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FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Frank Lloyd Wright (born Frank Lincoln Wright, June 8,1867 April 9, 1959) was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. This philosophy was best exemplified by his design for Falling water (1935), which has been called "the best all-time work of American architecture". Wright was a leader of the Prairie School movement of architecture and developed the concept of the Usonian home, his unique vision for urban planning in the United States. His work includes original and innovative examples of many different building types,

including offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, and museums. Wright also designed many of the interior elements of his buildings, such as the furniture and stained glass. Wright authored 20 books and many articles and was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe. His colourful personal life often made headlines, most notably for the 1914 fire and murders at his Taliesin studio. Already well known during his lifetime, Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time."

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in the farming town of Richland Centre, Wisconsin, United States, in 1867 and named Frank Lincoln Wright. His father, William Carey Wright (1825 1904), was a locally admired orator, music teacher, occasional lawyer, and itinerant minister. William Wright had met and married Anna Lloyd Jones (1838/39 1923), a county school teacher, the previous year when he was employed as the superintendent of schools for Richland County.

In his biography his mother declared, when she was expecting her first child, that he would grow up to build beautiful buildings. She decorated his nursery with engravings of English cathedrals torn from a periodical to encourage the infant's ambition. The family moved to Weymouth, Massachusetts in 1870 for William to minister a small congregation.

In 1876, Anna visited the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia and saw an exhibit of educational blocks created by Friedrich Wilhelm August Frobel. The blocks, known as Froebel Gifts, were the foundation of his innovative kindergarten curriculum. As a trained teacher, Anna was excited by the program and bought a set of blocks for her family. Young Wright spent much time playing with the blocks. These were geometrically shaped and could be assembled in various combinations to form three-dimensional compositions. Wright's autobiography talks about the influence of these exercises on his approach to design. Many of his buildings are notable for their geometrical clarity. Soon after Wright turned 14, his parents separated. Anna had been unhappy for some time with William's inability to provide for his family and asked him to leave. At this time Wright changed his middle name from Lincoln to Lloyd in honour of his mother's family, the Lloyd Joneses. As the only male left in the family, Wright assumed financial responsibility for his mother and two sisters

Wright attended a Madison high school, but there is no evidence he ever graduated. He was admitted to the University of WisconsinMadison as a special student in 1886. There he joined Phi Delta Theta fraternity, took classes part-time for two semesters, and worked with a professor of civil engineering, Allan D. Conover. In 1887, Wright left the school without taking a degree.

In 1887, Wright arrived in Chicago in search of employment. As a result of the devastating Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and recent population boom, new development was plentiful in the city. He later recalled that his first impressions of Chicago were that of grimy neighbourhoods, crowded streets, and disappointing architecture, yet he was determined to find work. Within days, and after interviews with several prominent firms, he was hired as a draftsman with the architectural firm of Joseph Lyman Silsbee. Wright previously collaborated with Silsbee accredited as the draftsman and the construction supervisor on the 1886 Unity Chapel for Wright's family in Spring Green, Wisconsin. While with the firm, he also worked on two other family projects: the All Souls Church in Chicago for his uncle, Jenkins Lloyd Jones, and the Hillside Home School I in Spring Green for two of his aunts.

THE ALL SOULS CHURCH

THE HILLSIDE HOME SCHOOL

In his autobiography, Wright recounts that he also had a short stint in another Chicago architecture office. Feeling that he was underpaid for the quality of his work for Silsbee (at $8 a week), the young draftsman quit and found work as a designer at the firm of Beers, Clay, and Dutton. However, Wright soon realized that he was not ready to handle building design by himself; he left his new job to return to Joseph Silsbeethis time with a raise in salary. Although Silsbee adhered mainly to Victorian and revivalist architecture, Wright found his work to be more "gracefully picturesque" than the other "brutalities" of the period. Still, Wright aspired for more progressive work. After less than a year had passed in Silsbee's office, Wright learned that the Chicago firm of Adler & Sullivan was "looking for someone to make the finish drawings for the interior of the Auditorium [Building]." Wright demonstrated that he was a competent impressionist of Louis Sullivan's ornamental designs and two short interviews later, was an official apprentice in the firm. COLLEAGUES AND INFLUENCES 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 colours/patterns of plant life, Music (his favourite composer was Ludwig van Beethoven), Japanese art, prints and buildings, Froebel Gifts

Taliesin Aline Barnsdall's hollyhock house Storer residence Falling water house for Edgar j. Kaufmann Hanna residence Taliesin west Florida southern college V.C. Morris gift house H.C. price house Solomon r. Guggenheim museum Marin county civic center

TALIESIN

LOCATION = SPRING GREEN, WISCONSIS, U.S. TALIESIN MEANS BRIGHT LIGHT.


