As humans have developed so has the improvement of the abodes they called home. Humans strived to create shelters originally for safety and warmth, but as they spread across the planet and grew intellectually, socially, and industrially the idea of the house changed to also mean an extension of the family. What someone does or does not do to their house’s exterior, landscape, and interior was a subtle statement about the family that resided there. As the need to express themselves in their homes grew several careers came forth, in order to meet the demand, one of these was called architecture. One of the significantly prominent building designs of twentieth century architecture was Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, which he designed and constructed for the
Fallingwater is a remarkable piece of architecture that clearly shows off the ideas of the Kaufmann family who resided in it. In essence, one could say that the influence of the Kaufmann family and Frank Lloyd Wright still reside in that house. Anyone who goes to visit Fallingwater will not soon forget it and will take with them the knowledge of whom this house was for and who created it. A house has more meaning and potential now than it did when humans used to live in caves and those that can will strive to change their homes to suit them. Frank Lloyd Wright’s design for the Kaufmann family did that because anyone else would find it problematic to live in Fallingwater, since it was made specifically for them and their needs during this time period. However, thanks to Edgar Kaufmann junior, everyone has a chance to experience Fallingwater as the magnificent structure it is, in the undisturbed surroundings it was made
“Various animals build shelters but only humans built homes. (Pg. 1)” The word home evokes so many emotions and mental image of past and future. At the end of the day there is no greater comfort then going home. Yet in our daily hustle and bustle and hectic schedule we seldom take time to appreciate the most age old technology that keep us safe and provide comfort. From the basic shelter and cave dwelling of the earliest humans to the modern concrete jungle of the present, humans have move past the simple shelter. Technology has allowed us to build modern homes in various shapes and sizes but this technology follows thousands of years of footstep. The author did not just catalog different structures and domicile of human history but told a story of what these structure means to us. Moore starts off on a dig site searching for archaic structures. Moore explains how humans just don’t build shelter like most animals, human homes signifies social status, comfort, shelter and creativity. Moore uses the famous multimillion dollar house of Aaron Spelling in Hollywood as an example of how extravagant our humble dwelling can be. Human homes are different shapes and sizes and often build with different material and standard based on geographical location. I believe A Prehistory of Homes is a book about the history of technology because it is written about one of the most essential invention of human evolution. Human went from caves to build our own shelter. It allowed us to be mobile and become a foraging creature. The author addresses the most commonly shared interest and provides knowledge, history and relation to past and future of our homes.
The design principles that Wright and Olmsted lived by helped to create a standard for following generations. Using Nature as an inspiration and a employing a consistent programmatic style have been characteristics that designers have picked up on from Wright, and plan to continue using. Juxtaposing nature and thick urban life, and finding innovative ways to mix the two, has become a signature characteristic that points to Olmsted. Both, Frank Lloyd Wright and Frederik Law Olmsted have had a heavy influence on designers today when it comes to including nature in design, but in very contrasting ways.
Gehry draws his inspiration from famous paintings such as the Madonna and Child which he qualifies as a “strategy for architecture” (Friedman M. , 2003, p. 42) and which he used as an inspiration for a project in Mexico . Through his interpretation of the paintings and artwork, Gehry looked for a new kind of architecture. His search for a new type of architecture culminated in 1978 with his own house in Santa Monica. What was once a traditional Californian house would be redesigned to become one of the most important and revolutionary designs of the 20th century, giving Gehry international prestige and fame. Frank Gehry’s “Own House” uses a mixture of corrugated metal, plywood, chain link and asphalt to construct a new envelope for an existing typical Californian house. This house has been inspired by Joseph Cornell, Ed Moses and Bob Rauschenberg. Gehry comments on his house by saying that there was something “magical” (Friedman M. , 2003, p. 54) about it. He admits having “followed the end of his [my] nose” (Friedman M. , 2003, p. 54) when it came to constructing the “new” house, which led Arthur Drexler, former Director...
Beauty – it’s all around us. Some people may not realize it, but the beauty of this city is in the history of the buildings and its houses. Any native or visitor can see the charm of the Queen City, but how many people have ever stopped to wonder where the original designs came from? Who built the house of Buffalo? Without a great architect who was ahead of his time, Buffalo would just not be as charming as a city. Frank Lloyd Wright made great contributions to places all over the United States and even overseas. Buffalo is lucky enough to be home to several of Wright’s many designs and creations. Not only did Frank Lloyd Wright design houses, he was the architect of the Larkin Administration Building, which was his first major commercial commission ever to be built (Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House Complex). The Darwin Martin House complex, the Graycliff Estate, a boathouse mausoleum on the Erie Basin Marina, and several private homes for Larkin Soap Company executives, were all built in Buffalo. These constructions were all of Wright’s designs that have contributed to the Buffalo landscape. While Wright has made an impact on Buffalo’s history and beautiful architecture, he has also made an impact all over the globe. From California to Tokyo, Frank Lloyd Wright and his designs are world renown. With several awards and different recognitions, he is arguably the greatest American architect of his time.
Dell Upton is a historian and renowned professor of architecture and Urbanism at the University of California. He has published several books on architecture; one of them is “Architecture in the United States”, published in 1998. In this book, Upton analyzes the architecture of the United States in different aspects, such as nature, money and art, thus depicting the great variety in architectural forms, and how throughout the decades, different interests have lead communities to different ways of building, different purposes and materials, thus reflecting their way of thinking and their relationship with the environment. By exploring so many different architectural styles, Upton reveals the great diversity and richness that has always, and continues to characterize American architecture.
