Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the first architects that caught my eye when I first got into researching art and design. I used to not find geometric designs that appealing but within architecture I feel it works very well. The way angular shapes are positioned on such a large structure seems unnatural. It not only makes you question its balance but yet the fact that it is a building that is built for people to use and work with. To me something that makes you question it is something worth time to think about. Buildings are usually large, strong, safe structures but when you consider elaborate designs do you still trust them?
“the space within that building is the reality of that building”,
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. He was one of the founders of modern architecture in North America and embraced the use of new technology, materials and engineering to create some of the 20th century’s most influential and iconic buildings. During a long and productive career spanning 70 years he designed over 1,000 buildings of which over 400 were built. Wright developed architecture that did not fit in Europe but was unique to the United States. As well as creating buildings which were radical in appearance, Wright had a rare ability to integrate them with the landscape – stemming from his deep love and knowledge of nature. It was this that made him different from other architects at the time.
Born in 1867, it was his mother who encouraged him to become an architect. As well as hanging prints of cathedrals on his bedroom wall, she bought him a Frederick Froebel Kindergarten system. This system consisted of a set of coloured strips of paper, two dimensional geometric grids and a set of wooden bricks comprising cubes, spheres and pyramids. Later Wright wrote “the maple wood blocks…. all are in my fingers to this day”. They were the core forms of his architecture, but were created to encourage education and play to young children, by rearranging the shapes. Wright studied at the University but dropped out to pursue a career in architecture. He gained work experience until he got a job at Adler and Sullivan, Chicago’s most progressive architects. Louis Sullivan was a big influence on Wright and helped him out a lot until 1893 when Wright was asked to leave the firm for pursuing too much private work and at the age of 26 he started his own practice.
Wright developed the Prairie Style of architecture in a number of private homes in Chicago. One of his less published achievements was his knowledge of internal design, with great attention paid to lighting, heating and climate control. The Prairie Style aimed to create a truly North American architecture, but Wright also drew inspiration from Europe: from the French and the British Arts and Crafts movement. He also had great knowledge of the art and architecture of Japan and the culture of pre-Columbian America.
The 1906 Robie House in Chicago was Wright’s most mature expression of the Prairie Style of architecture. Frederick Robie, an engineer and industrialist, wanted a house full of light with views of the street, but without his neighbours looking in. Using brick, concrete, steel and glass, Wright opened out the house by moving away from the tight box shape of traditional homes. A central fireplace gave greater use of space to the large living and dining rooms, which Wright saw as the centre of family life. Although there was no garden, the use of massive plants and sculptures softened the hard edges of the building and at each level Wright designed a balcony to break the division between inside and outside. All furnishings, light fittings, rugs and the essential art were also designed by Wright.
The 1935 commission for Fallingwater at Mill Run, Pennsylvania from Edgar J. Kaufmann was an exception and resulted in Wright’s most imaginative solution for a residential commission which is among his most famous buildings. The design consisted of reinforced concrete cantilevered slabs, anchored to the cliff that formed terraces hanging over the waterfall. Between the horizontal slabs were stone walls that echoed the cliff side below the waterfall. Each of the three levels had its own terrace and an outside stairway leading to other terraces and balconies. The lines of the building were rounded and gentle in contrast to the angular finish of Wright’s earlier structures. As ever Wright was concerned with creating an interior living space that was practical and comfortable. Gravity heat was installed by placing coils of pipes under the concrete slab floor.
“When organic architecture is properly carried out no landscape is ever outraged by it but is always developed by it. The good building makes the landscape more beautiful than it was before the building was built.”
This was Wright’s achievement at Fallingwater.
From the early 1940s to his death in 1959, Wright had designed almost 500 projects, almost half of his total output. By far the most famous is the 1956 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. As the narrow Manhattan plot required the design to be vertical and not horizontal, from the beginning Wright envisaged a continuous ramp circling around the centre of the interior. It was a struggle to see the building he wanted accepted and constructed. Guggenheim accepted the design but after his death in 1949 Wright had to persuade others it was viable. Several changes were made as more land was acquired and seven complete sets of drawings were made before construction began in August 1956. The building was completed in 1959, six months after Wright’s own death.
Moulded concrete reinforced by steel created the plastic curvilinear forms, where one floor flows gently into another. The walls of the building were slightly sloped back to give the effect of a painting on an easel. Like some small object from nature, a leaf or egg, the Guggenheim design is complex yet simple as if Wright had bought a little slice of nature to a corner of New York City.
Frank Lloyd Wright died in 1959 at the age of 92. He had designed and built for 70 years and at his death he left a thriving practice. He was able to adapt as his architecture and move with the times. He used the newest materials and technologies from poured concrete to under floor heating and was happy to design for all incomes. Wright was not a mainstream modernist but his love of nature and sense of place were stronger than his desire for the new. A house as a home for a family with the heat of a fire at its heart was his passion.
When you type Frank Lloyd Wright into any search engine plenty of websites appear mainly to do with the restoration of his original buildings and art work which can also be bought online.
