C 2329

HISTORY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE MODEN)

( SEJARAH SENIBINA

2009

FRANK LlOYD WRIGHT

(master of space)

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"[1]

Frank Lloyd Wright (June

8, 1867 April 9, 1959) was an American architect, interior designer, writer, educator, and philosopher from Oak Park, Illinois. He designed more than 1,000 projects, of which more than 500 resulted in completed works. Wright promoted organic architecture (exemplified by Fallingwater), originated the Prairie School of architecture (exemplified by the Robie House), and developed the concept of the Usonian home (exemplified by the Rosenbaum House). His work includes original and innovative examples of many different building types, including offices, churches, schools, hotels, and museums. Wright also often designed many of the interior elements of his buildings, such as the furniture and stained glass. Wright authored twenty books and numerous articles and was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe. His colorful personal life frequently made headlines, most notably for the failure of his first two marriages and for the 1914 fire and murders at his Taliesin studio.

The Early Years

Frank Lloyd Wright was born on June 8, 1867 in Richland Center, Wisconsin. He spent a few semester in Engineering school at the University of Wisconsin before leaving for Chicago 1887. At the age of twenty, he was hired as an apprentice in the office of J Lyman Silsbee who design All Souls Unitarian Church where Wrights uncle was minister. The young architects first work was nominally a Silsbee commission the Hillside Home School built for his aunts in 1888 near Spring Green, Wisconsin. While construction was underway on the Hillside Home School, Wright went to work for the Chicago firm of Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, working as a draftsman o the Auditorium Building, Which, at the time of completion in 1890, was the largest building in Chicago. He remained with that firm until 1893, during which time he absorbed, including one for himself in Oak Park Illinois that was constructed with Sullivans Financial assistance. Moonlighting on his own commissions led to a break with Sullivan in 1893, and Wright set up a separate practice. His
64

C 2329

HISTORY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE MODEN)

( SEJARAH SENIBINA

2009

First commissions were primarily for the design of private homes in the W.H. Winslow house of 1893-94 in river Forest, Illinois- considered by Wright to be his first. Unfortunately, many of the buildings he designed around the turn of the century have not survived.

practice, creating what became the "Prairie Style" of architecture.

Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio

The Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio (1889/1898) served as Wright's private residence and workplace from 1889 to 1909 - the first 20 years of his career. Wright used his home as an architectural laboratory, experimenting with design concepts that contain the seeds of his architectural philosophy. Here he raised six children with his first wife, Catherine Tobin. In 1898, Wright added a studio, described by a fellow-architect as a workplace with "inspiration everywhere." In the Studio, Wright and his associates developed a new American architecture: the Prairie style, and designed 125 structures, including such famous buildings as the Robie House, the Larkin Building and Unity Temple. This extraordinary building in Oak Park, Illinois was the Wright family residence from 1889 to 1909. Wright began the construction of this house in 1889 shortly after his marriage to Catherine Tobin, using $5,000 borrowed from Louis Sullivan. The Wright family - Frank and Catherine, and their six children - lived here while he developed his architectural
65

West Face of the Home

West Face Detail

C 2329

HISTORY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE MODEN)

( SEJARAH SENIBINA

2009

Originally, the room at the front of the house on the second floor served as his drafting room, until the completion of the Studio Annex in 1898. In 1895, Wright added the two story polygonal Bay on the south side. In the first floor of this Bay Wright built his inspired Dining Room, with the spectacular Dining Table & Chairs that perfectly express the spirit of the room, and of his style. The windows of the Dining Room Bay were later modified when the house to the south of the Wright Home was built, blocking the flow of light into the Bay. The same year, Wright also added a two story extension to the east side of the house (seen at the far left in the photo at right,) whose upstairs is the celebrated Children's Playroom. This room receives light from rows of art glass windows along both the north and south walls, and from the overhead skylight, creating and etherial effect, not to be missed!

Prairie style
Prairie style houses usually have these features:

Low-pitched roof Overhanging eaves Horizontal lines Central chimney Open floor plan Clerestory windows About the Prairie Style: Frank Lloyd Wright believed that rooms in Victorian era homes were boxed-in and confining. He began to design houses with low horizontal lines and open interior spaces. Rooms were often divided by leaded glass panels. Furniture was either built-in or specially

North Face (Front) of the Home

66

C 2329

HISTORY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE MODEN)

( SEJARAH SENIBINA

2009

designed. These homes were called prairie style after Wright's 1901 Ladies Home Journal plan titled, "A Home in a Prairie Town." Prairie houses were designed to blend in with the flat, prairie landscape.

