Don Mangus' "It Only Hurts When I Smirk.": organic architecture

Showing posts with label organic architecture. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Organic Simplicty

Frank Lloyd Wright

Robert Doisneau

"Organic simplicity might be seen producing significant character in the harmonious order we call Nature -- all around, beauty in growing things. None insignificant." -- Frank Lloyd Wright, 1931

Sunday, August 19, 2018

Zen Gardens

Frank Lloyd Wright

Explore Two of Rockford’s Hidden Architectural Gems

Docent-led tours focus on the architectural components of two homes with Japanese cultural design influences but distinctly different character. Guests will be granted exclusive access to Anderson Japanese Gardens’ 16th century Sukiya-style Guest House and the Laurent House, the only home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright specifically for a client with a physical disability.

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Robert Cika: Cortlandt Manor

Robert Cika

Shades of John Lautner! Designed by architect Robert Cika, Jackie Gleason's two UFO-inspired party houses were constructed by a Norwegian shipbuilder, who shipped the completed pieces to Cortlandt Manor for final assembly.

Gleason personally oversaw the project, which cost $650,000 -- roughly equivalent to $5.6 million today --and took five years to complete (in 1959). It was a marvel, and one that he shared with his many celebrity guests, including Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, and Joe DiMaggio.

The "Mothership" was the main house. Designed to host large parties, it has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and two bars -- the centerpiece being a 14-person, curving bar, which had a baby grand piano, and a microphone that would emerge from the marble floor to the delight of Gleason’s guests.

Friday, May 25, 2018

Organic Architecture: John Lautner, 1949 Schaffer Residence

John Lautner

The 1949 Schaffer Residence in the Verdugo Hills is probably best known now as the house from Tom Ford's great-looking movie, A Single Man. It's one of architect John Lautner's most understated designs, maybe, but it's also one of his most elegant.

One of Lautner's early pieces, the house harkens back to a lot of Lautner's influences from when he was with Frank Lloyd Wright.

The little shape of the kitchen was in much the shape of his tent that he had to design for himself when he was living at Taliesin West (FLLW's home and training grounds). For some critics it's one of the most resolved of his work, there's a lot of intricacy, but it all fits together in a sculptural manner that makes it not only a wonderful environment to live in, but what translates as a work of art as well.

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Frank Lloyd Wright: Usonian Houses

Frank Lloyd Wright

The word “Usonian” (United States of North America) is attributed to writer James Duff Law, who wrote in 1903, “We of the United States, in justice to Canadians and Mexicans, have no right to use the title ‘Americans’ when referring to matters pertaining exclusively to ourselves.”

Frank Lloyd Wright referenced this quote, misattributing it to writer Samuel Butler in Architecture: Selected Writings 1894–1940: “Samuel Butler fitted us with a good name. He called us Usonians, and our Nation of combined States, Usonia.”

Wright designed his first Usonian home in 1936, when Milwaukee Journal writer Herbert Jacobs challenged him to design a house of good quality that cost no more than $5,000. Similar to the homes for Broadacre City, a utopian model for an American community that Wright completed with Taliesin apprentices in 1934, the Jacobs House embodies Wright’s notions of an ideal home set within the American landscape. Just as it seemed that Wright’s pivotal design years had past, the Jacobs House commenced two prolific decades of innovation (1936-1959), which we now refer to as Wright’s Usonian period.

Design elements for these single-story homes include: flat roofs with generous overhangs and cantilevered carports (Wright coined the term carport, and favored these over garages for efficiency), built-in furniture and shelving, tall windows that softened the boundary between interior and exterior, radiant heat embedded in a concrete slab gridded floor, skylights, a sense of flow from one room to the next, and a central hearth. Floor plans dispensed with basements, attics, and, in smaller models, formal dining rooms to maximize efficiency. Typically situated on inexpensive and remote sites, away from major urban centers, and set back from the road, Usonian homes nestled into their surrounding landscapes. Wright used local materials, experimenting with combinations of wood, glass, and masonry. These homes indicate Wright’s responsiveness to his client’s interests as well as interest in simplicity, connection to the land, and efficiency. The following seven homes express the principles Wright developed for the Usonian model, as well as the many innovative variations he imagined in collaboration with clients.