Frank Lloyd Wright: Beauty in stone, glass and wood
What is beauty? Not everyone can immediately give the answer to this question. But if we ask any passersby to define what is beautiful, he will answer at once. But how to find the ideal of beauty? People are contradictory creatures, who try to express themselves and show how special they are, but simultaneously attempt to measure and evaluate everything, determine whether it is good or not, using rather generally accepted notions than own ideas. Many of us tend to aspire to something average, reliable and quiet as for example black clothing, a standard set of products or services. But often among this faceless, medium things a bright spot appears - a burst of personality. That is how arise wonderful creations of brilliant people - artists, musicians, engineers, architects and many other talented enthusiasts. They feel the beauty, they enclose it in music, jewelry, paintings, buildings and try to demonstrate how we need its lifeblood.
Many people, answering the question about what is their perception of beauty, talk about nature – forests and parks, mountains and creeks. But modern man spends most of his life in a closed space of home or office. For this reason, surrounding ourselves with beautiful things and comfortable furnishing is truly important. Seeing beauty around every day of our lives makes us calm, inspired and happy.
Frank Lloyd Wright really understood the human need for beauty and connection with nature. Wright is one of the greatest architects in U.S. history and one of the iconic figures of the XX century architecture. For more than seventy years of his career, he has done more than anyone else for the development of modern architecture. Lloyd developed the principle of organic architecture, that is holistic, inalienable part of the human environment.
In 1900 Wright begins building a series of Prairie houses. In this new type of architecture he embodied the idea, which significance goes beyond the specific type of construction. Lloyd thought that the space should be regarded as architecture, otherwise people won’t have the architecture at all. He was a leader of the Prairie School or prairie style - architectural direction of the late XIX - early XX century, mainly widespread in the Midwest of the U.S. Prairie style is considered as one of the trends of organic architecture (Heinz, 9).
Prairie houses have a special charm. This style is characterized by plenty of horizontal lines, the prevalence of flat, slightly overhanging roofs, wide prominent eaves, folding windows arranged in horizontal rows. Wright also used broad glassed surfaces and "open" interiors, where kitchen, dining room and living room formed one single space. Flatness of buildings, every surface parallel to the ground was emphasized to connect the house with earth. Horizontal parts of the buildings resemble landscapes of the Great Plains that explains the figurative name of the school.
At the same time the style of Prairie houses was formed under the influence of Japanese temples that Americans first met shortly before the emergence of new trends in architecture. Wright traveled to Japan as a tourist, but returned as a collector of kimono, ceramics, screens and almost a philosopher. Since then, in his eyes all the baggage of "old" Europe could not compare to what Japan had. Wright thought that every structural element and every line of Japanese houses presented the ideal of purity. Disorder in this "clean house" is equivalent to mud. Therefore, all the items of furnishing, big and small, have their specific place where they are used and must always be cleaned or put away when they are not in use. Frank Wright considered cleanness as not just faceless mediocrity, but maintaining significant things.
Wright learned a lot from Japanese life, including their perceptions of beauty. These principles he embodied in his architectural creations. Beauty and naturalness for Japanese are identical concepts. Anything that is unnatural can’t be beautiful. But the feeling of naturalness can be strengthen by adding special qualities. It is believed that the time helps to identify the essence of things. Therefore, Japanese people see a special charm in traces of age. They are attracted by the color of darkened old tree, moss-covered stone in the garden or even shabby edge of the painting – the mark of time and traces of many hands. The absence of anything pretentious, splashy, ostentatious that and vulgar is important for the harmony. The ability to see the beauty of simplicity is an important principle not only for Japanese architecture, but also for all spheres of life. Raising a skill to be satisfied with a little, Japanese find and appreciate beauty in everything that surrounds man in his everyday life. Not just a picture or a vase, but any utensil – bamboo sticks or kettle can be a work of art and embodiment of beauty. Practicality, the utilitarian beauty of things – that’s what Wright used in his work and life (Copplestone, 43).
Prairie houses were created within the concept of organic architecture, which ideal is integrity and unity with nature. They are characterized by open planning, prevalence of horizontal in composition, terraces, finish using raw natural materials, rhythmic partition of the facade on frames as on the prototype of Japanese temples. The Japanese house served Wright as a supreme example of how the design should eliminate unnecessary and nonessential details. In the American house he excluded all trivial and confounding. He did even more. He opened first hidden power of expression in functional elements that earlier were unnoticed.
Treating a house as a spatial whole, Wright primarily used items related to the environment. He decided to use the American veranda like no one before him. His veranda doesn’t surround the building, but is pushed forward, sometimes overhangs above ground. It became an essential, inalienable part of the building, rather than an outbuilding.
Wright formulated the idea of continuity of architectural space, that contrasts the emphasized selected pieces of classical architecture. The method of free planning based on this idea is among the means used by all current trends of modern architecture. Frank Wright lays a simple geometric module in the foundation of each house plan - square, triangle, octagon. Then this module is repeated in geometric patterns of windows, carpets, furniture forms. The house and every object in it have a common genetic origin - as well as members of the family living in it.
Prairie houses became laboratories where Wright finally formed his own language of architecture that expressed the individuality of the homeowner: to build exactly as many rooms as you need; integrate parts into a whole; remove unnecessary details and ornamentation; use a built-in furniture; build simple smooth walls from floor to ceiling; use warm soft earth and fall colors and tones; show texture of materials; apply casement windows, corner windows and also the combined lighting; input natural plants into the interior.
