"The reality of the building is the space within." Lao-tzu

"Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house a world; and beyond its world, a heaven. Know then, that the world exists for you. For you is the phenomenon perfect. What we are, that only can we see." - Emerson

Discussion Questions

What kinds of architecture are you familiar with in our community? What does "new" architecture look like? Older architecture?

Can a building be "spiritual"? What makes a building "spiritual"?

What do buildings do for us, as people? For society? For civilization?

What was Wright's primary architectural philosophy?

What purposes and functions did he believe houses and other structures should serve?

What were his beliefs about the relationship between nature and architecture?

How did the buildings he designed reflect this philosophy?

What were his attitudes toward the community and the family?

What were his attitudes concerning architecture for the common, as opposed to wealthy, people?

Adapted from PBS Social Studies Resource, authored by Betsy Hedburg

Wright's Propositions:

1. Simplicity & Repose = Value in Art. Study the trees.

• Few rooms, comfort, utility, and beauty
• Doors, windows are integral with structure and form
• Excess detail & ornament are vulgar
• Assimiliar fixtures into design
• Pictures deface what should be decorative
• Furniture should be integral

2. Individualism: As many styles of house as kinds of people

3. Building should grow from its site

• Nature is quiet, substantial, organic
• The Prarie is quiet, level
• Roofs should have gentle slopes, low proportions, quiet sky lines
• Heavy set chimneys
• Sheltering Overhangs, low terraces, outreaching walls

4. Colors: Go to the woods and fields for soft, warm optimistic tones of earths and autumn leaves

5. Bring out the nature of materials

• Strip wood of varnish and stain it
• Reveal the nature of wood, plaster, brick or stone: friendly and beautiful

6. House of character, not of fashion, grows in value

7. Above all, integrity: The machine is the normal tool of our civilization.

Quotes and Thoughts

"Architecture now becomes integral, the expression of a new-old reality: the livable interior space of the room itself. In integral architecture the room-space itself must come through. The room must be seen as architecture, or we have no architecture. We have no longer an outside as outside. We have no longer an outside and inside, and the inside may and does go outside. They are of each other. Form and function thus become one in design and execution if the nature of materials and method and purpose are all in unison.

"This interior-space concept, the first broad integrity is the first great resource. It is also true basis for general significance of form. Add to this for the sake of clarify that (although the general integration is implied in the first integrity) it is in the nature of any organic building to grow from its site, come out of the ground into the light -- the ground itself held always as a component basic part of the building itself. And then we have primarily the new ideal of building as organic. A building dignified as a tree in the midst of nature. " - Wright,  An Autobiography

"The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen."

"No house should ever be on a hill or on anything. It should be of the hill. Belonging to it. Hill and house should live together each the happier for the other."

"Buildings, too, are children of Earth and Sun"

"I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen."

"The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines - so they should go as far as possible from home to build their first buildings."

"Constantly I have referred to a more humane architecture, so I will try to explain what humane means to me, an architect.  Like organic architecture, the quality of humanity is interior to man.  As the solar system is reckoned in terms of light-years, so may the inner light be what we are calling humanity.  This element, Man as light, is beyond all reckoning.  Buddha was known as the light of Asia; Jesus as the light of the world.  Sunlight is to nature as their interior light is to man's spirit: Manlight." - Wright, A Testament

Additional Quotes Online: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/1469/flwquote.html

Additional Links

Frank Lloyd Wright - Steve's Sheet: http://www.leighmgt.com/stevesheet/wright.htm

The Ennis Brown House - Los Angeles - http://www.ennishouse.org/

Charnely-Persky House - Chicago - http://www.anthemion.com/charnley-persky/

Victorian Home Styles: http://www.victorianwalk.com/415-252-9485/photo.html

Marin County Civic Center

In his address to the citizens of Marin County on July 30, 1957, Wright emphasized his theory of organic architecture. He stated that we will have an architecture of our own "only when we know that the good building is not one that hurts the landscape, but is one that makes the landscape more beautiful than it was before that building was built. In Marin County you have one of the most beautiful landscapes I have seen, and I am proud to make the buildings of this County characteristic of the beauty of the County."

Frank Lloyd Wright and the Marin County Civic Center Photo Album

http://www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/lb/main/crm/photoalbums/flw/flwmain.html

Mary Ann Sullivan, Bluffton College http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/marin/marin.html

http://www.storrer.com/fllwhall.html

Civic Center Tour Questions:

1) Wright tried to "bring the outside inside" with his buildings. In what ways did he accomplish this at the Marin Civic Center?

2) Wright was known for his concept of "unity" in his designs. How many different features can you find that repeat, or echo, the following:

- circular shapes (including arcs and sections of circles)

- colors

- materials

3.  How did this building make you "feel"?  Note at least 10 adjectives that you might use to describe the building (inside, outside, the surroundings - any part of it)

4) What did you like most about the building?  What feature or features did you think most impressive, or most illustrative of Wright’s philosophy?

Last Updated: 3/31/06 - SH

Chabot College