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 532. Wright believed in designing structures that were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture . This philosophy was best exemplified by Fallingwater (1935), which has been called “the best all-time work of American architecture”.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater was literally built into the side of a boulder on site.
Another one you might be familiar with is the Guggenheim Museum in New York, check out more of his work at http://en.wikipedia.org/
What Wright already had, even if its influence in retrospect is seen as minimal, was a basic concept of design rooted in ancient human needs yet commensurate with the emerging machine-age technology. Earth, air, fire, water; these are the essential original elements. Wright set his Prairie houses directly on the earth with his stylobate-like base. He opened interior spaces, removing dividing walls to let one space flow into adjacent space, giving air to the client moving about therein – it is the space within to be lived in that is architecture, not the exterior clothing; (quoting Lao Tse) is how Wright would state it – and always at the center of the structure, the hearth, the fireplace. Water was included by bringing in fountains, cut foliage, planting boxes, floral arrangements and the like that suggested the presence of water. Of course, wherever water was nearby, be it a stream, lake or other waterway, the structure would be related to it as closely as possible.
The living room of Hollyhock centers around a massive concrete fireplace, whose abstract sculpting is naturally illuminated by the leaded glass skylight above it. The geometric ceiling, although not curved, is geometrically sloped in a way that accentuates the concrete crafting. The hearth originally had a water moat, the notion of water surrounding fire adheres to Wright’s fascination with Oriental philosophies of nature and feng shui.
Frank. Lloyd Wright thought of his organic houses as a meeting place for the four elements: earth, air, fire, and water.
His work includes original and innovative examples of many 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.
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.”
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