A lesson from Frank Lloyd Wright
Objective:
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To create a structure which doesn’t depend on the traditional four walls for support. To free the interior space to the outside, to create cantilever and continuity.
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Goal
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Students will understand Wright’s solution to the architectural problem of relating interior and exterior space by manipulation of the walls.
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Materials
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Heavy paper such as oak tag or chip board. Scissors, rulers, glue or tape.
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Procedure
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Make the models approximately 4” x 6”.
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1. Make a box but cutting six pieces (4 walls, a roof and floor). Assemble.
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2. Make another model putting spaces in the walls for windows before assembling.
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3. Cut pieces for a roof and floor. Use rolled up paper to support the roof, placing them 1” or 2” away from each corner wherever they can be so the roof corners won’t sag. Look at the spaces between the supports. Measure it.
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4. Make another model, the walls should be the size of the measured spaces in #3.
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Now the corners are open. Move the walls into the interior of the model. How far can they go and still support the roof? Assemble. You have cantilever and “continuity”.
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5. Make another model and experiment with the size and placement of the walls. (Wright called them screens). He used a massive hearth located at the center to carry the roof. Now consider the roof how can you express freedom and continuity there?
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The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York was conceived in 1943 and built between 1957 and 1959. It was not completed at the time of Wright’s death in 1959 at age 92. Wright climaxed his long creative life and belief in the organization of natural forms with this design. He especially admired the seashell and cocoon which represented to him the ideal structural prototypes for plasticity and continuity. He had concluded that the square was harsh, artificial and alien to nature, that rectilinear geometry shouldn’t be imposed on the earth.
The circle dominated Wright’s final years of work. The spiral becomes the next step from the circle, stretched to the 3rd and 4th dimensions. (The 4th dimension is a person in the space). Wright had first used the idea in 1925 for a planetarium which was never built. His use of the spiral or snail shape also represents a return (if he ever really left) to the currilinear and influence of his master, Louis Sullivan.(13) Geometric forms had dominated Wright’s work in the years since he’d left his master.
(figure available in print form)
The Guggenheim consists of two parts, the main exhibition hall and a small circular administration building.(14) The main structure is a domed spiralling shape which encloses a large central wall. The spiralling ramps are the places and paths of the gallery space. Arriving at the top in an elevator, the visitor experiences a continuous flowing journey of descent, returning to the ground floor, having made five complete turns around the central well. Along the way, the visitor may step off the path, taking control of his journey, into bays or places of repose, to look at the art hanging The bays provide a place for intimate viewing while a glance across the open central space presents a panoramic view of the art and environment. This is consistent with Wright’s method of designing. On a two dimensional plane he weaves large expanses of surface with areas of intricate detail so the viewer’s interest is held from any distance.
Wright has reiterated his quest for “continuity” with the spiral. This quest had been explored and articulated in the prairie style house with its infinite vistas and horizontal expanses set in cross axes.
Each ramp becomes deeper than the one below as the building radiates outward, pushing into space, toward the top. There the expansion is checked by the dome which has a stabilizing effect by bringing the eye to a dominant point of focus.(15) The continuous spiralling is checked by the vertical piers rising up from the ground floor. Balance is achieved in a structure which possesses tension and stability.
Looking up from the ground floor, the visitor sees ribbons of light surfaces and dark deeply recessed spaces created by the ramp. The concave interior is broken by a vertical convex band again balancing tension and stability. The ramp is enclosed space which pulls the visitor forward on the path. It remains open with recessed bays on one side and the panoramic vista on the other. One senses motion and freedom in a secure space.
(figure available in print form)
As a museum, the Guggenheim has not been entirely successful. It has been a challenge for the director to exhibit the art so it appears significantly separate from the building. Natural light has been replaced by flourescent in the bays where the paintings hang from metal bars. This is not in accordance with Wright’s specifications, but to compensate for the curved walls which make traditional methods of mounting difficult.
The utility core consisting of the elevator, cafe, lecture room and storage area is adjacent to and integrated with the great spiral. They are located so they serve but do not intrude upon the exhibit hall. The same plan is seen at Unity Temple and Robie House. The lecture room and cafe provide alternative spaces, places for repose in contrast to the spiral and its powerful journey.
The exterior repeats the ribbon effect of light surfaces and dark recessed spaces. The concrete was painted tan to accentuate the alternating spaces and to restrain the concrete masses. There is no surface ornament to distract from the bold exterior design.
(figure available in print form)
The design of the Guggenheim is not integrated to the established urban pattern. Wright’s contempt for the urban environment is clearly expressed with this building. The great sculpture is self-contained, it stands alone in the crowd and withdraws to its interior. It is interesting that Wright has re-introduced the Greek principle of architecture, as he understood it, by presenting an image of human isolation, a principle he adamantly rejected. It seems he was reflecting what he saw the urban environment as monumental to the isolation of man. (16)