THEORY OF DESIGN

DESIGN PRINCIPLES AND PHILOSOPHIES OF F.L.WRIGHT

A great architect is not made by way of a brain nearly so much as he is made by way of a cultivated, enriched heart

- Born on June 8, 1867 in Richland Centre, Wiscosin - studied civil engineering briefly at the University of Wisconsin - At 20 years of age, he joined a Chicago architectural firm as a draftsman - Became chief draftsman and supervised the firms residential designs - Wright started his own firm in 1893, and began developing ideas for his Prairie House Concept

In 1932,Wright published his autobiography and along with his wife, Olgivanna Lasovich, co-founded The Taliesin Fellowship

In 1936, Wrights most famous work, Falling Water was designed and Taliesin West was built in Arizona as a winter location for the school.

The years after World War II to the end of Wrights life were his most productive years. Received 270 residential commissions. Commercial Designs - The Guggenheim Museum - The Marin Country Civic Centre - The Price tower. Wright died in Arizona at the age of ninety-two. He had never retired from his profession

ABOUT...

FallingWater and Solomon Guggenheim Museum are his world renowned Projects

THE PRAIRIE HOUSE

The first project he executed was Winslow House in Illinois in 1984. This was the first example of a Prairie House

FORMED THE CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE

The prairie has a beauty of its own and we should recognise and accentuate this natural beauty, its quiet level. Hence, gently sloping roofs, low proportions, quiet sky lines, suppressed heavy-set chimneys. FLW (1908)

THEME AND PHILOSOPHY...

Elevated - living spaces - offered a sense of enclosure and protection from the elements, also offering them unobstructed views to the horizon. The interiors remarkable - no rigid demarcated rooms. Had an open plan with spaces flowing into each other.

The prairie houses seized imagination of the American public, evident by the large number of houses built. He designed hundreds of houses based on this concept - over 120 were built. The Prairie Houses marked a major shift in residential design

Formal rooms - dissolved into free-flowing living spaces Wright was committed to destroying the box in architecture. The major spaces were centered around the massive fireplace, which Wright believed was the centre of any family

ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE
Wright defined organic architecture as that in which all the parts are related to the whole and the whole is related to the parts

Applying these concepts , his building designs emphasize the following principles: Integration of parts to the whole. Design of parts controls the design of the whole

- Harmony of the part in relation to the whole. - The parts are made according to the function of the organism. - The form of the organism decides the character of the organism

To explain the concept of unity in nature, the architect used a living organism as an example

These materials had hitherto been used in different ways covered, painted, plastered, and altered to suit any particular fashion or taste Wright had a deep knowledge of and a lot of respect for natural materials such as wood and stone But in his works, these materials were always used in the natural form, by allowing for instance, the use of masses of stone as the natural feature of the building Responsible for a series of concepts of suburban development - Broadacre City. He proposed - idea in his book The Disappearing City in 1932,- unveiled a 12square-foot (1.1 m2) model of this community of the future, showing it in several venues in the following years. He continued developing the idea until his death.

USONIAN HOUSES

Sandwich walls that consisted of layers of wood siding, plywood cores and building paper, a significant change from typically framed walls. Usonian houses most commonly featured flat roofs and were mostly constructed without basements, completing the excision of attics and basements from houses, a feat Wright had been attempting since the early 20th century

Intended - highly practical houses for middle-class clients, and designed to be run without servants, Usonian houses often featured Small kitchens called "workspaces" by Wright that adjoined the dining spaces. These spaces in turn flowed into the main living areas, which also were characteristically outfitted with built-in seating and tables

As in the Prairie Houses, Usonian living areas focused fireplace. Bedrooms - typically isolated and relatively small. The conception of spaces instead of rooms was a development of the Prairie ideal; as the built-in furnishings related - Arts and Crafts principles. Spatially and in terms of their construction, the Usonian houses represented a new model for independent living, and allowed dozens of clients to live in a Wright-designed house at relatively low cost

JAPANESE ART

Wright was an active dealer in Japanese art, primarily ukiyoe woodblock prints. Served as both architect and art dealer to the same clients; "he designed a home, then provided the art to fill it". For a time, Wright made more from selling art than from his work as an architect

The extent of his dealings in Japanese art went largely unknown, or underestimated, among art historians for decades until, in 1980, Julia Meech, then associate curator of Japanese art at the Metropolitan Museum, began researching the history of the museum's collection of Japanese prints.

