Friday, August 21, 2009

Coming home...

An avid fan of all things design, I have long been in love with the rich lines and classic style of architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright. Only recently am I beginning to understand the purity in his design. His designs were based on the "form and function are one" philosophy. Wright focused blending his designs with nature. He believed that a house should blend with the hill it was built on and not purely be built "on a hill." Projects were designed on a flat plane with no basements and horizontal roofs with large overhangs-these designs represent the Prairie School Movement--designed to complement life in the Midwest--one such house is the Robie House. Much of his work tied was around the Usonian home concept. This Usonian concept refers to a collection of fifty middle income homes Wright designed. They were built to fit on lower cost, odd L-shaped plots of land. The roof overhangs provided natural heating and cooling and larger windows provided natural light. Interestingly, the term Usonain is derived from United States of North America (USONA).

Other notable designs include The Guggenheim museum that mimics a shell and Falling Water-the home becomes the falls it was built within.

In 1991, Wright was recognized by The American Institute of Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time" and he truly is, designing works that blend with their natural landscapes--melding modernity into nature seamlessly.

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