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Art & Ecology


Art & Ecology:

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Environmental Design

Frank Lloyd Wright, Taliesin East

by Ron Neperud

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin, in 1867. He is regarded as one of the world's most innovative architects, whose architecture includes commercial buildings, places of worship, hotels, museums, and residences throughout the world. Before establishing his own architectural practice he worked with Louis Sullivan in the Chicago area, notably in the Prairie Style of architecture. Wright established his summer residence and architectural school, Taliesin East, in the rolling hills near Spring Green, Wisconsin. Talies in West was begun in 1939 as his winter architectural school and residence in the hot, dry area near Phoenix, Arizona.

Wright's innovative use of material and space in organic architecture reflected a deep awareness of natural materials, such as stone and wood, each with its particular nature, underlying organizational principles and forms, and significance (Kaufmann, 1960). His early Prairie Style structures, which appeared to rise out of the ground, emphasized horizontal lines, employed flat roofs, and echoed land forms. Repeated geometric forms borrowed from natural shapes of crystals, honeycombs, and waves served as decorative design units.

Placement of structures in relationship to the land was extremely important to Wright. Recognition of the site and spacing within the broader concept of landscape led to several organic architectural principles:

  1. A basic kinship of building to ground in organic architecture followed the earthline, emphasizing human scale as the measure of architecture (Wright,1957).
  2. Decentralization was seen as the inevitable need for more space, which led to model communities of moderate size which avoided urban congestion.
  3. Any building should clearly express its objective or purpose; in effect, form follows function.
  4. Tenuity and continuity characterized by dynamic tensions become possible in architecture through use of materials such as steel for cantilevers and overhangs, facilitating spaciousness and continuity.
  5. The architectural expression of space and openness can be realized through the use of glass and new design concepts in which spaces merge into one another.

Frank Lloyd Wright's strong views of democracy recognized human expressiveness in architecture and freedom of movement in escaping central city congestion.This led to establishing smaller self-contained communities, such as Broadacre City,which recognized human scale (Wright, 1958). Critics have viewed Wright's decentralization of architecture as leading to the suburbanization of Americaand central city decay. On the other hand, he is highly regarded for creating organic architecture, facilitated by his expressive use of natural and new materials and creation of new organizational principles.

Questions

References

Gutheim, F. (Editor) (1941). Frank Lloyd Wright, Selected writings 1894-1940. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce.

Kaufmann, E. & Raeburn (Editors) (1960). Frank Lloyd Wright: Writings and buildings. New York: Horizon Press.

Wright, F. (1957). A testament. New York: Horizon Press.

Wright, F. (1958). The living city. New York: New American Library.










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