American architect Frank Lloyd is considered the creator of "organic architecture." His brilliant innovative ideas became a real breakthrough in the architecture of the 20th century. Each building of the master is unique, it was erected for a specific place and for specific people.
early years
Frank Lloyd Wright was born in 1867 in the North American town of Richland Center into a family of educators. His father combined teaching music with church activities, so the boy was brought up according to the canons of the church. After his parents divorced, Frank had to take care of the mother of his two younger sisters, to provide them financially. Wright was educated at home without going to school. As a child, he spent hours playing with the developing construction set "Kindergarten", and his mother surrounded him with paintings, prints and albums. Therefore, the decision of the young man to become a student of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin became logical.
Already during his studies, the young man helped the work of a local civil engineer. Lloyd never got his degree, in 1887 he moved to Chicago and entered the architectural firm of Joseph Silsby. The next step in the career of an aspiring architect was cooperation with the firm "Adler and Sullivan", from where Frank was fired in 1893 because he began to prepare projects "on the side". After that, Lloyd organized his own company and four years later already had five dozen house projects in his luggage.
Prairie Style
At 26, Lloyd developed his own style. He learned a lot in Sullivan, "the great architect of the day." Organic architecture was first born in the works of a novice specialist. The buildings of this style are characterized by smooth horizontal lines. Houses are distinguished by flat roofs and cornices that protrude from the main projection of the building, they are immediately noticeable by horizontal rows and casement windows. Such structures have a lot of glazed surfaces and open interiors, in which partitions are not provided between the kitchen, living room and dining room.
The main difference between the prairie-style buildings is that they harmoniously fit into the natural landscape and do not create an impression of bulkiness. Lines parallel to the ground and an extension along the horizon create a cohesive design. During the first decade of the 20th century, Lloith created one hundred and twenty projects and built several dozen Prairie-style houses. Their owners were mainly businessmen and people of the middle class. The most striking example of such architecture was the Robbie House, erected in Chicago in 1907.
Frank also built his own residence in the Prairie style. It received the name of the Taliesin residence. The choice of location was not accidental, once these lands belonged to Wright's mother. The name Taliesin has Welsh roots and translates to "shining forehead". The architect placed the house on the "forehead" of the hill; it included three wings, which housed living quarters, outbuildings and an office. Local materials were used during the construction: limestone, sand, so the building was harmoniously written off into the landscape.
By 1910, Lloyd had become one of America's most eminent architects, and the fashion for the new style was spreading with great speed. The son of the famous businessman, Edgar Kaufman, became interested in innovative architecture when he visited Wright's creative workshop. He persuaded his father to allocate funds for the construction of a model of the whole city. The collaboration between Frank and the Kaufman family continued with the construction of the famous "House Above the Falls" at Bear Creek. Lloyd created not only the exterior, but also the interior of the building. All subsequent years, the House served as the residence of the businessman Kaufman's family. Since 1964, the building has been open to the public, and 120,000 people come to this exotic corner of Pennsylvania every year. To date, the construction is estimated at 2.5 million US dollars.
The peak of the creative biography of the brilliant architect was the house of Solomon Guggenheim in New York. A philanthropist and collector housed the exhibition of the US Museum of Art in the premises. The master created the project for sixteen years and completed it by 1959. From the outside, the building resembles a spiral.
Late works
Towards the end of his career, Wright moved away from organic architecture and began to create in a universal style. He moved away from the corners and added spirals and circles to his designs. Unfortunately, not all of Lloyd's ideas were able to translate into reality. He dreamed of building a skyscraper in Chicago a mile high. The architect planned that such a triangular prism-shaped house with atomic-powered elevators would house 130,000 people.
For many years, Japan remained a source of inspiration for Lloyd. In the Land of the Rising Sun, he opened an architectural bureau and donated fourteen buildings to its residents. True, many were injured during the earthquakes, only three of them survived. For example, the destroyed hotel in Tokyo was conceived as a system of gardens, the building successfully combined examples of the culture of the East and West.
In his work, Wright adhered to the philosophy that he created over the long years of creativity. He called naturalness - "inner nature", integrity and organicity as the basic rules of architecture. The form and function of the building served as a pivot for him, but Frank did not forget about romance and respect for tradition. He considered an ornament to be an important architectural detail, but the main thing he called space - the breath of a work of art.
Personal life
Having become famous, the architect did not deny himself anything, his life often became the property of the press. There were three official marriages in his biography. The first time Lloyd married in 1889, Katherine. According to the documents, the family existed for about twenty years, but did not bring happiness to the spouses. In 1923, the architect married Miriam, but because of her addiction to morphine, the marriage broke up four years later. The third wife was Olga Ivanovna - his faithful companion until the end of his days. Frank lived a long, happy life and died in 1959. He left seven children: three sons and four daughters. Frank Lloyd Wright made a great contribution to the development of modern architecture, his work was continued by two sons, who followed in the footsteps of their father.
