FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Wisconsin, his father was a musician and a preacher, his mother was a teacher. Wright spent some of his time growing up at the farm owned by his uncles. Wright temporarily studied civil engineering after which he moved to Chicago to work for a year in the architectural firm of Silsbee. In 1887 he hired on as a draftsman in the firm of Adler and Sullivan. Wright eventually became the chief draftsman and also the man in charge of the firms residential designs. He also designed houses on his own toward the end, homes Wright called “bootlegged” which were done with Adler and Sullivan's policies concerning such moonlighting. When Sullivan found out about these homes, Wright was fired from the firm. Wright sets a great fireplace in stone or bricks in the centre of the house and it becomes the massive central element around which the space develops in a functional way. The plan of these first houses often have a cruciform plan moving around a great fireplace. The Prairie houses often have a square, rectangular, T or L plan. Wright wants a functional architecture, he isn't interested in ornaments and he wants to exploit the inner space which must be open to the outside. The materials used must be integrated with the surroundings, in addiction he criticizes modern American architecture mainly based on the imitation of ancient forms that have lost their topical value. He wants to build houses that satisfy the owner's needs with materials responding to modern exigencies and furnished with functional furniture. The Prairie Houses were built using mass-produced materials. Wright avoided the traditional division into separate areas of dining and living, he wants a large whole ground floor so he choose large living areas with a perimeter heating below large glass areas. The fireplace was the centre of the house, he often used horizontal lines which set the home into a sense a perpetual motion and following the horizon, he seemed to connect the home to the earth. Wright's philosophy is divided in nine points: 1-to reduce to the necessary minimum the partition walls 2-to harmonize the building with the external environment. This is obtained by stressing the planes parallel to the ground. 3-to eliminate the concept of rooms as separate boxes. 4-to avoid the foundation underground so the house rises on low platform made of brick or stone. 5-to give logical and human proportions to the internal and external openings. 6-to eliminate the combination of different materials and to avoid those ornaments that aren't required by the material itself. 7-to integrate the heating and the lightening system into the building as much as possible, so that they become architectural elements. 8-to integrate furniture into organic architecture and design it in simple models. 9-to eliminate the figure of the decorator. Wright's aim was always a perfect ideal house, he was never satisfied and always conti