The kitchens were incorporated into the living areas. Open car ports took the place of garages. In the 1950s, when he was in his '80s, Frank Lloyd Wright first used the term Usonian Automatic to describe a Usonian style house made of inexpensive concrete blocks. The three-inchthick modular blocks could be assembled in a variety of ways and secured with steel rods and grout. Frank Lloyd Wright hoped that home buyers would save money by building their own Usonian Automatic houses. But assembling the modular parts proved complicated - most buyers hired pros to construct their Usonian houses. Despite Frank Lloyd Wright's aspirations toward simplicity and economy, Usonian houses often exceeded budgeted costs.

The first Prairie houses were usually plaster with wood trim or sided with horizontal board and batten. Later Prairie homes used concrete block. Prairie homes can have many shapes: Square, L-shaped, T-shaped, Yshaped, and even pinwheel-shaped.

Usonian.
In 1936, when the United States was in the depths of an economic depression, Frank Lloyd Wright developed a series of homes he called Usonian. Designed to control costs, Wright's Usonian houses had no attics, no basements, and little ornamentation. The word Usonia is an abbreviation for United States of North America. Frank Lloyd Wright aspired to create a democratic, distinctly American style that was affordable for the "common people."

67

C 2329

HISTORY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE MODEN)

( SEJARAH SENIBINA

2009

alcove, a large fireplace, and stairs leading to the upper story. To the left, groups of seating offer scenic views.

Fallingwater

"There in a beautiful forest was a solid, high rock ledge rising beside a waterfall, and the natural thing seemed to be to cantilever the house from that rock bank over the falling water..."
-- Frank Lloyd Wright in an interview with Hugh Downs, 1954

Fallingwater may look like a loose pile of concrete slabs about to topple into the stream... but there is no danger of that! The slabs are actually anchored through the stonework of the hillside. Also, the largest and heaviest portion of the house is at the rear, not over the water. And, finally, each floor has its own support system. When you enter the recessed front door of Fallingwater, your eye is first drawn to a far corner, where a balcony overlooks the waterfall. To the right of the entryway, there is a dining

Fallingwater, the residential masterpiece of great American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, was designed in 1936 for the family of Pittsburgh department store owner Edgar J. Kaufmann. Considered by some as the most famous private house ever built, Fallingwater epitomizes man living in harmony with nature. The house, set amid 5000 acres of natural wilderness, is constructed of local sandstone, reinforced concrete, steel and glass. It juts out over a waterfall on Bear Run, appearing as naturally formed as the rocks, trees and rhododendrons which embrace it. The interior of Fallingwater remains true to Frank Lloyd Wright's vision as well, including cantilevered desks, earthtoned built-in sofas, polished stone floors, and large casement windows which allow the outdoors to pour in. The hearth of the soaring stone fireplace is actually a boulder on the hill, supposedly Mr. Kaufmann's favorite sunning spot before Fallingwater was built - the house was literally built around it. From the Great Room a set of stairs enables you to walk down and stand on a tiny platform in the middle of the stream.
68

C 2329

HISTORY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE MODEN)

( SEJARAH SENIBINA

2009

recall the great homes of Egypt and Babylon, with secret waters flowing, and secret gardens flowering. Falling water was the weekend home of the Kaufmann family from 1937 until 1963, when the property was donated to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy by Edgar Kaufmann Jr. It still looks as it did when the family lived there - the only remaining great Wright house with its setting, original furnishings and art work intact. Designated as a National Historic Landmark, Falling water was also named by the American Institute of Architects in 2000 as the "Building of the Century." Over 2 million people have visited Falling water, located 90 miles southeast of Pittsburgh in Fayette County, since it opened to the public in 1964. A variety of tours are available According to Xu Weili.... With Falling water, Frank Lloyd Wright accomplished the traditional Taoist objectives of meeting wind with water, or what the Chinese describe as feng shui. Simply said, feng shui means living in balance with nature. Falling water represents this ideal. For the first time, an American architect understood Chinese geomancy, and put this to work in his own way. Residents of Falling water could dip their toes in the waters, or breath in the clean air of a pure Pennsylvania forest. The cantilevered terraces of Falling water Small wonder that the original family of Falling water was blessed with financial offerings

69

C 2329

HISTORY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE MODEN)

( SEJARAH SENIBINA

2009

Johnson Wax Headquarters

Johnson Wax Headquarters (19361939), the world headquarters and administration building of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. in Racine, Wisconsin was designed by American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, for the company's president, Herbert F. "Hib" Johnson. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976 as Administration Building and Research Tower, S.C. Johnson and Son. One approaches the building by walking underneath the 14story tall Johnson Wax Research Tower (1944-1951) and through a low parking lot, which is supported by steelreinforced "dendriform" (tree-shaped) concrete columns. The parking lot ceiling creates a compression of space, and the dendriform columns are echoed inside the building, where they rise over two stories tall, supporting the structure's roof. This rise in height when one enters the administration building creates a release of spatial compression. Compression and release of space were concepts that Wright used in many of his designs, including the playroom in his Oak Park Home and Studio, the Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and many others.
70

