ARCH 413 – Modern Mimarlık Kuramları
03.12.2019
Space, Time and Architecture – S. Giedion – Frank Lloyd Wright Hande Yılmaz Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Middle West, Chicago. The reason why his style and works are still taken an example and appreciated by people in today is that his style is unique. He rebelled against the imitating buildings that built by using nearly completely glass and steel structure of the era he lived in and he created a completely new architectural style. He dedicated his whole architectural life to “the house as a shelter” problem and we can see his tendency of building dwellings when we examine most of his buildings. Instead of building skyscrapers that are all covered with glass just like his collegaues, he developed himself on building single houses, dwellings. His buildings were mostly made by materials of the nature and their openings were so less that even the entrance was so hard to find. He mostly used brick instead of the steel structure when he constructed his buildings. Also, he aimed to reach a concept that is not out of the nature like many other buildings, instead, that is united with the nature and fused in the natural context. He reached his aim by interlacing the horizontal and vertical planes that are also made by natural materials. The house was like a shelter to him. It was a covert into which the human animal can retire as into a cave, protected from rain and wind and – light. There he may crouch, as it were, in complete security and relaxation, like an animal in it’s lair. We can experience the same understanding when we examine the Office buildings that he also constructed. Offices are dark and intrinsic. They have so less and small openings that they don’t take direct light and they are isolated from the outer world via solid walls. In his dwellings, he even designed the furnitures and wall decorations. In that day, there were architects that work with contemporary painters but Wright thought that he should design them too and do this on his own. His initial dwellings had several rooms that aligned around a big one central chimney and used it as the core. This form is called as cruciform plan (windmill plan) because of the intersecting of the horizontal and vertical masses. At the same time, he thought the house as a one room. Generally, he didn’t use any walls on the ground floor except of a seperator panel that seperates the kitchen and the living room. He tried to create a single, big and undivided void on that floor. Wright’s realization of a flexible treatment of the inner space of a building is probably his greatest service to architecture. With that way, he brought life, movement and novelty to the rigid and still lifelessness of the modern architecture. Afterwards, his style is been thrilled and inspired by the European architecture.