This one story structure is strategically placed at the top of a hill from which magnificent views of landscape can be observed. the materials used were mostly stone and wood. the exquisite design of all constructive details and meticulous craftsmanship resulted in deep formal richness, a great variety of finishes, and imaginative solutions through out the work The sizes of stones used in walls are of unequal form and thickness to create textured faces

ALLINE BARNSDALLS HOLLYHOCK HOUSE


LOCATION = LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA,U.S. In 1917,the starting date of construction, Los Angeles was still a desert. It was thus necessary to irrigate and landscape the lot so that it would be more suitable to a tropical setting. Given the intensity of the sun in the region, wright conceived of a main house with certain introspective character in place of a residence oriented towards the exterior. To this end, wright created a tree-covered interior patio to provide the space with shade. sliding glass doors blur the limits between interiors & exteriors

STORER RESIDENCE

LOCATION = HOLLYWOOD,CALIFORNIA,U.S. In contrast to the other designs, here the characteristic and mysterious transaction between interior and exterior is not so apparent. The home is situated above street level.

The relation with the exterior is present in the rooms. Each has been fitted out with large openings that communicates with terraces and gardens surrounding the home

The magic of this project resides in the combination of folk and traditional motifs, with singular and timeless shapes, which have made it into one of the icons of twentieth century architecture

FALLING WATER HOUSE FOR EDGAR J. KAUFMANN Fallingwater stands as one of Wright's greatest masterpieces both for its dynamism and for its integration with the striking natural surroundings. Wright's passion for Japanese architecture was strongly reflected in the design of Fallingwater, particularly in the importance of interpenetrating exterior and interior spaces and the strong emphasis placed on harmony between man and nature

The vertical elements of the house are of local stone. The horizontal elements are made of reinforced concrete. The floors and walls are stone-covered, with fine-grained walnut woodwork

Bear Run and the sound of its water permeate the house, especially during the spring when the snow is melting, and locally quarried stone walls and cantilevered terraces resembling the nearby rock formations are meant to be in harmony. The design incorporates broad expanses of windows and balconies which reach out into their surroundings. The staircase leading down from the living room to the stream is accessed via movable horizontal glass panes. In conformance with Wright's views, the main entry door is away from the falls.

The extensive usage of glass, stone, and wood makes the interior of the house appear to be an extension of nature in the exterior

PLAN

DETAILS

SECTION

3D VIEW

TALIESIN WEST LOCATION = SCOTTSDALE,ARIZONA,U.S The project was literally born of the desert. The students collaborated in the collection of local rocks and sand , the primary materials in the construction . The skillful use of indigenous materials results in a perfect integration of the structure with the surrounding landscape. Even the selection of color emphasizes the relation between the building complex and the desert table land on which the construction is situated

HANNA RESIDENCE LOCATION = PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S. Wright wanted to tackle residential projects economically without sacrificing a high standard of comfort. The solution was one-story homes in which skillful use of space, material and building techniques required neither aesthetic sacrifice nor neglecting clients needs. The rooms of the house given the most attention were the living room (spacious and open to the exterior),the kitchen (practical and compact)and cement flooring to hide hot water system

FLORIDA SOUTHER COLLEGE

H.C. PRICE HOUSE

V.C MORRIS GIFT HOUSE

SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM

- Royal Institute of British Architects gold medal, 1939 - American Institute of Architects gold medal, 1949 - Major one-man exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi and gold medal from the city of Florence, 1951 - Honorary degree from the University Institute of Venice, 1951 - National Institute of Arts and Letters gold medal, 1953

Turmoil followed Wright even many years after his death on April 9, 1959, while undergoing surgery in Phoenix, Arizona, to remove an intestinal obstruction. His third wife, Olgivanna, ran the Fellowship after Wright's death, until her own death in Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1985. That year, it was learned that her dying wish had been that Wright, she, and her daughter by a first marriage all be cremated and relocated to Scottsdale, Arizona. By then, Wright's body had lain for over 25 years in the Lloyd-Jones cemetery, next to the Unity Chapel, near Taliesin, Wright's later-life home in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

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