Frank Lloyd Wright

As a boy on a family farm near Spring Green , Wisconsin , Frank Lloyd Wright (born in 1867 ) learned about the organic interrelatedness of nature 's systems . As a mature architect , he would understand that architecture , too , was subject to similar organic laws and would masterfully adhere to those laws

When Wright was 20 he went to Chicago , where he became a draftsman with the firm of Adler and Sullivan (Larkin , Pfeiffer , 1993 . In this way he was exposed to the most advanced architectural thought of the period Another important influence on Wright

was Oriental art , which he began to collect - especially Japanese prints . Intimate scale and the use of natural materials , open , free-flowing spaces , and screen walls made a strong impression on Wright

Early in his career , Wright arrived at a new form of domestic architecture , the Prairie House , which first appeared in prairie states and seemed to grow organically out of the land itself . That a structure should be an integral part of its environment was essential in Wright 's theory of design . All essential feature of Prairie House design coalesced in the Frederic Robie House in Chicago . The exterior of Robie House is dominated by powerful horizontals that mirror the horizon of the prairie , thus uniting the building with its natural environment and achieving the desired organic quality (Fig .1 . Wright frequently eliminated basements because he found them dark , damp , and unpleasant Buildings such as the Robie House were placed upon a concrete platform and raised slightly above the ground level

Wright was influenced by the contemporary English aesthetic movement Arts and Crafts Movement his architectural treatment had much in common stylistically with the De Stijl movement in Holland (Larkin , Pfeiffer 1993 . Indeed , Wright 's innovative work was widely respected among the most advanced of the European art community

In spite of the generally stultifying effect of the Great Depression of the 1930s , the career of Frank Lloyd Wright experienced resurgence with the creation of Fallingwater - or the Kaufmann House - one of his masterpiece . An outcropping of natural bedrock emerges in front of the fireplace in the living room , emphasizing the organic quality of the house (Fig .2 . Around a huge central fireplace made of local stones open spaces sweep freely . Texturally , the natural stone of the fireplace offers an interesting contrast to the concrete forms . Walls of glass give a feeling of oneness between the interior of the house and its wooded environment . Cantilevered balconies jut out into the wooded space so that one feels as if one were standing in the woods or above the little waterfall , while still within the structure of the house

By 1940 , architecture was significantly changed from when Wright had started his career nearly sixty years earlier , and he had played a major role in effecting this change

Fig .1 Frank Lloyd Wright , Frederick Robie House , Chicago , Illinois 1908-9

Fig . 2 Frank Lloyd Wright , Fallingwater , or the Kaufmann House , Mill Run , Pennsylvania , 1937

Work Cited

Larkin , David , Pfeiffer , Bruce Brooks . Frank...