SUSTAINABLE ORIGINS IN ARCHITECTURE OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

• Main Author: Martina Zbašnik-Senegačnik
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: University of Ljubljana 2012-10-01
• Series: AR: Arhitektura, Raziskave
• Subjects: Frank Lloyd Wright; organic architecture; prairie house; Usonian house
• Online Access: http://www.fa.uni-lj.si/filelib/9_ar/2012-1/ar2012-1_02_zbasnik.pdf
• ISSN: 1580-5573; 1581-6974

Frank Lloyd Wright is the greatest American architect and oneof the greatest architects the world. His career began at theend of the 19th century, during the great architectural boom inChicago, under the mentorship of Louis Henry Sullivan, fromwhom he adopted and then perfected the concepts of organicarchitecture and the Prairie house. During the Depressionyears, Wright developed a cheaper and simpler variant of thePrairie house: the Usonian house.Wright's architecture is characterised by an entirely newapproach to building design, particularly the design of houses.He reduced the number of rooms by combining their functionsin a large living space with a central fireplace. He used largeglazed areas to connect the external environment of the housewith the interior. The natural environment of the prairie wasthe inspiration for the horizontal lines that characterised hisarchitecture. His buildings are low in height, close to humanscale and with a great feeling for the natural setting in whichthey are built. He selected materials from the surroundingarea and the principal decoration of his architecture was thenatural structure of the material.The paper presents the ideas of organic architecture, thePrairie house, the Usonian house, along with the best examplesof Wright's architecture and the criteria he employed in theselection of materials and construction technologies. Theenvironmental aspect of his philosophy of the use of materialsis considered in the discussion section.Wright may be considered a pioneer of sustainable architecture.