- USA 1965. Frank Lloyd Wright in front of the Guggenheim Museum, New York.
- USA 2005. From the sheet "Masterpieces of American Architecture". The interior of the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
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Frank Lloyd Wright
(1867-1969)
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, who was a pioneer
of the modern style. He is considered one of the greatest figures in
20th-century architecture.
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Wright was born June 8, 1867, in Richland Center, Wisconsin.
When he entered the University of Wisconsin in 1884 his interest in
architecture had already become apparent. The university offered no
courses in his chosen field, however, and he studied civil engineering and
gained some practical experience by working part time on a construction
project at the university. In 1887 he left and went to Chicago, where he
became a designer for the firm of Adler and Sullivan. One of the partners
of this company, the American architect Louis Sullivan, had a profound
influence on Wright's work. In 1893 Wright left the firm to establish his
own office in Chicago.
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Organic Architecture
Wright created the philosophy of "organic architecture", the
central principle of which maintains that the building should develop out of its
natural surroundings. From the outset he exhibited bold originality in his
designs for both private and public structures and rebelled against the ornate
Neo-Classical and Victorian styles favoured by conventional architects. Wright
was opposed to the mechanical imposition of preconceived styles. He believed
that the architectural form must ultimately be determined in each case by the
particular function of the building, its environment, and the type of materials
employed in the structure. Among his fundamental contributions was the use of
various building materials for their natural colours and textures, as well as
for their structural characteristics. His interiors emphasize the sense of
spaciousness, which derives from open planning with one room flowing into
another. This concept was particularly evident in his early single-family
houses, the so-called prairie houses, among them the Martin House (1904) in
Buffalo, New York; the Coonley House (1908) in Riverside, Illinois; and the
Robie House (1909) in Chicago.
New Techniques
Wright initiated many new techniques, such as the use of pre-cast concrete
blocks reinforced by steel rods. He also introduced numerous innovations,
including air conditioning, indirect lighting, and panel heating. The Larkin
Building in Buffalo, New York, which he designed in 1904, was the first office
building to utilize air conditioning, double-glass windows, all-glass doors, and
metal furniture. Among his remarkable engineering feats was the design of the
huge Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, constructed to withstand earthquakes. To obtain
the required flexibility, he employed cantilever construction with a foundation
floating on a bed of soft mud. The building was completed in 1922, and it
suffered no damage in the disastrous earthquake that occurred in the following
year.
Throughout his career, architects who were more conventional than Wright opposed his unorthodox methods. Beset with personal difficulties and professional antagonisms, he passed a year of self-imposed exile (1909-1910) in Europe. Upon his return, established in Taliesin (named after a 6th-century Welsh bard), the home and school he built for himself near Spring Green, Wisconsin, he began anew on a career of ever-widening achievements. Among his later works are the Millard House (1923) in Pasadena, California; the Kaufmann House (1937), called Fallingwater, at Bear Run, Pennsylvania (now maintained by the state and open to the public); the Johnson Wax Company Administration Building (1939) in Racine, Wisconsin; the First Unitarian Church (1947) in Madison, Wisconsin; the V. C. Morris gift shop (1950) in San Francisco; and the Price Tower (1953), a skyscraper in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. In 1959 he completed the curvilinear Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Other Interests
Wright devoted much of his time to writing, lecturing, and teaching. By 1908
he had originated most of the principles that are today the fundamental concepts
of modern architecture. Although his early struggle against eclecticism
attracted the hostility of the American academicians, nevertheless his work
profoundly influenced the development of contemporary architecture in the United
States as well as in Europe. At Taliesin West (begun 1938), his winter home in
Scottsdale, Arizona, Wright established a studio-workshop for apprentices who
assisted him on his projects. He also founded the Taliesin Fellowship to support
such efforts. His writings include An Autobiography (1932; revised ed. 1943), An
Organic Architecture (1939), Genius and the Mobocracy (1949), and Natural House
(1954). Wright died in Phoenix, Arizona, on April 9, 1959.
Sources and links:
Microsoft Encarta 2002.
Other Expressionist architects on this site:
Le Corbusier (French)
Schmidt, Hammer & Lassen (Danish group)
Eero Saarinen (Finnish born American)
Johann-Otto von Spreckelsen (Danish)
Jorn Utzon (Danish)
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| Revised 24-jul-2006. Ann Mette Heindorff Copyright © 1999-2007. All Rights Reserved |
