Page 11 - "he 2020 Guggenheim issue of World of Art Contemporary Art Magazine

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Photo: David Heald © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
He also thought that a building should function like a
cohesive organism, where each part of the design relates to
the whole. Wright’s organic architecture often incorporates
natural elements such as light, plants, and water into his
I’D LIKE TO HAVE A FREE ARCHITECTURE. I’D LIKE TO designs. His color choices reflected the environment as well
HAVE ARCHITECTURE THAT BELONGED WHERE YOU SEE with yellows, oranges, and browns. His favorite accent color
IT STANDING, AND WAS A GRACE TO THE LANDSCAPE was red, which has importance both in nature and in the
INSTEAD OF A DISGRACE. Japanese culture, which he studied and visited and admired.
Frank Lloyd Wright Through years of study and experimentation, organic
architecture came to describe Wright’s total design ideology.
Some of the governing principles of this philosophy included:
• The belief that a building should appear to grow easily
Although the word “organic” usually refers to something from its site
that bears the characteristics of plants or animals, for Frank • Choosing one dominant form for a building and
Lloyd Wright the term organic architecture had a separate integrating that form throughout
meaning. For him organic architecture was an interpretation • Using natural colors: “Go into the woods and field for
of nature’s principles manifested in buildings that were color schemes”
in harmony with the world around them. Wright held that • Revealing the nature of materials
a building should be a product of its place and its time, • Opening up spaces
intimately connected to a particular moment and site - never • Providing a place for natural foliage.
the result of an imposed style. Wright also embraced new materials, machinery, and
technologies. Far from seeing them in opposition to nature,
Wright was interested in the relationship between buildings he saw them as allies.
and their surrounding environments. He believed that a Depending upon each other for their integrity, nature would
building should complement its environment so as to create inform and machinery execute a totally new architecture
a single, unified space that appears to “grow naturally” out of - one where the machine’s capacities transformed natural
the ground. principles into architectural forms.

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