Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect born in 1867 in Wisconsin. He studied engineering but later worked in an architectural office. Over his career he designed over 1100 projects, nearly half of which were built. He introduced the concept of "organic architecture" which aimed to integrate structures harmoniously with their sites. Some of his most famous works include the Robie House, Fallingwater, and the Guggenheim Museum, which showcase his signature Prairie style featuring horizontal lines, overhangs, and integration with nature.

2. •Born June 8, 1867 in Richland County
Wisconsin.
•His mother was a teacher and his father was a
musician and preacher with strong Unitarian
beliefs.
•His mother gave him Froebel gifts, a set of
children’s wood blocks and paper for
construction.
•Studied engineering at the University of
Wisconsin, but left after only 2 semesters
•Soon went to work in an architectural office

3. Designed over 1100 projects of which nearly half were
built.
He received many honors and awards and honorary
doctoral degrees in fine arts form Princeton and Yale.

4. Frank Lloyd Wright introduced the word
‘organic’ into his philosophy of
architecture as early as 1908 based on
the teachings of his mentor Louis Sullivan
whose slogan “form follows function”
became the mantra of modern
architecture.
Wright changed this phrase to
“form and function are one,”
using nature as the best example of this
integration.

5. Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic architecture is not
a style of imitation, but
a reinterpretation of nature’s
principles as they had been
filtered through the intelligent
minds of men and women -- more
natural than nature itself -- a marriage
between the site and the structure .

6. Oak Park 1889-1890
Wright’s first independently-built project was his own
house, which he began in 1889 while he was working for
his mentor, Louis Sullivan..
Wright combined his home and studio.

7. Wright’s idea about designing houses…
•is that the house should be shelter that holds the
family within its calm heart, and
•the hearth is the central metaphor of the building for
him..

8. Some elements of Wright’s radical new
style were borrowed from designers
overseas—
•the Arts and Crafts movement in
Britain,
•the secessionist school in
Vienna, and
•the architecture of Japan…

9. Wright’s houses…
•horizontal, rather than vertical
•sheltering overhangs
•low terraces
•private gardens
•set back from the street to insure
greater privacy.
•the whole lower floor was one
room

10. Frederick C. Robie House
considered one of the most important buildings in
the history of American architecture.
completed in 1910, the building inspired an
architectural revolution.

11. •sweeping horizontal lines,
•dramatic overhangs,
•stretches of art glass windows and
•open floor plan make it a quintessential Prairie style house.

12. ALLEN-LAMBE HOUSE
Designed in 1915 Wichita, Ks.
Frank Lloyd Wright considered "among my best," is
considered the last of the Prairie Houses.

13. •horizontal carthage marble "water table" as a transition
• design element between the prairie floor and the house
raked horizonal brick joints and flush head joints
•expansive clay tile roof with emphasis on horizonal lines
• a Japanese flavor

15. One of the world’s most famous houses is the
weekend retreat called Fallingwater. Begun in
1936 and, Wright designed the house for
Pittsburgh department store owner Edgar J.
Kaufmann, whose son, Edgar Jr., was a Taliesin
fellow.

16. Fallingwater’s floors and
roofs are dramatically
cantilevered over the
waterfall of Bear Run, a
creek in western
Pennsylvania.

17. •made of reinforced concrete
•vertical elements such as stairs and chimneys faced in
rough stone and from a nearby quarry.
•vision of the exploded box
•windows meet at the corners of rooms

18. Taliesin West 1937-1938
From 1937 until his death, Wright spent six months a
year at his home near Phoenix, Arizona. The desert
setting captivated Wright and he felt that its topography
and climate demanded new modes of building.

19. Taliesin West
partially embedded in the ground
stretched canvas roof, allows the sun's light and heat to
penetrate interior spaces.
Walls and structural piers are large chunks of local stone set
randomly into concrete mixed from the desert sands

20. What he admired in the Arts and Crafts
movement was its commitment to
crafting all objects in such a way as to
make them beautiful.
What he loved about Japan was the idea
of a culture in which every human action
and every human object were integrated
so as to make the entire civilization a
work of art.

21. Wright traveled to Japan and
was fascinated by the Japanese
woodblock print - He said in his
1943 autobiography,
“The print is more
autobiographical than you may
imagine. If Japanese prints
were to be deducted from my
education, I don’t know what
direction the whole would have
taken. The gospel of
elimination of the insignificant,
preached by the print came
home to me in architecture.”

22. Wright spent most of 1915 to 1919 in Tokyo
working on his Imperial Hotel.
Frank Lloyd Wright designed 12 buildings for
Japan - 6 were built, 2 remain
“I remember when I first met the Japanese
prints. That art had a great influence on
my feeling and thinking…..I began to see
nature in a totally different way.”

23. Wright Looked to Japan…
While most American architects in
the early 1900s looked to Europe
and European architects for ideas,
Frank Lloyd Wright found
Japanese design and art more
inspiring. He collected and
mounted exhibits of Japanese art.
wood -the simplicity and possible
refinements of that material.
“open plan” - open one space into
another by sliding screens and
panels.
roof lines sweep low to the ground
concern with nature as an integral
part of their building.

24. “You must be consistently grammatical,” Wright
said, for a building, “to be understood as a work
of Art.”
Wright felt that geometry
• was the key to grammatical consistency,which
• was in turn the key to aesthetic unity, which
• was in turn the key to beauty, which
• was in turn the key of God.

25. The
Guggenheim
•design mimics an upside-
down ziggurat
•consists of a large, top-lit
interior court
•ringed by a continuous
spiral ramp.
It was completed in 1959, six
months after Wright’s death.
On 5th Avenue in NYC.

27. MY OPINION…
I admire the work of Frank Lloyd
Wright. There is a sense of
harmony and comfort that comes
from his work. The horizontal
emphasis and use of natural
materials enhance the buildings’
surroundings. It is form and
function at its best.