Frank Lloyd Wright
(1869-1959) made numerous efforts during his long career to publicize good
design and to describe what he considered to be good design practices in terms
that could be applied by others, wether professional designers or
owner-builders.
In 1956, HOUSE AND HOME
magazine, (September 1956, PP 136-141) carried an article titled "this
rich and rhythmic house expresses 32 simple and basic design ideas of Frank
Lloyd Wright". This article is reprinted in John Sergeant ‘s FRANK LLOYD
WRIGHJT USONIAN HOUSES. THA CASE FOR ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE. (New-York,
Whitney/Watson Guptill, 1976, pp 156-158)The article led off by a photograph of
Wright in the porkpie hat, is illustrated with photographs of Zimmerman House,
Manchester, N.H., 1951.
The 32 guidelines
presented are divided into four groups :
To
make a small house look bigger outside.
1 Stress
horizontal design lines by stretching the roof line, keeping the fascia in one
unbroken line except when good reasons cause it to be broken, and by keeping a
strong middle line at window sill height.
2 Don't design a large roof overhand
of the north, when it is not needed and don't be bound by the assumption by
both side of a sloping gable roof have to have the same slope.
3 Keep the roofline low, for example
at the 6'-9" plate line for framing
door opening.
4 Don't punch windows hole in a wall
plane, but instead, built walls to windows sill height and then superimpose a
horizontal band window.
5 Make the scale of the entry door
appropriate to the scale of the wall ; don't put a small "dinky"
doorvey in a large wall surface.
6 Don't stick a small "toy"
chimney in the middle of a large roof area.
To
make a small house look bigger inside.
7 Emphasize a horizontal line at a
lower than normal ceiling height, for example 6'-9" to dramatize a high
ceiling.
8 Make the living room ceiling height
seem higher by contrasting it by a low ceiling in the entry hall.
9 Use a strong design element perpendicular
to the width of a room to make it seem wider. Massive columns of brick between
windows were used to illustrate this concept.
10 Create changing patterns of light on
the ceiling by using a glass gable with no overhang.
11 Use built in furnishing around the
perimeter of a room to free space in the center of the room and make the room
work as it though it was wider than it was.
12 In using a flowing open plan, let the
space flow around corners so that not all of the dining room and open kitchen space
can be seen from the living room space.
13 Carry the indoors into the outdoors,
making outdoor space seem part of the indoor space, for example by carrying
planting through the glass, maintaining the same floor line inside and outside,
using ceiling glass to let the ceiling carry trough to the outdoors, and using
the ceiling pattern both inside and outside.
14 - Use mitre-glass
corner window to de-emphasize as the boundary of the space.
To
make a small house work better outside.
15 Make the drive way large enough to
serve as off street parking
16 Don't landscape the ground as such a
way to require expensive maintenance.
17 Provide privacy for the house from the
street, for example, by setting the house back from the street (some of the
most successfully usonian house of Wright did just the opposite incidentally),
by facing glass areas to the back yard, and/or by means of planting.
18 Rise the level of planting boxes and
place faucet in each box, to aid the watering and so that the gardener won't have
to stoop.
19 Make the terrace or patio large enough
to serve as usable outdoor space or "room" so that it won't be used merely as a path.
20 Raise the terrace above the lawn to
drainage.
21 Face houses in cold country toward the
sun and away for cold winds and storms.
To
maker a small house work better inside.
22 Place utensils and dishes in the
kitchen on open shelves within easy reach.
23 Make the kitchen ceiling high to allow
cooking odors to rise.
24 provide a means for keeping kitchen
mess in an open kitchen but out of sight.
25 Light an interior bath trough the roof.
26 Provide a large mirror in the master
bath, and light it all around it's edge.
27 Make the low ceiling in the house serve
also as light troughs for indirect lighting.
28 Use low maintenance natural materials
where possible.
29 Make the shelves part of the
decoration.
30 Extend entry hall length to provide
privacy for the living room, and provide a coat closet large enough to be
useful.
31 Place the kitchen at the heart of the
house, even if it requires an interior position (Wright often designed interior
kitchens with clerestory windows under a high kitchen ceiling).
32 Use a large fire place as the pivot
point for the house, and hide the mechanical space behind the large fireplace.
In October 1959, HOUSE
BEAUTIFUL, the magazine that Wright co-founded and that was originally
published in the carriage house of Wright Winslow's house, published a special
issue in commemoration of Wright's death in April oh that year. The special
issue was subtitled "our heritage from Frank Lloyd Wright". One of
the articles in the special issue was "exploding the box to gain
spaciousness" by Elizabeth Gordon.
In this article, a
further set of guidelines was provided, illustrated with examples designed by
members of the Taliesin Associates and by architects who had served as
apprentices art Taliesin.
Some of the guidelines
illustrated were :
1 While keeping ceiling and roof
interesting, always maintain these as sheltered elements. Provide dark,
cave-like areas for retreat, and lofty, bright sunny areas, to suit differing
moods.
2 Bring light in as places where
structural elements meets and by other means than merely punching holes in
walls.
3 Work towards a continuous flow of
space, among adjoining interior spaces, using wide opening and continuous
floor, plans and un-interrupted materials ; avoid thresholds and moldings that
define the end of a space.
4 Use oblique and diagonal lines, and
geometric figures such as diamond and curves to avoid right angle corners.
5 Avoid symmetry and axis to avoid
boring planning and to create a free feeling. Let spaces flow beyond what can
be seen, so that the mind must complete the space.
6 Use the smallest possible number of
materials ; use one dominant material and let the rest subordinate to it.
7 Avoid defining the structure as a
barrier by letting structural elements flow out into the landscape. This can be
done with walls, low walls, and paving materials. Instead of framing views of
the outdoors, bring the outdoor in, it is better to let the indoor-outdoor
transition in several stages than to make it abrupt. Examples mentioned are
secluded terraces, and walls and walks of the same materials as the house,
extended into the landscape.
Example shown in the
article include triangular windows in gables, the use of diagonals in plan to
make longer design lines within a small building site, the use of obtuse angles
in plan and in section /elevation to increase sense of openness, the use of
design elements to distract attention to the glass wall as a barrier between
inside and outside, and the use of interior courtyards to confuse the sense of
what is inside and what is outside, helping to dissolve the sense that the
boundaries of the house are barriers.
Some of the more
arresting visuals figures of Wright are found in the means that he used to
bring in light from above, including sky-lights, clerestory windows, gable end
windows, and long slim, horizontal windows located at the intersection of wall
and ceiling, with the sofitt outside in the same plane and of the same material
as the ceiling inside.
The interlocking of
site and structure is also a features that recurs over and over in his work, in
such things as the location, of a building slightly off the crest of a
hill, and the creation of domina design
lines at low elevations to make the house "hug" the site. Continuous
use of the same materia inside and outside is exemplified at Taliesin North where
a 60' stone walkway approaching the house is carried into the house, so that
the same stone is the floor material in the entryway and sitting room and is
also the material out of which the piers between windows are built. Mr Wright
said " architectural association accentuates the charact of the landscape
if the architecture is right"
(HOUSE BEAUTIFUL,
October 1959, P 327)
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