Month: September 2005

I’ve filed this posting under art as the best architecture is. In the words of a master “The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization”
The master in question being “America’s Architect”, Frank Lloyd Wright. FLW was born in 1867 and throughout a career spanning around 60 years he developed and refined the concept of organic architecture.
In his own words

“I would like to have a free architecture. Architecture that belonged where you see it standing—and is a grace to the landscape instead of a disgrace.”

Truthfully I would have loved to become an architect but I doubt my skills lie in that direction. The engineer in me is fascinated by the compelling mixture of elegant form and function througnout Frank Lloyd Wright’s best works. The most famous of which is Fallingwater. Constructed for Mr. and Mrs. E.J. Kaufmann senior at Mill Run, Pennsylvania, which was designed according to Wright’s desire to place the occupants close to the natural surroundings, with a stream running under part of the building. The construction is a series of cantilevered balconies and terraces, using limestone for all verticals and concrete for the horizontals. The cost of this architectural masterpiece was $155,000, a pricely sum in 1939. This included the architect’s fee of $80,000. In practical terms we can assume that adjusted for inflation the total cost was over 3 million dollars in today’s money. Kaufmann’s own engineers argued that the design was not sound. They were overruled by Wright, but secretly added extra steel to the horizontal concrete elements. I’ve recently found a fantastic site which enables people to navigate through Failling Water. Click here to find out more.