Frank lloyd wright

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Frank lloyd wright

• The Latter years (1932-1959)

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After the Prairie House

• Timeline
• 1909 Due to the scandal of leaving his wife and
  children for
• the wife of one of his clients,
  Frank Lloyd Wright has
• Difficulties in securing new
  clients and closes his
• Firm in Oak Park.
• 1910 - 1912 Wright travels Europe with Mrs.
  Cheney while
• working on having his portfolio
  and writings published.
• 1916 - 1921 After the murder of Mrs. Cheney
  and her
• children by a Farmhand at his
  house, Taliesin, in Spring
• Green, Wisconsin, Frank Lloyd
  Wright moves to Japan.
• while there he has several
  commissions. The most
• notable is The Imperial Hotel in
  Tokyo.
• 1922 Returns to the USA. Designs four houses
  in California,
• and several apartment complexes
  and resorts. The
• latter are never built because of
  the 1929 Crash.

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Taliesin School of Architecture

• In 1932, Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife started
  the Taliesin Fellowship, which then became the
  Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture.
  Twenty-three apprentices came to live and work on
  wrights farm in Spring Green.
• The farm was a self-sustaining entity, with the
  apprentices growing and harvesting their own
  food, building their own living quarters and
  other buildings needed on the farm. They also
  learned drafting, construction methods, and other
  crafts, as well as overseeing the construction of
  Wrights projects.
• "The fine arts, so called," they asserted,
  "should stand at the center as inspiration
  grouped about architecture . . . . (of which
  landscape and the decorative arts would be a
  division)." Education at Taliesin would emphasize
  painting, sculpture, music, drama, and dance "in
  their places as divisions of architecture."
  Frank Lloyd Wright (1931).
• Each Fall after harvest ,the apprentices would
  then load up trucks and station wagons with food,
  drawings, and other necessities and caravan
  across the plains to scottsdale arizona, the site
  of Taliesin West. The school continued
  Throughout his life, having upward to 100
  students at a time. Apprentices worked on their
  own designs as well as projects assigned to them
  by Frank lloyd Wright.

TALIESIN, FARM AND OUTBUILDINGS RENDERED BY FRANK
LLOYD WRIGHT (1933)
TALIESIN WEST - LIVING ROOM SCOTTSDALE ARIZONA
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Organic Architecture

• After his return from Japan, Frank lloyd Wright
  gave many lectures and interviews on
  architecture. In these discussion he began
  describing what he called, Organic
  Architecture. This became the theme for the
  rest of his career. How he defined Organic
  Architecture changed often, as he refined it, and
  also as the situation demanded.
• one that is integral to site
  integral to environment
• integral to the life of the
  inhabitants. A house integral
• with the nature of materials
  --- wherein glass is used as
• glass, stone as stone, wood as
  wood --- and all the
• elements of environment go into
  and throughout the house.
• Into this new integrity, once
  there, those who live in it
• will take root and grow. And
  most of all belonging to the
• nature of its being. Frank
  Lloyd Wright
• Integral to Site - houses designed to rise up out
  of the site as it belonging.
• Integral to environment - built appropriately to
  climate.
• Integral to Individual - Each building built to
  accommodate the lifestyle
• of the inhabitants way of life and
  needs.
• Integral to Materials - details of the building
  were the materials
• themselves

HOUSE RISING OUT OF THE HILL NATURALLY OLFELFT
HOUSE (1958)
HOUSE SITS ON ROCK CLIFF RISING FROM THE SEA
AND COVERED WITH GREEN CANOPY ROOF WALKER HOUSE
(1948)
ROUGH ROCK AND CONCRETE BLEND WITH HARSH DESERT
ENVIRONMENTS, SLATTED WINDOWS PROTECT FROM HARSH
SUN. TALIESIN WEST
TALIESIN, FARM AND OUTBUILDINGS RENDERED BY FRANK
LLOYD WRIGHT (1933)
TALIESIN, FARM AND OUTBUILDINGS RENDERED BY FRANK
LLOYD WRIGHT (1933)
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Usonian houses

• With the stock-market crash of 1929, Frank Lloyd
  Wright turned his interest to low cost housing
  for the masses. He called these houses, Usonian,
  being of the USA. The first of these was the
  Jacobs house (1936).
• The entire project cost 5,500, this included
  Wrights fee of 450. In the next 30 years over
  50 houses were built, and a hundred more
  designed, on the precepts of the Jacobs home.
  These homes were innovated and ahead of their
  time, as Wright created homes to fulfill the
  needs of a changing American society. Following
  the demands of Organic Architecture, each of the
  houses were individual and unique. However, they
  did have common elements that united them.
• Designed on a Module system - Originally a 2 x
  4 grid and a vertical grid of 1-1. these were
  the size of 1/2 sheet plywood, and the dimintions
  of the slat and battens that made up the wall.
  Later other modules would be used based on the
  site and the materials used.
• Deep Eaves - Cantilevered roofs that overhung
  and sheltered the walls, shading the house and
  Clearstory windows from the afternoon sun
• Open Plan - Pioneered the connecting of the
  kitchen, dining room, and Living room. This
  Reflected the need for the Lady of the house to
  be connected to the activity of the house, not
  hidden away.
• Connection to Nature - Shielded house from
  Public, but opened up the private side to the
  gardens and Light, blending indoors and outdoors,
  continuing the design of the house to the
  exterior.
• Efficient design of Bedrooms and Bathrooms -
  Bedrooms were modest in size, but contained
  spacious closets. Bathroom plumbing was stacked
  and located adjacent to kitchen to economize on
  material cost.
• Passive Heating - Use of concrete floors as
  thermal mass and large windows help regulate
  heating and cooling. In-bedded Plumbing pipes
  under foundations to provide radiant heating.
• Economical Materials - Used materials that were
  inexpensive. Early models with concrete, brick,
  and plywood, later with local stones and CMU
  blocks. Avoided ornamentation, instead let the
  natural properties of the materials provide the
  details of the house

