It takes a lot of commitment and desire to become an architect. For future designer like me, indeed I could say that the amount of education needed is very significant. Assuming and optimistic to be a licensed one I must graduate with a five year professional degree then an additional two years for apprentice. As young designers and still has the chance to explore more of our selves and the environment around us, finding no limits in our design and freedom is one way of how we could exercise and discover our artistic side.
In a way we could humbly express the concept of what we design of a particular structure which I believe is really what architecture is all about. It is part of our journey to look up some of the famous and brilliant architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, whose works were so impressive that it could inspire me more to become not only just an ordinary one, but a brilliant one as well. Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin on June 8, 1867. His parents were William Cary Wright and Anna Lloyd-Jones. When he was twelve years old, Wright’s family settled in Madison, Wisconsin where he attended Madison High School.
During summers spent on his Uncle James Lloyd Jones’ farm in Spring Green, Wisconsin, Wright first began to realize his dream of becoming an architect. In 1885 at the age of fourteen years old, he left Madison without finishing high school to work for Allan Conover, the Dean of the University of Wisconsin’s Engineering department. Since the University of Wisconsin had no course in architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright spent two semesters studying civil engineering before moving to Chicago and decided to go to work in some real architect’s office in 1888.
In Chicago, he worked for architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee in six years. Wright drafted the construction of his first building, the Lloyd-Jones family chapel, also known as Unity Chapel. One year later, he went to work for the firm of Adler and Sullivan, directly under Louis Sullivan. Wright adapted Sullivan’s maxim “Form Follows Function” to his own revised theory of “Form and Function Are One. ” Then later believed and developed a theory that American Architecture should be based on American function, not European traditions.
Throughout his life, Wright acknowledged very few influences but credits Sullivan as a primary influence on his career. His works and design were “organically spatial” which means characterized as radical and conscious with surrounding natural environment. Wright had a style of his own, mimicking that of a horizontal plane, with no basements or attics. Built with natural materials and never painted, Wright utilized low-pitched rooflines with deep overhangs and uninterrupted walls of windows to merge the horizontal homes into their environments.
He added large stone or brick fireplaces in the homes’ heart, and made the rooms open to one another. His simplistic houses served as an inspiration to the Prairie School, a name given to a group of architects whose style was indigenous of Midwestern architecture. Wright gained an appreciation for nature, particularly Midwestern nature, from working on his uncles’ Wisconsin farm during his teenage summers. There he could observe the horizontal line of the land, the line that he considered domestic and democratic and freeing.
It would signify comfort, a quality that Wright wanted to characterize his buildings, particularly his houses. To this end Wright’s Prairie Style house typically features a large, centrally-placed fireplace, a hearth that “grounds” the house and becomes its focus. Frequently he designed benches on either side of it, in effect creating a room within a room. In at least one instance he elevated this space from the rest of the area and set it off by a series of arches. Also Frank Lloyd Wright employed design that to the natural environment and honesty of material use which merges for a unified character.
Most the building materials that were used in Prairie Style homes were simple. Some examples of this material were: plaster (stucco), wood and brick. Its aim was to develop sympathy and inclination towards the design, aesthetic or beauty and ideals of the art crafts movement. Also to produce an indigenous North American style architecture with minimal European influence. One of his highlights was also the Usonian concept the word “Usonia” is an abbreviation for United States of North America.
Designed to control costs, Wright’s Usonian houses had no attics, no basements, and little ornamentation as being said earlier. Frank Lloyd Wright aspired to create a democratic, distinctly American style that was affordable for the “common people” or the middle class and designed to be run without servants. Usonian architecture grew out of Frank Lloyd Wright’s earlier Prairie style homes. Both styles featured low and flat roofs, large cantilevered overhangs for passive solar heating, natural cooling and natural lighting with clerestory windows.
Both styles made abundant use of brick, wood, and other natural material. However, Wright’s Usonian homes were small; one-story structures set on concrete slabs with piping for radiant heat beneath, had L-shaped plans to accommodate a garden terrace with indigenous materials. The kitchens called “workspaces” by Wright were incorporated into the adjoined the dining and living areas. Bedrooms were typically isolated and relatively small, encouraging the family to gather in the main living areas. Also open car ports took the place of garages.
The conception of spaces instead of rooms was a development of the Prairie ideal as the built-in furnishings related to the Arts and Crafts principles from which Wright’s early works grew. 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. The diversity of the Usonian ideal can be seen in houses such as the Gregor S. and Elizabeth B. Affleck House. His Usonian homes set a new style for suburban design that was a feature of countless developers.