C 2329

HISTORY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE MODEN)

( SEJARAH SENIBINA

2009

The largest expanse of space in the Johnson Wax building is the Great Workroom, as Wright called it. This open area has no internal walls and was intended for secretaries of the Johnson Wax company, while a mezzanine holds the administrators. The construction of the Johnson Wax building created controversies for the architect. In the Great Workroom, the dendriform columns are 9 inches (23 cm) in diameter at the bottom and 18 feet (550 cm) in diameter at the top, on a wide, round platform that Wright termed, the "lily pad." This difference in diameter between the bottom and top of the column did not accord with building codes at the time. Building inspectors required that a test column be built and loaded with twelve tons of material. The test column, once it was built, was loaded with sixty tons of materials before the "calyx", or part of the column that meets the lily pad, cracked (crashing the 60 tons of materials to the ground, and bursting a water main 30 feet underground). After this demonstration, Wright was given his building permit.

Interior, "Great Workroom", of the Johnson Wax Headquarters building Additionally, it was very difficult to properly seal the glass tubing of the clerestories and roof, thus causing leaks. This problem was not solved until rubber gaskets were placed between the tubes, and corrugated plastic was used in the roof to seal it, while mimicking the glass tubes. And finally, Wright's chair design for Johnson Wax originally had only three legs, supposedly to encourage better posture (because one would have to keep both feet on the ground at all times to sit in it). However, the chair design proved too unstable, tipping very easily. Herbert Johnson, needing a new chair design, purportedly asked Wright to sit in one of the three-legged chairs and, after Wright fell from the chair, the architect designed new chairs for Johnson Wax with four legs; these chairs, and the other office furniture designed by Wright, are still in use. Despite these problems, Johnson was pleased with the building design, and later commissioned the Research Tower, and a house from Wright known as Wingspread. The Research Tower is no longer in use because of the change in fire safety codes. The Johnson Wax buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Administration Building and the Research Tower were each chosen by the American Institute of Architects as two of seventeen buildings by the architect to be retained as examples of his contribution to American culture. In addition, the Administration Building and Research Tower
71

C 2329

HISTORY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE MODEN)

( SEJARAH SENIBINA

2009

were both designated National Historic Landmarks in 1976. In 2008, the U.S. National Park Service submitted the Johnson Wax Headquarters and the Research Tower, along with nine other Frank Lloyd Wright properties, to a tentative list for World Heritage Status. The 10 sites have been submitted as one, total, site. The January 22, 2008 press release from the National Park Service website announcing the nominations states that, "The preparation of a Tentative List is a necessary first step in the process of nominating a site to the World Heritage List."

Columns detailing

Taliesin West

Perhaps the most revealing of all of Wright's desert architecture was his home and studio for the later part of his life, Taliesin West. Wright had already been part of many projects in the southern Arizona area, and the idea of moving to the desert area surfaced in the winter of 1933-34 for the next year. Economic conditions in the early '30s led Wright to Arizona because Taliesin was becoming more expensive to operate in the cold winter months. Wright scoured over the Arizona desert for a site suitable for his winter camp for almost three years. It was evident that Wright was looking for the perfect site for his camp, and he would finally find it 26 miles north of Phoenix in the area of Paradise Valley.
72

C 2329

HISTORY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE MODEN)

( SEJARAH SENIBINA

2009

The site was located on a mesa below McDowell Peak on what Wright described as "The top of the world!"(Levine, p. 259). Wright was thrilled with the view from the site, appreciating nature from every angle. He also found many ancient remains from Indians that once inhabited the area, including petroglyphs which would ultimately be part of his new place of work.

Designs were begun for Taliesin West in JanuaryFebruary of 1938. Temporary shelters were built near the site to allow a safe place for drafting. Wright grappled with many issues regarding the design of Taliesin, and this is evident in the fact that he drew several elevations that never even used. Wright was known in the past have conceived of his designs well in advance, then drawn exactly what he thought for the final design (Levine, pp. 263-4). The final plan was similar to a pinwheel with various 45 and 90 degree corners that very much accentuated the sharp, stiff angles of the surrounding natural architecture. Rebounding from these angles are varies triangular shapes, especially the pool Wright created on the west side of the house. Despite the peculiar angles of the house, Wright still manages to make the interior spaces square and rectangular by filing the awkward spaces with gardens and the pool.

Taliesin West showing petroglyth boulder on a pedestal above the pool. Maricopa Hill is seen right behind the building to the east. Photo taken from Levine, 288.