STANDARD USONIAN WALL SECTION
BATTEN BOARD WALLS, CLEARSTORY WINDOWS AND
OVERHANGING, FLAT EAVES DEFINED THE USONIAN
HOUSES SCHWARTZ HOUSE (1939)
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Usonian Housing Plans

• As time passed, Frank Lloyd Wright adapted the
  usonian concepts from the original 2x4 design
  to six general styles.

DIAGONAL DESIGN SIMILAR TO POLLIWOG LAYOUT BUT
BASED ON A PARALLELOGRAM AND WALLS ANGLES RATHER
THAN 90 DEGREES. Right Snowflake House (1941)
POLLIWOG DESIGN 2X 4 LAYOUT WITH 90 DEGREE
TAIL EXTENDING INTO GARDEN SEPARATING PUBLIC
AND PRIVATE AREAS OF THE HOUSE ABOVE AND TOP
JACOBS HOUSE (1936)
In-Line Design house designed for narrower lots,
square layout without tail. ABOVE
GOETSCH-WINKLER HOUSE (1939)
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Usonian Housing Plans
SOLAR HEMI-CIRCLE DESIGN FIRST BUILT FOR JACOBS
FAMILY WHEN THEY OUTGREW THE ORIGINAL USONIAN
DESIGN, BUILT AROUND A CIRCLE COURTYARD. Above
right Jacobs House II (1940) Lower Right David
Wright House (1950)
RAISED DESIGN TWO-STORY DESIGN MADE TO
ACCOMMODATE SLOPED PROPERTY LOTS Above Lloyd
Lewis house (1940)
HEXAGONAL DESIGN Above Hanna house (1936)
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Broadacre City

• In 1935, Frank Lloyd Wright took his concepts of
  organic design and Usonian Architecture and
  applied them to the design of the new american
  city, one that abandoned the crowded, unhealthy
  conditions of the metropolitan life. The plan
  centralized itself on the idea of habitants
  living with nature. each residence was located
  on a one acre lot, giving them lots of space to
  have a personal garden and privacy. The lots
  were accessed by arterial roads that connected to
  a main highway, which had a monorail for public
  transportation and freight traffic. Public
  venues such as government, entertainment, and
  recreation were located in one central location.
  Wright imagined these cities expanding across the
  whole nation and, as current cities were
  abandoned for this preferred lifestyle, replacing
  existing cities. Though these designs never came
  to complete fruition, however, various townships
  were designed and built based on his ideas.

Above Broadacre City Plot Design (1935) Frank
LLoyd Wright ONE-ACRE PLOT PER HOUSE
Above Broadacre City Rendering(1935) Frank
LLoyd Wright
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Popular Successes

• During these latter years of Frank Lloyd Wright
  life he had become a household name. His plans
  were published in home and garden magazines, he
  was interviewed on radio and television, gave
  lectures, built hundreds of homes and buildings,
  and preached constantly the values of Usonian
  design and Organic Architecture. Two buildings
  however Stood above the rest in the minds of the
  general public that made him the great American
  architect.
• Falling Waters (1935) - Designed and under
  construction the same time the Jacob's house was
  built there is a remarkable contrast and
  similarities to Wrights Usonian Plan. It was
  ornate, opulent and costly rather than simple and
  inexpensive. Both did have open plans and
  Falling Water was integral to its site as a
  building could be, truly organic. (Seen on Left)
• The Guggenheim Museum of Modern Arts - At first
  glance appears very different in style, but
  examination shows a very Organic Architecture and
  commonalities to Usonian houses. It was based on
  the Module of the circle similar the the
  Hemi-circle House. This can be seen in plan,
  fencing, dome ceiling, flooring pattern, and with
  curving ramps for circulation around
  Central,rather than exterior courtyard exterior.
• (seen on right)

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Bibliography

• Alan and Alan Hess. Frank Lloyd Wright - Mid-
• Century Modern. New York
  Rizzoli International
• Publications, 2007.
• Drexler, Arthur. The Drawings of Frank Lloyd
  Wright. New
• York Horizon Press for the
  Museum of Modern Art,
• 1962.
• Meehan, Patrick J. The Master Architect
  Conversations
• With Frank Lloyd Wright. New
  York John Wiley
• Sons, 1984.
• Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright
  Selected
• houses, vol. 6. Tokyo A.D.A.
  edita, 1991.
• Weintraub,Sergeant, John. Frank Lloyd Wrights
  Usonian
• Houses. New York
  Watson-Guptill Publications,
• 1976.

Above Tracy House (1954)
Above Pearce House (1950)