona https://franklloydwright.org/taliesin-west/ Four Modernism Houses: Discuss the similarities and differences Villa Savoye Farnsworth house Falling Water