73

C 2329

HISTORY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE MODEN)

( SEJARAH SENIBINA

2009

Imperial Hotel, Tokyo

Tokyo's Imperial Hotel was the best-known of Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings in Japan. The original Imperial Hotel in Tokyo was built in 1890. To replace the original wooden structure, the owners commissioned a design by Wright, which was completed in 1923. Time took its toll, and in 1968, the facade and pool were moved to The Museum Meiji Mura, a collection of buildings (mostly from the Meiji Era) in Inuyama, near Nagoya, while the rest of the structure was demolished to make way for a new hotel on the site.
In this c.1946 interior view of the Garden Room one gets a sense of the triangularity Wright uses in the interior. This picture also shows the stretched canvas roof and how it acted to diffuse the natural desert sunlight.

The Frank Lloyd Wright version was designed in the "Maya Revival Style" of architecture. It incorporates a tall, pyramidlike structure, and also loosely copies Maya motifs in its decorations. The main building materials are poured concrete, concrete block, and carved oya stone. The visual effect of the hotel was stunning and dramatic, though not unique; in recent years, architectural historians have noted a marked similarity with the Cafe Australia, Melbourne, Australia (1916) designed by Prairie School architects Marion Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin. While the Imperial Hotel was originally owned and partly funded by the imperial family, the current owner of Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, the new hotel on the grounds on which Wright's Imperial Hotel once stood, is Imperial Hotel, Ltd., which runs a chain of luxury hotels in Japan
74

C 2329

HISTORY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE MODEN)

( SEJARAH SENIBINA

2009

support and did nothing to prevent the building from sinking into the mud to such an extent that it had to be demolished decades later. Furthermore, alluvial mud, such as that at the hotel's site, has the nasty effect of amplifying seismic waves.[3] The hotel survived an earlier earthquake that struck Tokyo during its construction. While many buildings in the area were destroyed, the hotel itself - while shaken - stood completely undamaged. Imperial Hotel Wright House The hotel had several design features that made up for its foundation:

The structure completed in 1923 survived the magnitude 7.9 Great Kant earthquake of 1923. A telegram from Baron Kihachiro Okura reported the following: Hotel stands undamaged as monument to your genius[.] Congratulations.[1] Wright's passing the telegram to journalists has helped perpetuate a legend that the hotel was unaffected by the earthquake. In reality, the building had damage; the central section slumped, several floors bulged, and four pieces of stonework fell to the ground. The building's main failing was its foundation. Wright had intended the hotel to float on the site's alluvial mud "as a battleship floats on water." This was accomplished by making it shallow, with broad footings. This was supposed to allow the building to float during an earthquake. However, the foundation was an inadequate
75

The reflecting pool (visible in the picture above) also

provided a source of water for fire-fighting, saving the building from the post-earthquake firestorm[

C 2329

HISTORY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE MODEN)

( SEJARAH SENIBINA

2009

Cantilevered floors and balconies provided extra support for the floors; A copper roof, which cannot fall on people below the way a tile roof can; Seismic separation joints, located about every 20 m along the building; Tapered walls, thicker on lower floors, increasing their strength; Suspended piping and wiring, instead of being encased in concrete, as well as smooth curves, making them more resistant to fracture.

Marin County Civic Center

In 1957 Wright accepted this commission (his 770th) at age ninety. Wright died in 1959 at ninety-two years before the ground-breaking ceremony had occurred. His work was continued by Taliesin architects, primarily senior architect William Wesley Peters and Aaron Green. Like many of Wrights buildings, this civic center plan is adjusted to the landscape. Green reports Wright's saying "I'll bridge these hills with graceful arches" (Green 21) and quotes from Wright's speech at the acceptance of the commission: "The beauty of Marin County should be expressed in our architecture. The buildings must not hurt the land. . . .The buildings of the new Civic Center will express this natural beauty; they will not be a blemish upon the landscape" (23). Often compared to an aqueduct, the building uses repeated arches (echoing the hills), a blue roof (not Wright's first choice of color) echoing the sky, and beige concrete echoing the original landscape. (Aaron Green added the lush landscape details.)

Hotel lobby Final perspective drawing by Wright

76

C 2329

HISTORY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE MODEN)

( SEJARAH SENIBINA

2009

The arches of the main and second floor become circles in the top floor, two for each arc below. The eaves use half circles.

View from the East (left) with the tunnel entrance for traffic and a view from the hills to the west (right) showing the central dome and tower

Views of the entrance under the "tunnel" and a detail of the entrance gates (a beautiful Wright design when closed)

Two "arms" extend from the central dome: the Administration Building, the south arm, completed first at 584 feet and the northwest arm, the Hall of Justice at 880 feet.
77

C 2329

HISTORY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE MODEN)

( SEJARAH SENIBINA

2009

The end of the Administration "arm" and the blue roof decorated with circular patterns

78