Frank Lloyd Wright’s Genius Essay, Research Paper
These ideas proposed by Wright represent a half century of
ingenuity and unrivaled creativity. Wright was unquestionably a
architectural genius and was years ahead of his time. The biggest
obstacle which held Wright back throughout his career was the lack of
technogaly that was present during his time. As a architect, Wright
accomplished more that any other in history, with the possible
exception of DaVincci or Michangelo. His philosophy of Organic
Architecture showed the world that form and function could both by
achieved to create a house that was both true to nature and
affordable. Wrights homes, have today become monuments of greatness
and distictionn. Most of them serve as museums, displaying the his
ideas and the achievements of a lifetime of innovation. It wasn’t
until Wright published “The Natural House” however, that he fully was
able to illustrate all of his ideas relating toward housing. In the
“Natural House” wright defines the meaning of Organic Architecture and
how it can be applied to creating housing which provides a closeness
to nature for the occupents. Wright was undoubtly a romantic and
individualist. His feeling toward nature and self integrity can best
be shown by comparing them to those shared by Emerson and Thoreau.
Wrights deep love of nature and his individualism were formed from the
events which influenced him as a child and up until his days working
for Louis Sullivan. In order to fully understand the ideas which
Wright proposed through his philosophy of Organic Architecture, one
must first understand the events and influences which led to their
creation.
As a child, Wrights parents always encouraged him to be a free
thinker and individualist. Both of his parents were intelligent and
creative people by nature. They, of all people had the greatest
influence on Wright. Throughout his life they were extreamly
supportive of Wrights dream of becoming an architect, and always made
sure that he had books and pictures of buildings that he could study
and learn from. Wrights parents had little money, but they always
found the extra money needed to support their childrens intrusts. When
Wright became old enough to begin learning about working, his parents
felt that sending him to his uncles dairy farm during his summer break
from school would provide him with the proper work ethics and morals
needed to become a responsible adult. The work on the farm was
rigorous and seemingly endless to Wright. He despised the chores which
he was required to do. Wright attempted to run away almost each summer
that he was sent there. However, his kind but stern uncle promised him
that all of his hard work would make him a better person and would
teach him responsibility. As the years passed, Frank began to dread
working on the farm less and less. He became fascinated with nature
and developed a deep respect for it. It was there, on a small
Wisconsin dairy farm where Wright began to ponder the theory of
integrating architecture with nature. Wright attributed his love
toward nature and his respect toward it, to the many summers which he
spent on his uncles farm.
The other major influence in Wright’s life, was the collapsing of
the State of Wisconsin Capitol Building. At the time, Wright was only
13 when he witnessed the building collapse upon itself, killing all 40
workers who were inside it. Severely traumatized and unable to sleep
for weeks, Wright kept wondering why the tragic incident occurred.
Weeks later, it was revealed that the cause of the buildings collapse
was a lack of support from the pilars which held up the above 3
stories. The architect and the builder both reglected to test the
pilars before they were introduced into the buildings structural
design. After Wright learned this, he vowed that if he became a
architect, he would thourghly test all of the support membranes used
in the construction of all the building projects which he oversaw. The
greatest factor which Wright put forth in his philosophy of Organic
Architecture was that of safety. Wright felt that all buildings,
whether they were commercial or residential should be built and
designed so that they were structuraly sound as well as true to
nature. Wright illustrates his feeling toward the importenance of
safety by saying “There is no excuse which I have heard, that can
compensate for a poorly designed building. The only thing that I can
say about a individual who takes no responsibility for his ideas is
either lazy or a truely uncareing person”(Wright, The The Natural
House,74). Wright seldom talked about the tragic callamiaty which he
witnessed as youth, but it was clear that the memory left a deep
impression upon him.
At only 16 years of age, Wright began studing Civil Engineering
at the University of Wisconsin. Growing board with his clases, Wright
left his studies and went to Chicago hoping that he could obtain a job
as a architects apprentice. Fortunatly Wright sucessfully managed to
secure a apprenticespib job with Louis Sullivan, renowned modern
architect. Wright worked with Louis Sullivan and his partner Dankmar
Adler, for 6 years. During this time, Wright learned form Sullivan
what his studies at the University of Wisconsin lacked: a design
concept which was new, and was logical to Wright. Sullivan shared the
same feeling toward about Wrights philosophy of Organic Architecture.
Sullivan showed Wright how his philosophy could be applied to the
housin needs of the late 1800’s. Without Sullivans direction and
guidence, Wright may have never been able to accomplish what he did.
Wright referred to Sullivan as “Lieber Miester” because Wright felt
that he was truely a master at his work and should be addressed with
the utmost of respect. Unfortunatly, when Sullivan found out that
Wright was moonlighting, he was forced to fire him. Sullivan felt
betrayed and was left sadned by the incident. Wright was so involved
with his ideas that he neglected to respect the trust and teachings
put forth by his teachings. After Wright first began to recieve praise
for his early design work, he felt it necessary to fully communicate
and define his philosophy of Organic Architecture, so that everyone
could get a clear picture of it’s ideas. He to accomplished this by
expressing his ideas in a book called “The Natural House”. Of all
books which Wright published, “The Natural House” had the greatest
impact. As Emerson and Threau proposed divine models for behavior and
self integrety, In “The Natural House” Wright proposed a divine model
for what he considered to be the perfect house. Wright stated that a
house should be as close to nature as possible. He illustrates this by
stating “A house which is constructed in a manner which is
complementive to nature, rather than insulting, is one that will last
the longest and be the most attractive.”