UNIT III - Art Nouveau

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UNIT III- ART NOUVEAU

1. Art Nouveau and the works of


2. Gaudi,
3. Horta,
4. Macintosh
5. Early works of F.L.Wright
Art nouveau --French for "new art"

“TO EACH EPOCH, ITS ART. TO ART, ITS FREEDOM”

Art Nouveau was the response: the desire to break away from imitating styles of the past, to develop an
art that reflected the sensitivities and way of life of a particular society, the extreme individuality of the
artist dreaming of inventing an original language that would ensure the absolute harmony of the
ornamentation of life.

 Style in art, architecture and design that peaked in popularity at the beginning of the 20th century.
 Flourished in Europe between 1890 and 1910,
 One of the earliest (and shortest-lived) efforts to develop an original style for the modern age.

Art nouveau artists and designers transformed modern industrial materials such as iron and glass into
graceful, curving forms often drawn from nature, though with playful elements of fantasy.

In contrast to both Perret and the architects of the Chicago School, art nouveau designers were interested
in architecture as a form of stylistic expression rather than as a structural system.

The name "Art Nouveau" derived from the name of a shop in Paris, Maison de l'Art Nouveau, at the time
run by Samuel Bing, that showcased objects that followed this approach to design.

ARCHITECTS ASSOCIATED WITH ART NOVEAU:

1. Antoni Guadí
2. Victor Horta of Brussels.
3. Charles Rennie Mackintosh
4. Hector Germain Guimard

St. Louis World's Fair, (1904). Entrance to the Creation exhibit.

CHARACTER OF ART NOUVEAU

1. Dynamic,
2. Undulating and
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3. Flowing, curved "whiplash" lines of syncopated rhythm characterize much of Art Nouveau.

1. Usage of hyperbolas and parabolas.


2. Conventional moldings seem to spring to life and "grow" into plant-derived forms
3. Use of highly-stylized nature as the source of inspiration and expanded the "natural" repertoire to
embrace seaweed, grasses, and insects.
4. Correspondingly organic forms, curved lines, especially floral or vegetal, and the like, were used.

THE OUTSTANDING DESIGNERS OF ART NOUVEAU

 ENGLAND - the graphic artists Aubrey Beardsley, A. H. Mackmurdo, Charles Ricketts, Walter Crane.

 SCOTLAND - architect Charles R. Mackintosh;

 BELGIUM - the architects Henry Van de Velde and Victor Horta;

 FRANCE - the architect and designer of the Paris metro entrances, Hector Guimard, and the jewelry
designer René Lalique;

 AUSTRIA - the painter Gustav Klimt; in Spain the architect Antonio Gaudí;

 GERMANY - the illustrator Otto Eckmann and the architect Peter Behrens;

 ITALY - the originator of the ornamental Floreale style, Giuseppe Sommaruga;

 UNITED STATES - Louis Sullivan, whose architecture was dressed with art nouveau detail, and the
designer of elegant glassware Louis C. Tiffany.

 The aesthetics of the movement were disseminated through various illustrated periodicals
including:

 The Century Guild Hobby Horse (1894),

 The Dial (1889), The Studio (begun, 1893),

 The Yellow Book (1894-95),

 The Savoy (1896-98).

ANTONNIO GAUDI (1852 – 1926)

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1. EARLY LIFE
2. BACKGROUND
3. DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
4. NOTED WORKS
5. EXAMPLES OF 2 WORKS

1. EARLY LIFE
 Antoni Gaudí (25 June 1852–10 June 1926)
 Antonio Gaudí – was a Catalan[3] architect who belonged to the Modernist style (Art
Nouveau) movement and was famous for his unique style and highly individualistic designs.
 The artist's parents, Francesc Gaudí Serra and Antònia Cornet Bertran, both came from
families of metalsmiths. It was this exposure to nature at an early age that influenced him to
incorporate natural shapes into his later work.
 Gaudí's first works were designed in the style of gothic architecture and traditional Spanish
architectural modes, but he soon developed his own distinct sculptural style.
 French architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, who promoted an evolved form of gothic
architecture, proved a major influence on Gaudí. But the student surpassed the master
architect and contrived highly original designs
BACKGROUND
The writings of Viollet-Le-Duc, Ruskin and Richard Wagner, were all part of Gaudi’s cultural background.
Apart from these extra Mediterranean influences, his achievement seems to have sprung from rather
antithetical(expressing or constituting the complete or exact opposite)
One was the desire to revive indigenous architecture and the compulsion to create boldly new forms of
expression.
In this, save for his unusual powers of fantasy, Gaudi was hardly unique
After 1878,Gaudi began to work for the bourgeoisie
Gaudi developed a sensuous, curving, almost surreal design style which established him as the innovative
leader of the Spanish Art Nouveau movement.

2. DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

 Gaudi was the creator of the city of Barcelona known around the world, known as one of the world
capitals- of Modernism.
 He was an attentive observer of nature from childhood.
 He was attracted to the varied forms of nature , colors and geometry.
 He was a pioneer in his field using color, texture and movement in ways never before imagined.
 Medieval books, Gothic art, Oriental structures, the Art Nouveau movement, and, of course, the
glory of nature, strongly influenced his designs.
 Instead of relying on geometric shapes, he mimicked the way trees and humans grow and stand
upright.
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 The hyperboloids and paraboloids he borrowed from nature were easily reinforced by steel rods
and allowed his designs to resemble elements from the environment.
 He had unique proposals in geometry, conception of space, constructive procedures with different
use of materials, forms and colour.
 Some people define him as a transgressor, but some defend his mysticism, while a few claim that
his buildings are difficult to clarify.
 His whimsical vision and imaginative designs have brought a bit of magic to this historic region.
 Gaudi’s culmination of traditional elements with fanciful ornamentation and brilliant technical
solutions paved the way for future architects to step outside the box.

3. NOTED WORKS

1. CASA VICENS (1883–1885)


2. Palau Güell (1885–1889)
3. College of the Teresianas (1888–1890)
4. Crypt of the Church of Colònia Güell (1898–1916)
5. Casa Calvet (1899–1904)
6. Casa Batlló (1905–1907)
7. CASA MILÀ (La Pedrera) (1905–1907)
8. Park Güell (1900–1914)
9. SAGRADA FAMÍLIA Nativity façade and Crypt of the Sagrada Família church (1884–1926)

4. EXAMPLES OF 2 WORKS

CASA VICENS

a. BUILDING TYPE: Family residence


b. COUNTRY: Barcelona,Spain
c. CLIENT: Industrialist Manuel Vicens
d. PERIOD: 1883-1889

 Gaudi built the exotic Casa vicens


 his first major commission for the Casa Vincens in Barcelona
 Quasi-Moorish style
 1878
 In Casa Vicens, Gaudi first formulated the essence of his style ,which while
- Gothic- in structural principle
- Islamic-in inspiration

PLAN
 They were distributed in a long surface of about 12 x 18 meters, with a semi-
subterranean basement, ground floor, second floor and attic.

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 The ground floor was laid out around the dining hall with a covered gallery, smoking
room and two additional rooms. It was slightly elevated from the ground level to allow greater ventilation
and improved lighting for the basement, which was designed for storage
 The upper floor, where the family's bedrooms were located, was accessed through a
compensated horseshoe-shaped stairway. The stairs continued to the attic, where the service quarters were
located.
 Planned around a conservatory which in its banded brick, glazed tiles and decorative
iron work was more exuberant than any other house
CATALAN VAULT
 Gaudi used the traditional catalan vault in which arch-Like forms are achieved through corbelling
out laminated layers of tiles
 The vault became a key feature of his style appearing in its most delicate form in the thin ,shell
structure of his Sagrada Familia school in Barcelona of 1909
ROOF

 The roof is sloped on two sides, with four gables;


 The ventilation conducts and chimneys are profusely decorated with the same ceramic material as
the facade.

FACADE

 The facade walls are built with visible rubblework,


 Adorned with horizontal rows of ceramics that represent the African marigolds
 From the second floor up, these rows become vertical and their coating is replaced with alternating
green and white tiles.
 The windows are protected from the sun and curious onlookers with pretty shutters with square
geometrical designs
 Wrought iron windows with flowers tiles and sculptured stones

SAGRADA FAMILIA

Location: Barcelona, Spain


Date: 1882 to 1926
Building Type: Church
Context: Urban
Construction System : Masonry

PLAN:

 The Sagrada Família is a temple of basilical type with a shape of Latin cross
 The central axis is occupied for four lateral naves of 7'5 meters wide each one and a central nave of
15 meters wide, what does a total of 45 meters.
 The total length of the temple, including the nave and the apse is of 95 meters.
 The transept is formed by three naves with a total width of 30 meters and a length of 60.
 This transept has two exits, one to the
o Nativity façade and the other to thePassion façade.

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 The main nave has the exit to the Glory façade, the most important one and still not built,

 The apse is lobate and has seven chapels with a polygonal stair in each extreme, these chapels are
dedicated to the seven pains and beatitudes of Saint Joseph. The ambulatory is developed around the
presbytery.

 The cloister, contrary to the traditional location in a side of temples, the Sagrada Família one
surrounds almost completely the temple and is conceived as an element of isolation of the outside. In
the central zone of the apse, the cloister will be divided by the chapel of the Assumption of the Virgin.
To each side, there will be a sacristy.

 To the left of the main façade (of the Glory), the Baptistery will be built and to the right the chapel of
the Eucharist and the Penitence.
The project foresees the construction of twelve bell towers (a
for each apostle), four more for the evangelists, another
dedicated the Virgin and the most important one, of 170 m. of
height crowned with the typical cross of four arms of Gaudí,
symbol of Jesus.
 These bell towers of parabolic profile have
in its interior helicoid stairs surrounding a space where the
tubular bells will be situated. Each window, column and element
refers to saints, institutions or mysteries of the catholic faith.

 At present more than 100 years elapsed since the start,


the works continue to growth rapidly.
The only part of the temple built directly by Gaudí is the apse, a
part of the cloister and the Nativity façade with its four bell
towers, of the ones the only to be completely finished when Gaudí died in the year 1926 at the age of 74
knocked down by a tramway, was the one of Saint Barnabas.

THE OUTSIDE WALLS: Sagrada Família naves vaults and support structures view
The Sagrada Família exterior walls only have to bear their own weight, because the vaults weight and push
are transmitted to the floor through the interior columns.
In addition, the walls are completely perforated by rose windows, ogives, large windows and other
openings lightening very much the weight.
Here also the hyperboloids are the most used form allowing Gaudí to adopt the better technical and
aesthetical solutions.
The walls basement has a height of four meters over which begins the first series of large windows with a
height of twenty meters.

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THE ROOFS:

 The higher ones are those of the central nave, they are comprised of a series of pyramids - one by
vault - connected between them and with the large windows pediments with some large
paraboloids.
 They are culminated by lampposts with references to the Holy Family.
 Between the roof and the vaults, it is an space of some 25 meters divided into four plants
connected by a small spiral staircases.
 The lighting, really spectacular, is carried out through skylights on the mentioned pyramids and in
the spaces between the large windows and the pediments.
 The lateral naves roofs are almost flat, to allow larger windows in the central nave upper walls.
Small interior stairs and exterior steps assure the accessibility.

1.Views of the striated columns and the decorated elliptic capitals

2.Sagrada Família naves vaults and support structures view

3.Large windows shapes still without stained glasses

CASA BATLLO
1. Location: Barcelona, Spain
2. Date: 1905 to 1907
3. Building Type: Apartment building
4. Construction System: Concrete
5. Context: Urban
6. Style: Expressionist or Art Nouveau
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7. Client: Josep Batlló i Casanovas

HISTORY OF CASA BATLLO:

The present Casa Batlló, is the result of a total refurbishment of an old previous conventional house built in
1877.
The local name for the building is Casa dels ossos (House of Bones), and indeed it does have a visceral,
skeletal organic quality. It was originally designed for a middle-class family and situated in a prosperous
district of Barcelona

Gaudí was commissioned by the owner Josep Batlló i Casanovas to totally renew the old building. On that
base, Gaudí projected this astonishing house, one of the most fancy and "special" of Barcelona
The changes made by Gaudí on the old building were radical and affect all the building. In fact the building
of Gaudí is a new building.

ADDITIONS:

 Gaudí added a gallery, the balconies and the polychrome ceramics.

 Inside, the spaces were totally reorganized in order to obtain in it more natural light (the courtyard
is covered with blue ceramic progressively brighten to assure the same or similar light on top and
on ground) and ventilation.
 Gaudí also added two floors to the building.

FACADE

 Gaudí carried out one of the most impressive and brilliant urban façades of the world.
 He used for it the typical constructive elements of the Modernisme (Catalan Art Nouveau) as
the ceramics, the stone and the iron forged.
 The facade is impressive so much if is contemplated during the day as during the night, under a
special lighting.
 The façade covered by mosaics of splendid colors is perhaps the most suggestive, creative and
original of the city of Barcelona.
 The balconies remember pieces of skulls with its eyes and mouth.
The columns of first floor look like human bones.
 The ground floor, in particular, is rather astonishing with tracery, irregular oval windows and
flowing sculpted stone work.
 ROOF

 The roof decorated with polychrome ceramics of brilliant colors is crowned by a tower with
the typical Gaudí four branches cross.
 The design of that roof is one of the most characteristics of Gaudí for urban buildings.
 The roof is arched and was likened to the back of a dragon or dinosaur.

INTERIORS
The interior is also very impressive showing various decorative elements as furniture, glasses, forged iron

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elements, fireplaces, etc.

VICTOR HORTA(1861-1947)
Victor Horta was a Belgian architect and designer. He was described as "undoubtedly the key European
Art Nouveau architect."

EARLY LIFE

Victor Horta was born in Ghent, Belgium in 1861. He is sometimes credited as the first to introduce the
style to architecture from the decorative arts. The French architect Hector Guimard was deeply
influenced by Horta and further spread the "whiplash" style in France and abroad.

After studying drawing, textiles and architecture at the Ghent Academie des Beaux Arts, he worked in
Paris. He returned to Belgium and worked for the classical architect Alphons Balat, before he started his
own practice.

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

 Victor Horta created buildings which rejected historical styles and marked the beginning of modern
architecture.
 He conceived modern architecture as an abstract principle derived from relations to the
environment, rather than on the imitation of forms.
 Although the organic forms of Art Nouveau architecture as established by Horta do not meet our
standard ideas of modern architecture, Horta generated ideas which became predecessors to the
ideas of many modernist.
 His style was swirling and linear, like the stems of plants. Tending towards unity, every material,
surface, ornament, inside or outside, was harmoniously assembled with great fluidity and highly
detailed by innovative shapes and lines
 Horta was a leading Belgium Art Nouveau architect until Art Nouveau lost public favor. At this time
he easily assumed the role of a neoclassical designer.

 The characterizations are: the use of industrial materials like steel and iron in the visible parts of
houses.
 New decorations inspired by nature (e.g. the famous whiplash motive, which occurs very often in
the Art Nouveau style and especially in the work of Horta), decorative mosaics or graphical
patterns on the facades of houses can be seen applied in the Horta Museum itself.

Significant buildings:Hôtel Tassel


House and Studio Victor Horta
Hôtel van Eetvelde
Hôtel Solvay
9
Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels
Maison De Peuple

HOTEL TASSEL

1. Location: Brussels, Belgium


2. Date: 1893-1894
3. Building Type: Cultural
4. Context: Urban
5. Style: Art Nouveau
6. Client: Professor Emile Tassel

INTRODUCTION:-

The Hôtel Tassel is a town house built by Victor Horta in Brussels for the Belgian scientist and professor
Emile Tassel in 1893-1894. It is located at 6, Rue Paul-Emile Jansonstraat in Brussels. It is generally
considered as the first true 'Art Nouveau' building, because of its highly innovative plan and its ground
breaking use of materials and decoration

PLANNING:-

At the Hôtel Tassel Horta definitively broke with this traditional scheme. In fact he built a house consisting
of three different parts. Two rather conventional buildings in brick and natural stone - one on the side of
the street and one on the side of the garden - were linked by a steel structure covered with glass. It
functions as the connective part in the spatial composition of the house and contains staircases and
landings that connect the different rooms and floors. Trough the glass roof it functions as a light shaft that
brings natural light into the centre of the building. In this part of the house that could also be used for
receiving guests Horta made the maximum of his skills as an interior designer.

He designed every single detail; door handles, woodwork, panels and windows in stained glass, mosaic
floorings, stair railings, electric fittings and even the decorative wall paintings and the furnishing. Horta
succeeded in integrating the lavish decoration without masking the general architectural structures.

a) It is a narrow fronted,3 storey town house of traditional terrace format.


b) Horta made an extensive use of iron in domestic architecture
c) The Hotel Tassel has an open planning
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d) The octogonal vestibule on the ground floor rose upwards through a half level towards the garden
,it expands laterally into an adjacent foyer space covered by an iron super structure
e) The free standing columns of this space, embellished with iron tendrils, echo similar serpentine
forma throughout the rest of the metal work.
f) From the balustrades to the light fittings the same aesthetic is dominated, a linear exuberance that
is delicately echoed in the mosaic floor and wall finishes and in the coloured glass panels of the
door to the salon. The main volumes, are still tempered by the use of Rocco Mouldings
g) In an otherwise classical façade the stone quoins of an iron bay window are wrought in such a way
as to imply the thrust of the inner metallic structure

HOUSE AND STUDIO VICTOR HORTA

1. Location: Brussels, Belgium


2. Date: 1898
3. Building Type: large house, architect's house
4. Context: urban
5. Architectural Style: Art Nouveau
6. Construction System: iron, wood, cut stone façade

INTRODUCTION:-

The building itself is the museum. The Horta Museum was actually the house that Victor Horta built for
himself in the late 1890's. It's a true example of the architectural style that made Horta into one of the
most acclaimed architects in Belgium.

It's a true example of the architectural style that made Horta into one of the most acclaimed architects in
Belgium.

MAISON DE PEUPLE:-

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CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH (1868-1928)
Was a Scottish architect, designer, and watercolorist.

EARLY LIFE:
1. 1868-on June 7 the 1868 in Glasgow London
2. 1884-ed training as an architect in the office of John Hutchinson in 1884, evening classes at the
Glasgow school of art.
3. 1890 he won a traveling scholarship and toured Italy before settling down into practice.
4. 1894-Exhibitions with Herbert McNair and the MacDonald Sisters, later known as the Glasgow Four,-
Mackintosh developed an artistic relationship with Margaret MacDonald, Frances Macdonald and
Herbert McNair. Known as "The Four", they exhibited posters, furnishings, and a variety of graphic
designs in Glasgow, London, Vienna and Turin. These exhibitions helped establish Mackintosh's
reputation. marries Margaret MacDonald in 1900 and works with her on most projects.
5. 1896-participates in the competition for the Glasgow School of Art.

Mackintosh’s biography reveals that most of his architectural achievements and design schemes were
created parallel to his work on the Glasgow School of art. The art school is perhaps not only his only
master piece; it also marks the most productive phase of his career.
Today the Glasgow school of art is acclaimed as one of the outstanding works of architecture of the early
20 th century modernism

NOTED WORKS:

 Glasgow School of Art, at Glasgow, Scotland, 1897 to 1909.


 Hill House, at Helensburgh, Scotland, 1902 to 1903.
 The Willow Tea Rooms, at Glasgow, Scotland, 1902 to 1904

THE MACKINTOSH STYLE:

1. Mackintosh's architectural philosophy involved radically updating the Scottish Baronial style,
2. Favoring ELEGANTLY RECTILINEAR DESIGNS, free from what he called 'antiquarian detail'.
3. He was a COLLECTOR OF JAPANESE ARCHITECTURAL BOOKS and prints, and in much of his work
traditional Scottish design meets art nouveau, harnessing the simplicity of Japanese form in the
process.
4. His architectural style had a DISTINCTIVE EDGE,'
5. And the sophistication of his artistic imagination is notable.
6. He combined powerful architectural forms and SOFT, SEDUCTIVE DECORATION in a very distinctive
way

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GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART:

Designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh


Location Glasgow, Scotland
Date 1897 to 1909
Building Type college
Climate temperate
Context urban
Architectural
Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau
Style
Street Address 167 Renfrew St
Notes West wing built second, from 1907 to 1909.

west end exterior · Glasgow School of Art ·

BUILDING INFLUENCE:

The building has an eclectic unity with influences from Scottish baronial architecture (volumetric masses
of heavy masonry), art nouveau motifs (floral and geometric motifs in the iron work, tiles, details) and
modern materials and techniques (large, industrial, braced windows).

PLANNING:

The building plan is a long "E" with corridors along the spine which link large art studios along the street
side and smaller ancillary rooms and offices on the back side.

At the east and west ends are larger rooms, most significantly the two story library on the west. The
entrance is located slightly off the center, up steps from the street and leads to a toplit museum in the
back. The studios were accomodated along the north –facing main front of the school.The stone façade is
therefore dominated by large divided studio windows.The library itself is the one of the finest and most
important of all internal space designed

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Positioned slightly off center and in itself asymmetrical in character , the main entrance reveals a formal
correspondance with the east face of the shorter east wing.

ELEVATION AND MASSING:

Northern Elevation Main Facade.

The building massing and facades reflect its context richly. The north side, facing the major street,
presents a simple, horizontal rectangular mass with large, industrial windows which light the studios,
alternating with masonry piers.

This facade is set behind a stone and iron railing, interrupted at the center with an art nouveau iron arch
under which steps lead up to the asymmetric composition of the entrance. In contrast the east and west
facades are narrow, towerlike masonry walls above the steeply sloping streets, into which small paned
metal windows recall Scottish baronial architecture. From the south on the back side, the three arms of
the "E" are clearly revealed, and the masses make a varied assemblage rising above the cityscape of roofs
below it. The museum skylight and the "hen run", a glazed gallery connecting fourth floor studios are just
two elements of the lively composition of the stuccoed walls.

The most striking feature is the tall oriel windows to the 2 storey library. They emphasize the vertical
articulation of the facade

INTERIORS:

Library Interior SkyLight,Museum Interior

The interiors were designed with equal emphasis in collaboration with Margaret Macdonald. Art nouveau
floral and geometric motifs bring scale and color to the rooms in details of mantlepieces, lighting fixtures,
carpets, furniture, and crockery.

The library was redesigned and built later in 1906, a two story volume with a mezzanine overlooking the
first floor. A darkly finished wood structure supports the mezzanine and ceiling. The pendant light
fixtures, glass book cases, carved balusters, chairs and work tables are all designed with art nouveau
motifs, polychrome paint and metal details.Sparing use of ornamentation ,which is to be found only above

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the main portal,in the iron railings,the balcony balustrades and the projecting bars installed at the bottom
of the windows for cleaning purpose

FRANK LLYOD WRIGHT (1867 –1959)

Name Frank Lloyd Wright


Nationality American
Birth date June 8, 1867
Birth place Richland Center, Wisconsin
Date of death April 9, 1959 (aged 91)

EARLY LIFE:
 Frank Lloyd Wright was born in the agricultural town of Richland Center, Wisconsin, United States,
 His father, William Carey Wright (1825 – 1904) was a locally admired orator, music teacher,
occasional lawyer and itinerant minister. William Wright had met and married Anna Lloyd Jones
(1838/39 – 1923), a county school teacher,
 Anna Lloyd Jones was a member of the large, prosperous and well-known Lloyd Jones family of
Unitarians, who had emigrated from Wales to southwestern Wisconsin.

 Wright attended a Madison high school but there is no evidence he ever graduated.
 He was admitted to the University of Wisconsin as a special student in 1886.
 Wright left the school without taking a degree (although he was granted an honorary Doctorate of
Fine Arts from the University in 1955) and moved to Chicago which was still rebuilding from the
Great Chicago Fire of 1871, where he joined the architectural firm of Joseph Lyman Silsbee. Within
the year, he had left Silsbee to work for the firm of Adler & Sullivan.
IDEALOGIES AND PHILOSOPHIES:

His buildings fall into 3 categories


1. Low pitched hop roofs,presenting quiet unbroken skylines Ex: Willits house

: Willits house

2. Low roofs with simple pediments countering on long ridges Ex:Bradley House

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3. Bradley House
4. Those topped with simple slab Ex:Unity church

