Between Silence and Light

The craft that Frank Lloyd Wright took in designing each home exterior and interior was meticulous and renown. For example the Frederick C. Robie House “at every point, the horizontal line is stretched and emphasized, internally as well as externally” (Roth 497). I was inspired by this extreme use of horizontal lines within the prairie home. Within my design for studio I incorporated horizontal lines to guide the viewers eye and create a calming environment to regulate the home owners face paced life.

In the study of the Biltmore Estate the public/private space was essential to the design. The placement of the chimneys and bedroom quarters was different from this central idea and was moved to a more private location in the design of the home. “Around the mid 19th century, American architects began to attend the Ecole des Beaux Arts, beginning with Richard Morris Hunt in 1845” (Roth 133). From what we learned European design was about private/ public spaces. Morris then adapted this idea and introduced it to the United States of America. This idea of public/ private spaces is now adapted and taken into consideration in every design of a home. Like I had mentioned in my studio project I have to create this sense of public/ private space including a loft. I have an open floor plan and the use of the stairs and linear architectural features act as my separation. The loft upstairs counts as a private area that overlooks the public area. With a set of screened doors it is able to become private.

The technique that Frank Lloyd Wright conveyed in the House of Fallingwater was expressed through his minute details. Wright’s use of steel framing to support the house to sit over the water and engage the design with the water that flows from beneath the house. He also polished the stones in the home to represent the glossy reflection of water. However, the hearth of the home his famous fire place was solid to express that it is dry. This technique of representing water throughout the house supported his concept for his design. “Frank Lloyd Wright and other American designers could not accept the restrictions of the Modern Movement, rejecting its characteristic use of pilotis and regular blocks. In the 1930s Wright continued to develop his own personal style which he considered more expressive of American values, cumulating in Falling Water at Bear Run, Pennsylvania (1936)“ (Massey 85). Technique is something we learned in Jake’s visualization class. The project is called object persuasion, we had to develop an advertisement add that was attractive and represented a good layout. I learned the technique of balance and simplicity. I applied this technique to develop a well designed add.

Language is expressed well in the development of the skyscraper. The result of the Chicago fire led to the design of these massive constructed buildings. The use of space was developed the higher the floor the smaller the square footage of the building. When seeing a sky scraper standing underneath a towering piercing building into the sky the language represented is expressive within the architecture. The hierarchy, and empowerment speaks to the reader. In light of the population growth designers had to support the needs of the population. In order to fit everyone architecture had to be built up instead of out.

Due to the growing technology the virtual curtain wall of the Bau Haus was made possible. Instead of walls acting as support the architects Dessau and Gropius designed this machine inspired building. This good design for all was virtually changing the way of design. After WWI the designers came over to America and shared this new design. The curtain wall design was adapted to sky scrapers and is still used today. This system of virtual transformation of how we perceive a building wall is completely turned around and something that should be supportive and strong is now a floating glass structure supported by a steel structure. “This exciting use of space was described in 1924 in Van Doesburg’s ‘Sixteen Points of a Plastic Architecture’ where he writes of De Stijl theory: ‘The new architecture is anti-cubic, that is to say , it does not try to freeze the different functional space cells in one closed cube. Rather it throws the functional space cells (as well as overhanging planes, balcony, volumes etc.) centrifugally from the core.’” (Massey 71). To support this quote space being virtually changing of a room is desired in design. Us as designers are challenged to rethink the use of space in either an existing, or developing design.

In summary this section revolving around the arts and crafts movement up to Modern design was relatively similar. With the introduction of Frank Lloyd Wright using craft and technique it is evident that the design world was continuing to evolve. This use of machinery and embracing the industrial era was a new idea. Spacing was also rethought and this sense of public/private space was redesigned and floor plans changed from then on. Virtually the language of the overall section was speaking towards the future. This desire for modern, new and simple architecture was beginning to emerge and leads us into the next section.