These discoveries, and subsequent research, led to a renewed understanding of Wright's career as an art dealer
Wright continued to collect, and deal in, prints until his death in 1959, frequently using prints as collateral for loans, frequently relying upon his art business to remain financially solvent

Wright - concern with organic architecture down to the smallest details. From his largest commercial commissions to the relatively modest Usonian houses, Wright conceived virtually every detail of both the external design and the internal fixtures, including furniture, carpets, windows, doors, tables and chairs, light fittings and decorative elements

He was one of the first architects to design and supply custom-made, purpose-built furniture and fittings that functioned as integrated parts of the whole design, and he often returned to earlier commissions to redesign internal fittings. Some of the built-in furniture remains, while other restorations have included replacement pieces created using his plans

PERSONAL STYLE AND CONCEPTS...

His Prairie houses use themed, coordinated design elements (often based on plant forms) that are repeated in windows, carpets and other fittings. He made innovative use of new building materials such as precast concrete blocks, glass bricks and zinc cames (instead of the traditional lead) for his leadlight windows, and he famously used Pyrex glass tubing as a major element in the Johnson Wax Headquarters. Wright was also one of the first architects to design and install custom-made electric light fittings, including some of the very first electric floor lamps, and his very early use of the then-novel spherical glass lampshade (a design previously not possible due to the physical restrictions of gas lighting).

As Wright's career progressed - mechanization of the glass industry. Wright fully embraced glass in his designs - fit well into his philosophy of organic architecture. Glass allowed - interaction & viewing of the outdoors while still protecting from the elements. Earliest uses of glass in his works - to string panes of glass along whole walls in an attempt to create light screens to join together solid walls - sought to achieve a balance between the lightness and airiness of the glass and the solid, hard walls. Best-known art glass is that of the Prairie style. Simple geometric shapes - yield to very ornate and intricate windows represent - most integral ornamentation of his career

Designed - own clothing. Fashion sense unique - usually expensive suits, flowing neckties, and capes. Drove a custom yellow 'raceabout' in the Prairie years, a red Cord convertible in the 1930s, and a famously customized 1940 Lincoln for many years. He earned many speeding tickets in each of his vehicles

Transformation of domestic life that occurred at the turn of the 20th century - Servants became a less prominent or completely absent - developing homes - more open plans. -Allowed - woman of the house work in her 'workspace (kitchen) yet keep track of and be available for the children and/or guests in the dining room. Modern architecture, including the early work of Mies van der Rohe

Wright rarely credited any influences on his designs, but most architects, historians and scholars agree he had five major influences: * Louis Sullivan, whom he considered to be his 'Lieber Meister' (dear master),
* Nature, particularly shapes/forms and colors/patterns of plant life, * Music (his favorite composer was Ludwig van Beethoven), * Japanese art, prints and buildings, Froebel Gifts

COLLEAGUES AND INFLUENCES

the United States Postal Service honored Wright with a Prominent Americans series 2 postage stamp. Received much honorary recognition for his lifetime achievements. Received Gold Medal awards from The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 1941 and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1949. Awarded the Franklin Institute's Frank P. Brown Medal in 1953. Received honorary degrees from several universities (including his "alma mater", the University of Wisconsin) and several nations named him as an honorary board member to their national academies of art and/or architecture

RECOGNITION...

THANK YOU AR. PREETHI HANNAH 09 AR 28