ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE

ARCHITECTS:

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

CHARLES RENEE MACKINTOSH

CONTENT

Organic architecture • History • Introduction • Characteristics Main content • Architects – 1. Frank Lloyd Wright • Introduction • Furniture 2. Charles Renee Mackintosh • Introduction • Furniture

HISTORY (INITIATION OF ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE)

• The term organic architecture was coined by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959), though never well articulated by his cryptic style of writing.

• Organic architecture is also translated into the all inclusive nature of Frank Lloyd Wright’s design process. Materials, motifs, and basic ordering principles continue to repeat themselves throughout the building as a whole.

• The idea of organic architecture refers not only to the buildings' literal relationship to the natural surroundings, but how the buildings' design is carefully thought about as if it were a unified organism.

• Essentially organic architecture is also the literal design of every element of a building: From the windows, to the floors, to the individual chairs intended to fill the space. Everything relates to one another, reflecting the symbiotic ordering systems of nature.

• Everything relates to one another, reflecting the symbiotic ordering systems of nature.

INTRODUCTION

• Organic architecture is a philosophy of architecture which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world through design approaches so sympathetic and well integrated with its site that buildings, furnishings, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated composition.

• Architect and planner David Pearson proposed a list of rules towards the design of organic architecture.

• These rules are known as the Gaia Charter for organic architecture and design. It reads:

"Let the design: • be inspired by nature and be sustainable, healthy, conserving,

and diverse. • unfold, like an organism, from the seed within. • exist in the "continuous present" and "begin again and again". • follow the flows and be flexible and adaptable. • satisfy social, physical, and spiritual needs. • "grow out of the site" and be unique. • celebrate the spirit of youth, play and surprise. • express the rhythm of music and the power of dance.

Characteristics • Art Nouveau is based on organic forms meant to

evoke nature. • Instead of sharp lines and right angles, the style

features gentle arches, elongated curves and fluid-looking edges that flow together.

• The look can present challenges, especially when dealing with flat tables and chair legs.

• Art Nouveau furniture overcomes the straight lines with chair and table legs that bow gracefully instead of standing stick-straight.

• Bookcases and cabinets are designed to feature tree-like limbs that appear supple and asymmetrical, rather than rigid or uniform.

• Organic, relaxed forms and naturalistic principles are the central characteristics of furnishings in the Art Nouveau style.

Whiplash Curves and Subtle Colors • Elongated and exaggerated curves, called whiplash

curves by fans of the look, set Art Nouveau apart from other furniture styles.

• Art Nouveau designers used extreme or exaggerated curves on everything from glass bowls to concrete buildings.

• Often the inlaid designs or patterns resemble swirls and plumes of smoke or rippling water.

• Carved paneling and stylized patterns are typical of the look, as are elaborate wrought iron details that appear as woven vines that drip with tendrils.

• The delicate ornamental look is offset by the style's general emphasis on modern materials, such as glass and metal. To unify the look, the Art Nouveau color palette features soft, luminescent neutrals and earthy pastels, such as mauve, lilac and salmon.

Flowing Plant Forms •Idealized, illustrated botanicals and animal life are another significant characteristic of Art Nouveau. • The motifs, drawn entirely from nature, include highly-stylized florals and sinuous vines that form repeating patterns. • Chair backs, cabinet doors and tables legs feature embellishments, such as inlaid tiles or basic relief carvings of birds, insects, peacock feathers and deep-sea organisms. •Metallic trim, on cabinet door handles, clock faces and picture frames also evoke entwined tree branches and filigreed foliage. • Sofa and chair fabrics, typically made with a high degree of sheen, often feature elongated pale irises and lilies.

FURNITURE •Organic furniture take the basic

form of their surroundings and create furniture pieces that

completely match with the exterior of the buildings.

•This furniture was basically brought into existence to have a harmony

between the interiors and the exteriors.

•Certain examples are shown below:

Frank Lloyd Wright History

•During the later 1920s and 1930s Wright's Organic style had fully matured with the design of Graycliff, Fallingwater and Taliesin West.

•Born into the fussy Victorian era Wright rejected their heavy ornamentation and ostentatious gilding for a more rigid and symmetrical style.

•He believed so much in blurring the boundaries between interiors and exteriors that Wright once allowed a willow to grow in the center of his own

home. •So inspired was Wright with nature and organic unity that he became involved with every detail of the project from the architectural design to the furniture to

even the most minute interior detail. • Frank Lloyd Wright designed homes down to their stained glass windows and

dishes. •Glass was favored by Wright as a very important design element. He felt that

the quality of glass allowed interaction in his designs with nature because glass permitted viewing of the outdoors while providing protection from the

elements. •Wright even wrote a comparison essay on glass that compared it to nature’s

mirrors like lakes, rivers and ponds. By stringing panes of glass to create light screens that joined together with solid walls the architect utilized large

amounts of glass and glass bricks. •Wright’s Prairie style is well known for this. The Johnson Wax Headquarters

is famous for his use of Pyrex tubes on the ceiling to let in soft lighting.

• From geometrically patterned plates to entire hotels, Wrights designs are still collected and studied today from the originals down to reproduction.

• The Institute proclaimed Frank Lloyd Wright “the greatest American architect of all time”.

• Quite an achievement in the 20th Century where some of the most famous buildings in history were built like the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and even the World Trade Towers.

• Wright claimed to build “organic” architecture that seemed to grow naturally out of the surrounding landscape.

• He believed the internal space, furnishings and decorative details of a house to be intrinsic to its architecture.

• Many of his projects incorporated site specific furniture and fittings. These unified projects were intended to possess a natural “organic” beauty that would promote the life of the human spirit.

• Instead of walls, furnishings were often used as spatial dividers, thereby creating more open interiors and a sense of flowing space.

• Wright’s preoccupation with geometric forms and intersecting planes in his architecture, led him to develop a similar style for furniture. For example, a series of metal desks and chairs designed for the Larkin Building in Buffalo, New York, were designed to be functionally and visually unified with their surroundings.

• They were also among the first metal items for indoor use that did not mimic wood. The chairs were made of painted steel with leather upholstered seats and rigidly geometric backs with square perforations.

FLW’s Works

FLW’S Organic Furniture

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Barrel Chair

The "Barrel Chair" by Frank Lloyd Wright was designed in 1937

for Herbert Johnson's house, Wingspread. Made of natural cheerywood with an upholstered leather seat, the chair was a

reworking of a design Wright created in 1904.

Wright saw the chair as an architectural challenge. He used tall straight chairs as a screen around tables. The simple shapes of

his furniture permitted machine production, making the designs affordable. Indeed, Wright believed that machines

could actually enhance the designs.

Dimensions: 54 x 55 x 81(inch)

Description: Base in solid cherry

Upholstered with foam

Leather cover

Oak park Loveseat • Designed for his own home and

studio, the Oak Park Spindle Chair provided comfortable seating for Wright's family and clients. Copeland Furniture adapted the Oak Park Loveseat using Wright's original designs from the Oak Park Chair. Matching sofa and chair are available

• Dimensions: 47 3/8" x 29 7/8" x 34 1/2"

• Wood used: Quartersawn White Oak or Cherry

Robbie coffee table

Robbie dinning chair

Ingalls Bed

• This is a line of furnishings that Frank Lloyd Wright designed in 1955. His goal was to create modular furnishings that residents could shape according to their needs. The storage case along the back wall is actually seven separate units.

•Famous today as a designer of chairs, Scottish architect and designer C.R (Charles Renee) Mackintosh excelled in virtually all areas of art, architecture and design • He worked in interior design, furniture, textiles, metals, and later in his years, watercolor. • Born in Glasgow and suffering from bad foot and eye problems, C.R. • Mackintosh spent time as a child sketching the Scottish countryside. In 1884 at the age of 16, he began an apprenticeship to an architect named John Hutchinson, and joined a firm of architects in 1889 where he began developing his own style.

CHARLES RENEE MACKINTOSH HISTORY

• Mackintosh blended elements of traditional Scottish architecture and the English Arts and Crafts tradition with the organic forms of Art Nouveau and a drive to be modern, contrasting strong right angles and floral-inspired decorative motifs with subtle curves.

• As his work matured, he began to use bolder geometric forms in place of organic-inspired symbolic decoration.

• His distinctive style mixed together elements of the Scottish vernacular and the English Arts and Crafts tradition with the organic forms of Art Nouveau and a drive to be modern. As his work matured Mackintosh employed bolder geometric forms in place of organic-inspired symbolic decoration.

FURNITURE

• Chair made of black lacquered ash. Seat in black fabric.

• Dimensions: H- 54 in.

W- 20 1/2 in.

D- 19 2/3 in.

• Seat Height: 17 3/4 in

• Dimensions: H- 55 1/2 in.

W- 16 in. D- 15 1/3 in. • Seat Height: 17 3/4 in.