Landscape architecture has been around since the beginning of time, but it was not until Frederick Law Olmsted came along that the idea of integrating design into the landscape with plants, water, and structures that it turned into a thriving profession. To many, Olmsted is considered “a pioneer in the profession of landscape architecture, an urban planner, and a social philosopher, one of the first theoreticians and activists behind the national park and conservation movements” (Kalfus 1). Growing up, he did not ever graduate from formal schooling and just sat in on a few classes while at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut. Instead, he acquired his education from being out in the world through traveling and reading. He had a hard childhood. His mother died when he was just four years old and on his journeys around the world to Europe and China, he became sickly with seasickness, paralysis of the arm, typhoid fever, apoplexy, sumac poisoning, and at times suffered from depression. For many years he went on a journey within himself to find out whom he really was and what he wanted to do with his life, career wise. Frederick had one brother, John Hull, who died in 1857. This left Olmsted feeling empty and at loss of what to do. That was when Calvert Vaux came and filled the space in Olmsted’s life that his brother left. Vaux convinced Olmsted to enter the Central Park Commissioner’s design competition with their design entitled the “Greensward Plan.” With the success in that project, Olmsted figured out what he wanted to do with the rest of his life, which was to become a landscape architect. Olmsted practiced from the years of 1857 up until he retired in 1895. Olmsted’s two boys, adopted son John Charles and biological son Frederick La...
Smith, C. Ray. Interior Design in 20th-century America: A History. New York: Harper & Row, 1987. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. .
As someone with a passion for writing, my final project will be an extended expository essay about the history of homebuilding from ancient to modern times. It will discuss the different types of dwellings throughout recorded human history from the perspective of how art and culture influences building design. This will fulfill my own curiosity to understand the different influences on homebuilding and design over the years and how people have dealt with these changes.
The natural wonder Fallingwater is recognized as architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s most acclaimed and famous works. In 1991, a poll of members of the American Institute of Architects voted Wright’s Fallinwater the best all-time work of American Architecture. Fallingwater opened a new chapter in American architecture and Wright became the first and foremost architect of houses. Fallingwater is known for its simplicity. This is not a skyscraper, it is a home situated in a remote section of Western Pennsylvania, in Ohiopyle, (or called Bear Run). In a talk to the Tallies Fellowship Frank Lloyd Wright said of the house; “Fallingwater is a great blessing - one of the great blessings to be experienced here on earth. I think nothing yet ever equaled the coordination, sympathetic expression of the great principle of repose where forest and stream and rock and all the elements of structure are combined so quietly that really you listen not to any noise whatsoever although the music of the stream is there. But you listen to Fallingwater the way you listen to the quiet country.”
“In the Cause of Architecture” is an essay written by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1908. In this work, Wright outlines many of his architectural values. This text goes into great detail about the philosophy behind Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture, as well as many important milestones in his life, such as working for Adler and Sullivan. This text is useful because it comes straight from Frank Lloyd Wright himself. It talks about many things important to his role as a notable American, such as his influences for his architecture and his architectural
In the piece The Fall of Water by Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge, the clashing worlds between the activists and corporate organizations is perfectly balanced through a replication of the piece Fall of Rebel Angels. Similar to the concept of angels and devils walking the Earth, each side is trying to either preserve or take water away as a natural resource. This piece addresses the politics of water waste and questions our social values. The artists use appropriation to reveal activists in the piece fighting barbarically against Dasani, Coca Cola, Perrier and other large corporations. Shockingly, the police are also seen in the bottom defending the interests and greed of these corrupt organizations. Hiding among the overload of waste, a victim
Gehry’s additional design of the exterior has created an unconventional model form of house. The asymmetrical form characterizes the entire external side of the house. According to Goldstein, Gehry tried to slant the house roofline, create a false perspective and cause an absurd viewer’ perception or expectation (1979, 9). The complexity of the form might also produce a relationship with the house’s elements such as door, wall, and roof. For example, those elements, which linearly constructed, were hardly noticed since the distraction of geometric form around the exterior part of the house. It’s even barely hard to find the entrance of the house as a result of the salient angles of exterior.
Architecture, the practice of building design and its resulting products, customary usage refers only to those designs and structures that are culturally significant. Today the architecture must satisfy its intended uses, must be technically sound, and must convey beautiful meaning. But the best buildings are often so well constructed that they outlast their original use. They then survive not only as beautiful objects, but as documents of history of cultures, achievements in architecture that testify to the nature of the society that produced them. These achievements are never wholly the work of individuals. Architecture is a social art, yet Frank Lloyd Wright single handily changed the history of architecture. How did Frank Lloyd Wright change architecture?
In conclusion, Wright had successfully break through his vision of destructing a rigid boxy style of 19th century architecture and refined his idea of what a house should look like; to be in a harmony with nature. As been described earlier, with plenty of technical problems, he acknowledged young architects; even a house needs constant attentions (Stungo, N., 1999). Wright’s ideal of bringing human closer to the nature had inspired many architects until today, Wright to his students “Falling water is one of the great blessing to be experienced”. In point of fact, admirers of him never stop praised of his works; Cliff Hickman passionately said “I had never before seen anything so beautiful … Over and over I came back to look at the photograph of Fallingwater, the most illustrious of all Frank Lloyd Wright architectural masterpieces” (Hickman, C., n.d).
Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier are two very prominent names in the field of architecture. Both architects had different ideas concerning the relationship between humans and the environment. Their architectural styles were a reflection of how each could facilitate the person and the physical environment. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House, is considered one of the most important buildings in the history of American architecture and Le Corbusier s Villa Savoye helped define the progression that modern architecture was to take in the 20th Century. Both men are very fascinating and have strongly influenced my personal taste for modern architecture. Although Wright and Corbusier each had different views on how to design a house, they also had similar beliefs. This paper is a comparison of Frank Lloyd Wright‘s and Le Corbusier ‘s viewpoints exhibited through their two prominent houses, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House and Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye.