ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE

Introduction

• Promotes harmony between man-made structure and

the nature
• It is achieved by integrating the buildings and
surroundings.
• Main objective is to cause no harm to the nature
through our design
• Every structure is unique & unrepeatable.
• Organic architecture began its great modern journey
in the U.S.A
• Inspired by the proverb “Form follows function” -
Architect Louis Sullivan
• Outward appearances resemble inner purposes
• Organic architecture not only addresses environmental concerns but also expresses individuality
Organic architecture emerged in different countries at the beginning of the 20th century. The externalization of form in the neo-styles
fired many architects of that period to create a new style of architecture. The concept of organic architecture was born from different
styles such as art Nouveau, Functionalism, and Constructivism. The pioneers of this direction drew inspiration from principles derived from
living nature.

Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926)

•He was one of the first to introduce the concept of
‘organic architecture’.
•After closely studying nature, he concluded that
form always follows function and made this
principle the guideline for his architectural designs.
•Moreover, he brought his geometrical building
masses to life by means of a rich, organic
ornamentation.
•He was one of the first architects to express
himself in sculptural form.
•These forms were often based on the forces
at play in the construction.
•During the last phase of his life he developed
a natural geometry of double curved surfaces
that he applied in the church of the Sagrada
Familia.

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1959)

•Introduced in architecture the principle of
‘metamorphosis’ that he derived from Goethe.
•This enabled him to express development
processes that are inherent to nature, culture and
the human consciousness.
•By contemplating these forms an awareness for
interrelations and the ability to think in processes
can be developed.
•Broadened both the content and the language
of organic architecture in many directions.
•He expanded the concept ‘organic’ to denote
the relation between the building and its
environment, the continuity of internal and
external space and the use of building
materials in accordance with their own nature.
CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES
1. Simplicity- Organic architecture is simple because its
scheme and design are clear.
2. Nature- The creative possibilities of form, color, pattern,
texture, proportion and rhythm
are all demonstrated in nature. Organic architecture does
not imitate nature but is concerned with natural materials,
the site, and the people who will occupy the buildings.
3. Building and Site- The two have a very special
relationship in organic architecture. The building grows out
of the landscape as naturally as any plant; its relationship to
the site is so unique that it would be out of place
elsewhere.
4. Proportion and Scale- The human body
should be the measure of a building and its
furnishings.
5. Ornament- These are an integral part of the
building: they are not added on, stuck in or over
exposed. Sculpture and painting have to
become elements of the total design. As much
furniture as possible should be built-in.
6. Shelter- A building should convey a sense of
protection against the elements. Its inhabitants
should never lack privacy or feel exposed and
unprotected.
7. Tranquility of Space- Quiet, serene, tranquil space
is a fitting environment for human growth. It is
achieved by simple architectural masses that reflect
the uncluttered spaces within.
8. Mechanical Systems and Furnishings- These are
used simply in a way that enhances their innate
character and optimizes their individual color,
texture, and strength
9. Uses of curves as signature- To differentiate
organic architecture from the other branches of
architecture that also plays on the interpretation of
nature.
10. Technology integration: technical system is
required to connect human need and natural
capability.
11. Local craft and human resources: needs professional
on particular place.
12. Design process and integration: It must have inception
of project via owner, community, city planner…
13. Cultural and historic connection: making sense of place
by creating connection between the people and
environment.
14. Materials-Not all organic architecture has it, but when
used, it is developed as an integral part of the material, not
applied. Examples are patterns cast in concrete or carved in
stone, leaded glass panels, and tile or glass mosaics.
15. Inter linkage of exterior and interior spaces-we don’t
see ourselves in a totally different and new environment
when we step into an organic building because of the
linkage with the exterior.
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT (1869-1959)

Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer, educator,
and philosopher.

Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as “the

greatest American architect of all time”

He was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin, on June 8, 1867, and died in Phoenix,
Arizona, on April 9, 1959, at the age of 91

He started his formal education in 1885 at the University of Wisconsin School for
Engineering. In 1887 he stopped his education without taking a degree and moved
to Chicago, where he was consecutively a part of two architectural firms. In 1893 he
started his own architectural practice.

Designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 532 works.

While most of his designs were single-family homes, his varied output also includes houses of worship, skyscrapers,
resorts, museums, government offices, gas stations, bridges, and other masterpieces showing the diversity of Frank Lloyd
Wright's talent.

Believed in designing structures in harmony with humanity and its environment : organic architecture.
ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE

How he defined Organic Architecture changed often, as he refined it, and

also as the situation demanded.

 Integral to Site - houses designed to rise up out of the site as it

belonging.
 Integral to environment - built appropriately to climate.
 Integral to Individual - Each building built to accommodate the
lifestyle of the inhabitants way of life and needs.
 Integral to Materials - details of the building were the
materials themselves

“one that is integral to site; integral to environment; integral to the life of the inhabitants.
A house integral with the nature of materials wherein glass is used as glass, stone as stone,
wood as wood and all the elements of environment go into and throughout the house.
Into this new integrity, once there, those who live in it will take root and grow.
And most of all belonging to the nature of its being.” Frank Lloyd Wright
BASIC PRINCIPLES OF WRIGHTS DESIGN

Besides the common principles used by many Architects, Wright had his own signature principles that made him
unique from other architects who practice organic architecture. These are :
-Organic Colors
-Simple Geometric Shapes
-Integration of Building with Natural Surroundings
-Strong Horizontal Lines
-Hidden Entries
Eg: Arthur Heurtley House in Oak Park, Illinois built in 1902

Organic Colors?

Simple Geometric Shapes?

Hidden Entry Way?

Strong Horizontal Lines?

Integration with Natural Surroundings?

TALIESIN SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

1932: Wright and his wife started the Taliesin Fellowship, which
then became the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture.

“Education at Taliesin would emphasize painting,

sculpture, music, drama, and dance in their places as
divisions of architecture.” - Frank Lloyd Wright (1931).
TALISIEN HOUSE Spring green, Wisconsin

Taliesin was Wright's home and school from 1937 until his death in
1959 at the age of 91.
Twenty-three apprentices came to live and work on wrights farm in
Spring Green .
They learned drafting, construction methods, and other crafts, as well
as overseeing the construction of Wright’s projects.
Each Fall after harvest ,the apprentices would then load up trucks and
station wagons with food, drawings, and other necessities and caravan
across the plains to scottsdale arizona, the site of Taliesin West.
TALISIEN WEST Scottsdale Arizona
Taliesin west was built in Frank's formulated style of prairie style. During the
construction of Taliesin West, the house and studio were merely a series of
“sleeping boxes” that were clustered around a central terrace for Wright and
his apprentices.
Wright felt very strongly about the connection to the desert. F.L.W said,
“Arizona needs its own architecture”. That is why he used Surface patterned
after such abstraction in the patterns of rattlesnake, Gila monster, and
Chameleon.
The structure's walls are made of local desert rocks, stacked within wood
forms, filled with concrete.
The rich red hue from the redwood timber roof along with the earthy, sandy
hues from the concrete and the stone façade creates a close natural
relationship between the house and landscape
PRAIRIE HOUSES

Prairie is a treeless grass-covered plain found in the

United States and Canada. Observing these plains
Frank formulated the prairie style which is
characterized by :

 Strong horizontal lines

 Large windows
 Open plan rooms

Typically, this houses consisted of broad open spaces

instead of strictly defined rooms, and deliberately
blurred the distinction between interior space and
the surrounding terrain. Wright acclaimed "the new
reality that is space instead of matter" and, about
architectural interiors, said that “the reality of a
building is not the container but the space within."
Prairie houses are built for the wealthy. These houses are
built mainly with brick and concrete. But when it comes to
usonian houses their primary building material is wood
which is easy to build with and cheap in the USA. But this
doesn’t mean that brick is not also used in usonian
houses.
USONIAN HOUSES

In 1936, when the united states was in the depth of an

economic depression, fl.Wright developed a series of
homes he called usonian. Usonian refers to houses of
the USA, because previously built houses were based
on neoclassic style of Greek Architecture and FL wright
aimed to completely change this style into a brand
new American architecture which has no connections
with the past.
Usonian house project was started in the same year his
falling water landed him on the cover of Time, magazine.
These designs reflected his desire to craft a uniquely
American style, as well as his interest in creating well-
designed homes that an average American could afford. The
client for wrights usonian houses were distinctly middle
class in contrast to clients of prairie houses which were very
wealthy. And even though usonian architecture grew out of
wright’s earlier praire style, they are cost controlled so as to
achieve affordability.
CHARACTERISTICS OF USONIAN HOUSES
- No formal living area( no distinction or closed wall)
- Radiant heating system( with pipes full of hot
steam running through the foundation to heat up
the house from the ground up)
- Materials like brick and wood were left unpainted
- Open floor plan
- Incorporation of the living area with he kitchen
- A strong visual Connection between the indoor and
the outdoor
- Strong horizontal lines
- No garage no basement and no attic
- Natural lighting with celestory windows
- No or little ornamentation
- Low roofs
BROADACRE CITY

Broad-acre city was an urban development concept proposed by fl. Wright

throughout most of his lifetime.