Many features of modern American homes date back to Wright, including open plans, slab-on-grade foundations, and simplified construction techniques that allowed more mechanization and efficiency in building. Over the next 20 years Wright’s influence continued to grow in popularity in the United States and Europe. Eventually his innovative building style spread overseas. In 1915, Wright was commissioned to design the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. It was during this time that Wright began to develop and refine his architectural and sociological philosophies.
Because Wright disliked the urban environment, his buildings also developed a style quite different from other architects of the time. He utilized natural materials, skylights and walls of windows to embrace the natural environment. He built skyscrapers that mimicked trees, with a central trunk and many branches projecting outward. He proclaimed that shapes found in the environment should be not only integrated, but should become the basis of American architecture. A great example is the Larkin Company Administration Building in Buffalo, New York and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City which resembles the structure of a shell or a snail.
He also included external influences like the knowledge about Japanese art and architecture, Wright first traveled to Japan in 1905, where he bought hundreds of prints. The following year, he helped organize the world’s first retrospective exhibition of works by Hiroshige, held at the Art Institute of Chicago. For many years, he was a major presence in the Japanese art world, selling a great number of works to prominent collectors such as John Spaulding of Boston, and to prominent museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
He penned a book on Japanese art in 1912. Frank Lloyd Wright spent more than 70 years creating designs that revolutionized the art and was considered as one of the most influential and imaginative architects of the twentieth century. Many innovations in today’s buildings are products of his imagination. In all he designed 1141 works – including houses, offices, churches, schools, libraries, bridges, museums and many other building types. Of that total, 532 resulted in completed works, 409 of which still stand. However, Wright’s creative mind was not confined to architecture.
He also designed furniture, fabrics, art glass, lamps, dinnerware, silver, linens and graphic arts. In addition, he was a prolific writer, an educator and a philosopher. He authored twenty books and countless articles, lectured throughout the United States and in Europe, and developed a remarkable plan for decentralizing urban America that continues to be debated by scholars and writers even to this day – decades after its conception. One example of a building may have been influenced by his principles is the Main Building at the University of Santo Tomas.
This unique and impressive structure is a famous landmark in the City, designed by the Dominican priest and engineer; Fr. Roque Ruano it was completed on July 2, 1927. It has the distinction of being the first earthquake-proof building in the country. The building is composed of 40 independent structures separated from one another by a gap of one inch which is filled with loose cement. One of these structures rises beyond the level of the fourth floor to form the tower, at the top of which is a Cross. This tower and cross can be seen from many parts of the city.
The Main Building of the University of Santo Tomas functions as the university’s administrative center and home of the Faculty of Civil Law, Faculty of Pharmacy and the College of Science. The Main Building is also the home of the Museum of Arts and Sciences. The building, designed by Fr. Roque Ruano, is the first earthquake-proof building in the Philippines. Ruano was influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel, Tokyo due to its horizontal orientation which signifies comfort. I conclude that Frank Lloyd Wright practices inspire me by the simplicity in which he designed.
There is a real sense of freshness to the way in which projects are carried out. His works and theories truly inspired due to even presentation and honesty of materials used in his style. He has similar approaches in regards to allow architecture to be seen as fun. I believe that Frank Lloyd Wright simply means or is equals to “organically spacious architecture” and freedom, and freedom cannot exist without conscience. And the condition of freedom is a developed conscience so you can’t be free until you have it because you are afraid.
Then no designer is free who is afraid. And he is afraid until he has developed the certainty that comes from a creative life and a creative role in life by way of art, religion, and science. I’d also realize that Wright often promote a real sense that architecture is for the people. As what he learns from Sullivan that “Form follows Function” at the end of the day I could see that the user is has a lot of the time to use the spaces and was indeed being showed through the design and planning of his works. However what I like the most about Frank Lloyd Wright was the se of honest materials in at his time. As being observed on his projects he uses the indigenous material as an architectural and artist to create an interactive facade that is both enjoyable to view and live amongst. I have also enjoyed looking at the alternative; Wright use furniture and try to find other uses. Agents of Change are another inspirational practice for me. He looked into the detail of the purpose of the the site to the structure and then design specifically with respect for that user, using that level of detail.
Technically Frank Lloyd Wright uses a style rather fond to me, it’s rather playful, it also opens up drawings to the public that are not intimidating and can be easily read. Both the practices use down to earth approach, that hasn’t allowed corporate influence to choke the style or design. And organic approach simply reminds me of how God entrust us with his creation as stewards to take good care of the natural resources around us. Frank Lloyd Wright was one architect that created a worth-while legacy with such depth and meaning that his ideals are still successfully modeled today, continues to inspire new generation architects.
