Frank Lloyd Wright

Key ideas:

1. Apologist for the architectural “one”. Harmony as the main goal of an architect, the idea of a building as a whole organism. All its parts are interconnected and interdependent. No part can be arbitrarily removed, added or replaced.
2. Author of the idea of “organic architecture”. The idea is to create buildings and structures that reveal the properties of natural materials and organically fit into the surrounding landscape. Nature in Wright’s understanding is “not only that which is ‘outside’. “Organic” in architecture refers to existence, to integrity, it is “integral” or “intrinsic”. “Organic” is the relation of the “part” to the “whole”. Space is the unifying principle. Wright appeals to Eastern cultures, in particular to the ideas of Lao Dzi, “that the reality of the house is not in four walls and a roof, but in the interior space.” The “organic” was embodied in the free flow of external and internal spaces.
3. Wright emphasizes the spiritual essence of architectural integrity and gives it a technical interpretation, linked to the idea of ​​spatial priority – the interconnection of internal and external spaces (“the spirit grows from the inside out”).
4. He was a violent opponent of the cult of technology, Was one of humanist architects. The idea of transforming industrial technology through art. He accepted new technology, was actively interested in the problems of mass production, but opposed technology standing between man and his natural needs.
5. The architecture cannot be portable, its peculiarities are determined by the environment. The terrain and landscape determine the architectural form. The connection between them is a necessity. The structure, as it were, continues the environment. All of the author’s buildings fit into nature, their appearance follows from the inner content. Departure from traditional laws of form can be called “organic architecture”. An architect creates as nature does, incorporating architecture into its natural surroundings.
6. In the basic principles of shaping, there is a close combination of a person, function, environment. The idea of ergonomics. The design of the human habitat and its surrounding objects is based on the proportions of the human body.
7. Borrowings from Japanese culture:

1) The fireplace is a subject of sacred importance in the architectural and spatial environment of Wright’s mansions and their main dominant.

2) Aesthetics in the unplastered brickwork of the fireplace and pipes, the ceiling, which gives the interior, which is prone to constant changes, some static, reliability;

3) The outer boundaries of the inner space, on the contrary, give the impression of temporaryness, shiftability due to glazing of the outer limits of the building;

4) The role of softening light, regulating its intensity and protecting glass surfaces from atmospheric influences is assigned to elongated large cornices;

5) No random items. The interior is changeable, mobile, adapted to changes that are constantly made by humans – it is zoned with screens.

6) The use of natural building materials – wood, stone. Sculptural plastic is replaced by flat surfaces. Painted walls are replaced with untinted wood.

7) Simplification of a person’s life, getting rid of the accumulation of unnecessary things. The traditional garage is being replaced by a carport. The attic and basement are also removed from the context of the structure.

8) The theory of “cities of wide horizons”.

Main structures:

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Oak Park Home and Studio in Illinois (1889-1909)

Winslow River Forest House in Illinois, (1894)

Willits’ home in Highland Park, Illinois, (1901)

Hotel Imperial, Tokyo Japan, (1923)

“House Above the Falls”, Bear Run, pcs. Pennsylvania, (1935)

Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York, (1943-1959).

There are two main, fruitful periods in Wright’s work:

– from 1901 to 1909

– (1936 – early 1940).

Prairie Style (1901 – 1909):

1. Free plan of the first floor;
2. Horizontal direction of structures. Elongated lines, subtly inscribed in the landscape and sharply contrasting with the vertical and double-height interior volume .;
3. Sloping roofs;
4. Low curtain walls;
5. The significant role of glass surfaces.

Wright’s Style (1936 – early 1940):

1. An architecture consistently based on a modulated grid layout.
2. Lack of foundation design. Instead, a concrete slab (12-15 cm) was installed under the walls on a layer of gravel, which served as a drain. The heating system was also installed here – a system of pipes heating the floor.
3. Walls and windows are not insulated.
4. Creation of a continuous structure thanks to modern materials.
5. Using reinforced concrete and glass, Wright developed a prismatic faceted solution – a building, the glass facade of which was created on the basis of plans with a flowing space.
6. Using the concrete console as a natural, tree-like shape.
7. Scheme with a free cruciform in plan composition of the building, in the center of which a hearth is built – the basis of Wright’s private buildings.
8. The corners of the structure are often rounded.
9. Interior is associated with external space and natural context. Wright designs the inner space, which “overflows” into the outer.
10. Wright was the first to introduce continuous glazing into architecture – from floor to ceiling, but those walls that face north or the street are blank, and those that face south and the courtyard are glazed.
11. Avoiding “luxurious” premises. The use of natural materials in the interior, this has now become one of the techniques of modern architects.