He presented the idea in his book The disappearing city in 1932.

A few years later he unveiled a very detailed 3.7m by 3,7m scale model
representing a hypothetical 10sq km community. The model was crafted by
the students of Taliesin.

Most of the building models in the concept were completely new designs
while others were refinement of old ones.

In the plan each family is given one acre (4000m2) plot which they can have
private gardens and swimming pools.

There is a train station and a few office and apartment buildings. But the
apartment dwellers are expected to be a small minority.

All important transportation is done by automobiles, although there are

boats.
GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is considered as

Wright’s masterpiece followed next to Falling water. The
building rises as a warm big spiral. Its interior is similar to the
inside of a seashell. Its unique central geometry was meant to
allow visitors to easily experience Guggenheim's collection of
nonobjective geometric paintings by taking an elevator to the
top level and then viewing artworks by walking down the
slowly descending, central spiral ramp.

Unfortunately, when the museum was completed, a

number of important details of Wright's design were
ignored, including his desire for the interior to be
painted off-white. Furthermore, the Museum currently
designs exhibits to be viewed by walking up the curved
walkway rather than walking down from the top level.
Robie House (1908-1910)
Robie house was Influenced
by the flat, expansive prairie
landscape of the American
Midwest. Therefore being
built in Wright’s formulated
prairie style.
Windows used were “light
screens” which were composed
of pieces of clear and colored
glass, usually with
representations of nature
windows were also stretched on
French doors along the entire
south wall on the main level,
opening up to a balcony.
The Robie House creates a
clever arrangement of
public and private spaces.
The client insisted on the
idea of "seeing his
neighbors without being
seen" F.L.W Wright
approached this request
with an enormous
cantilever over the porch
Every rooms in the house
are defined while still
flowing into one another
unlike usonian houses
which are not well
defined(no defined living
room)
FALLINGWATER(1936-1938)

 Fallingwater, is a house designed by Frank

Lloyd Wright in 1935 in rural southwestern
Pennsylvania
 it was built as a weekend home for owners Mr.
Edgar Kaufmann & his family.
 Wright’s admiration for Japanese
architecture was important in his inspiration
for this house, Just like in Japanese
architecture, Wright wanted to create harmony
between man and nature.
 The house was meant to compliment its site
while still competing with the drama of the
falls and their endless sounds of crashing
water.
Wright had recognized the attraction the
waterfall had for his clients, and wanted
them "to live with the waterfall, not just to
look at it,.
The Kaufmanns were unprepared for
Wright's placing the house directly above
the waterfall, instead of facing it, but readily
accepted the architect's designs almost
without change.
Finally the main house was constructed from
1936-38, followed by the guest house
construction in 1939.

The original house contains simple rooms furnished by Wright himself, with an open living room and compact kitchen
on the first floor, and three small bedrooms located on the second floor.
The third floor was the location of the study and bedroom of Edgar Jr., the Kaufmann’s son.
 HERE ARE A FEW MORE DESIGNES BY FL.WRIGHT

“Bread and Butter” houses Unity Temple The Johnson Wax building
 ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE WORLDWIDE

O rganic architecture seemed to have

expired at the end of the twenties. Several of
its leading pioneers such as Sullivan, Steiner
and Gaudi died and in Europe the impending TWATerminal, John F. Kennedy ING Bank
Notre-Dame-du-Haut
Second World War caused a general decline Le Corbusier Airport Alberts&VanHuut
in building. Ronchamp, France, 1950- EeroSaarinen Amsterdam, the Netherlands,
1955 NewYork, USA, 1956-1962 1979-1987
In the 15th and 16th century however, organic
architecture underwent a surprising revival
brought about by pioneers of the modern
movement. Sydney Opera House
JørnUtzon
Sydney,Australia, 1957-1973
They transformed its initially rigid
geometrical character into a more lively,
organic direction
Philharmonie
Hans Scharoun Finlandiahall
Berlin, Germany, 1956- Alvar Aalto Sekem Kindergarden
1963 Helsinki, Finland, 1962- Portus-Bau
1975 Egypt, 1986