Modern architecture masterclass with Frank Lloyd Wright

In architecture, few figures stand taller than Frank Lloyd Wright. On top of my head, I can think of Le Corbusier, Michelangelo and that‘s about it. Even Michelangelo doesn‘t really count since he was more a sculptor and a painter. No, when we think of THE modern architect the correct answer is Frank Lloyd Wright. Looking at his career, this shouldn‘t be a surprise. Wright‘s work spans almost sixty years. The man left more than a hundred buildings heralded as masterpieces. Yet, Wright‘s modern architecture style remains largely unknown to non-architects, even compared to other styles of the last century. You can all recognize Bauhaus, Art Deco and Brutalism even if you don‘t know their name. But for Wright‘s “modernism“, I can‘t say the same. Today, I want to change that. Let‘s explore the philosophy of the man - the “organic“ architecture. Hopefully, you will better appreciate its potential even if you don‘t build anything.

Fake order

When Wright began his career in America, buildings were still largely influenced by the British style: large buildings, lots of marble and decors. The idea was largely to impress power and wealth. To put the viewer in its place so to speak.

This bothered Wright a great deal.

This “order of architecture“ as Wright called it went against what buildings should be about. He explains further with Michelangelo‘s Saint-Peter‘s Basilica. A cultural masterpiece? To be sure. Yet, just a few days after its construction, its dome began to fall apart. It requires constant renovation to this day. As a practical building, Saint Peter‘s utterly fails. And that‘s exactly Wright‘s point: living spaces should fit with how we want to use them. Not just look pretty and expansive. Michelangelo and his contemporaries would mark the Renaissance and permanently mark Italy‘s architectural tradition, then France‘s, then Britain‘s and America‘s in turn. Wright heavily criticized this “Colonial“ architectural tradition as doomed from the start.

A building‘s form should follow and be adapted to its function. This is what Wright called “the nature of purpose“. A bank should not look like a temple: it should look like a bank. According to Lao Tze: “the reality of the building consists not in the four walls and the roof but in the space within, the space to be lived in.“

Back to the roots

But it‘s not just the non-functionality of buildings that bothered Wright, but how much they try to ignore where they are. Even today, buildings are largely uniform. An apartment building will be largely the same wherever it is built. Sometimes even sticks out like a sore thumb. Cities are more often than not a collection of structures that do their best to either look exactly like their neighbour or completely ignore what‘s under their feet.

Another mistake in Wright‘s mind.

A building must be adapted to its surroundings. Is the ground soft soil or rough stone? What is the surrounding elevation? How much does it rain and where does water puddle? Where does the sun pass in the sky and in what season? What are the wind patterns? The architect must know all of these. The building must use and accept each. For Wright, architecture was an interpretation of human life, its individuality and beauty. A return to nature - and WITH nature. A building harmonized with its surroundings and its purpose - that is organic architecture. That is Wright‘s “modern“ style.

Stay grounded

In the previous section, we saw that Wright considered true architecture as aware of its surroundings. From everything that entails, Wright seemed to put the most effort into the ground itself. His entire repertoire is characterized by low-height horizontal buildings. By staying low the the ground, his buildings could stay “true to it“. For Wright, the association between man and nature is in human freedom. In a building, this freedom is expressed by large open spaces. In fact, Wright was horrified by modern city landscapes. The ground flow is constantly interrupted by traffic and city lights. Buildings are tall, narrow, cold and without character. This tendency to reduce living space size disgusted Wright. Man needs space and light. What‘s more, Wright classified “three diseases“ of modern cities: the concept of renting spaces, the concept of renting money and inhuman technology (which he simply called “the machine“). Wright would want to ditch our cities for large communities looking more like our countryside: large horizontal interconnected spaces. Something tells me that Wright would have loved the “digital nomad“ movement.

Inspiration

Let‘s finish things up with some recommendations from Wright. How he would see different common buildings.

Factories: Interestingly enough, Wright disapproved of cities but largely liked factory buildings themselves. That might seem paradoxical, but remember that Wright wants architecture to better conform to function. In that way, we must recognize that the “factory mindset“ is probably the closest thing we have right now to Wright‘s vision. The only thing that Wright would really want our factories to focus more on is decentralization. In his mind, the ideal factory was a place where factory workers could live, work and breathe like small-farm gardeners (his words).
Business Offices: Here, Wright wants offices to act more as multi-function spaces. For him, such offices should not only be places to work but places for manufacturing, farming and even dwellings themselves. They should be inseparable from the worker‘s own “home ground“. I suppose the closest thing we have to that vision would be those apartment buildings on top of malls.
Banks: Banks should be better incorporated into our social systems. And, most of all, get rid of their typical temple look. They should be approachable and integral parts of communities, gathering spaces even.
Markets: In the same breath, Wright would also want to see our market act as cultural facilities. Something closer to our county fairs. Spacious, well-lit and pleasurable spaces.

To serve man

That is organic architecture. I believe that those principles apply to more than buildings, however. I feel that we can all be better by better connecting with our environment, our communities and ourselves. Don‘t let order and tradition go in the way (yet still respect it). I leave you with one last aphorism from Wright: Law for man, not law above man.

See you next time.

References

The Living City, Frank Lloyd Wright, Southern Illinois University Press 1988.
The Future of Architecture, Horizon Press, New York, 1953.
An Organic Architecture: the Architecture of Democracy, M.I.T. Press, 1970.
In the Realm of Ideas, Frank Lloyd Wright, Southern Illinois University Press, 1988.