Now it’s difficult to understand, but at the turn of the century Wright’s ideas were so new and unusual that were more like the extreme degree of extravagance. Similarly extravagant, almost adventurous, far from routine were views of his first customers. This symbiosis allowed Frank Lloyd Wright to create his amazing projects. He had not much interest to modern city. He thought that man must live in the countryside, because organically buildings always arose out of the earth, which was the simplest form of architecture. Forms of construction are determined by the nature of the landscape and the house plan - by features of family life. Wright always took into account not only natural conditions of a each site, but also the emotional factor - impression and images caused by the terrain.
Wright also works with the “shell”. He takes a view of modern mansions and the first thing he liquidates is the attic, this “place for junk” blocking the source of natural light. The outlines of the roof - a symbol of home, are aligned and simplified. Then comes the turn of the basement - this compulsory cellar that goes around the house. Walls in Wright’s houses start right off the ground and usually have long rows of windows. To make walls lighter and smoother Wright gets rid of eaves.
His interiors reveal ongoing tendency to the interrelation between separate elements: walls, ceilings, windows and doorways. Sometimes in the same room ceilings are located at different heights, when one horizontal plane replaces another one at different levels in accordance with the features of the landscape.
Woodcraft as well as the smallest details of the interior Wright gives completely in the hands of the architect. He thought that there’s no need for decorators, because they use strictly defined styles and usually apply curlicues and flowers and this is tasteless. He gives examples how sometimes carving destroys fine qualities of wood. This natural material has original beautiful pattern, exquisite texture and subtle color shades. Wright applies the same approach to carpets or curtains: fabric pattern is associated with the texture and large flat patterns are quite modern. This means that all the materials are applied fairly, according to their properties.
The glass plays a special role in Wright’s house, because it is transparent, like thin sheets of crystallized air designed to separate the outer atmosphere from the interior. Walls facing south are usually made entirely of glass or have large windows – in this way nature invades into the domain of architecture. Natural materials used in masonry and finishing of walls were also applied in interior decoration: wood, bricks, limestone were Wright’s favorite materials.
Frank Lloyd Wright tried to make his Prairie houses comfortable for their hosts, evoking a sense of privacy and security. He tried to meet basic human needs and the need to be surrounded by nature was one of them. He was not the first who declared that the main advantage of the building should be its simplicity. However, most of his contemporaries understood this simplicity as a rejection of embellishment, while Lloyd Wright believed that simplicity should be in all design aspects. “Simplicity and repose are the qualities that measure the true value of any work of art” (Frank Lloyd Wright Quotes).
Wright's innovation was the fact that the architect in parallel worked as an interior and landscape designer. He believed that even carpets on the floor and curtains on windows to the same degree were part of the building as the walls and roof. So his houses were handed over with the whole furnishing, that also had innovations like for example a built-in furniture.
Prairie houses seemed a technological miracle to contemporaries. Some things that seemed unnecessary from Lloyd’s point of view were removed and needed things were hidden (as heating systems for example). His ideal was a traditional Japanese house totally devoid of furniture. In those days Prairie houses were very unusual for most people. Wright suggested the idea of organic architecture: the house should not clash with the surrounding landscape, but harmonize with it.
The Fallingwater house is one of the most important designs in Wright's career and one of the most beautiful. When Frank Lloyd started working on this project and visited the site, he was impressed by the powerful sounds of falling water, the vitality of this place, the spectacular rocks and mossy boulders. He managed to build a beautiful house without breaking the balance of this place. Wright used all the benefits that nature has given to this site. He “wove” structure elements of the house into the landscape. This house embodies the idea that people are creatures of nature and an architecture that harmonize with nature should conform to what is essential for people. Though the house has many large windows its hall like a shelter for people. It seems that inside the house people would feel like in a deep cave. Wright used low ceilings, light textures, natural colors of trees and rocks, bright furnishing (Copplestone, 64). He made many stairs, paths and passages that are located for reasons of necessity and convenience. There is no main entrance, but many ways in and out. The house gives to its owners space for privacy and communication, the opportunity to have a pleasant time in any season (Heinz, 189).
In my opinion the Fallingwater house is the work of Frank Lloyd Wright that represents the ideal of beauty in modern architecture. This building organically fits into the landscape and looks like its natural extension. And what can be more beautiful than things created by nature over the centuries.
In an effort to find his own style and ideal of architectural creation, Wright ascertained that organic simplicity had the capability of genuine relationship and the beauty he felt was the expression of this relationship. Simplicity for Wright had nothing in common with scantiness.
“No stream rises higher than its source. What ever man might build could never express or reflect more than he was. He could record neither more nor less than he had learned of life when the buildings were built” (Frank Lloyd Wright Quotes).
Wright never tried to make something more majestic and beautiful than what had been created by nature before. He just tried not to spoil the beauty and keep the spirit of place.
Works cited
Heinz, Thomas A.. Frank Lloyd Write Interiors and furniture. 1994. Reprint. Berlin: ERNST & SOHN, 1994. Print.
Copplestone, Trewin. Frank Lloyd Write. 1999. Reprint. New York: Gramercy Books, 1999. Print.
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"Frank Lloyd Wright Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2014. <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/f/frank_lloyd_wright_3.html>.