5. :Unity church
6. Used material in their natural form
7. Wright practiced what is known as ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE, an architecture that evolves
naturally out of the context, most importantly for him the relationship between the site and
the building and the needs of the client.
8. Wright responded to the transformation of domestic life that occurred at the turn of the
twentieth century, when servants became a less prominent or completely absent feature of
most American households, by developing homes with progressively more OPEN PLANS.
INFLUENCES:
1. Louis Sullivan, whom he considered to be his 'Lieber Meister' (dear master
2. Nature, particularly shapes/forms and colors/patterns of plant life
3. Music (his favorite composer was Ludwig van Beethoven),
4. Japan (as in art, prints, buildings),
5. Froebel Gifts(Educational Kindergarden Play gifts)

HIS SYSYTEM OF PRIORITIES


a) Abstraction of space taking shape as it did to embody its use and form it into a geometric
pattern.
b) He wished both to enclose the hollow so created and to extend it or the expression of it to
the exterior through the sculptural massing of the building as a whole
c) His buildings were visually intergral (both solids and voids) and also structurally intergral

ELEMEMTS COMMON TO HIS BUILDINGS


a) All materials are used in the natural form
b) Free flow of space- no sharp distinction between the inside and the outside
c) Overlapping intergral spaces, offsets,changing ceiling heights
d) No Ornamentional facades
e) Quality spaces, no attics and no dead spaces
f) Built- in furniture
g) Each piece serves many functions, no piece works alone
h) Grandeur is used sparingly.

SIX PROPOSITIONS FORMULATED FOR HIS RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS


1.SIMPLICITY AND REPOSE

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A building should have very few rooms. Comfort and utility should go hand in hand with beauty. Openings
must be a form of natural ornamentation. The whole building must be taken as a integral unit
2.VARIED STYLE OF HOUSING
There must be as many styles of houses as people
3.HARMONISING
A building should appear to grow from its site and be shaped to harmonise with its surroundings
4.PROMOTING NATURAL COLOURS
He preferred soft ,warm,optimistic tones
5.BRINGING OUT THE NATURE OF MATERIALS
He understood the material and used them to express their nature
6.HIS STATEMENT OF FAITH
A building that has character grows valuable as it grows older
EARLY WORKS OF FRANK LLYOD WRIGHT
FROM 1880 UPTO 1920
1.1880’s
a) All Souls Church, Chicago, Illinois, 1885
b) Unity Chapel, Spring Green, Wisconsin, 1886
c) Hillside Home School I, Spring Green, Wisconsin, 1887
d) Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, Oak Park, Illinois, 1889
2. 1890’s
a) Louis Sullivan Bungalow, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, 1890. Destroyed by Hurricane Katrina
b) Albert Sullivan House, Chicago, Illinois, 1892
c) Francisco Terrace Apartments, Chicago, Illinois, 1895
3.1900’s
Between 1900 and 1917, his residential designs were "PRAIRIE HOUSES" (extended low buildings with
shallow, sloping roofs, clean sky lines, suppressed chimneys, overhangs and terraces, using unfinished
materials), so-called because the design is considered to complement the land around Chicago. These
houses are credited with being the first examples of the "OPEN PLAN."

a) LARKIN ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, BUFFALO, NEW YORK, 1903


b) Unity Temple, Oak Park, Illinois, 1904
c) George Barton House, Buffalo NY, 1903
d) Darwin D. Martin House, Buffalo NY, 1904
e) William Heath House, Buffalo NY, 1905
f) Westcott House,Sprinfield,Ohio,1907
g) LATE PRAIRIE PERIOD

a) 1.FREDERICK ROBIE HOUSE IN CHICAGO (1907–1909)


b) Avery and Queene Coonley House in Riverside, Illinois.

4.1910’s
a) New York City Exhibition for the Universal Portland Cement Company, New York, New York, 1910
b) Taliesin I, Spring Green, Wisconsin, 1911
c) IMPERIAL HOTEL, TOKYO, JAPAN, 1915 demolished, 1968, lobby and pool reconstructed in 1976 in at
Meiji Mura, near Nagoya, Japan
d) Ravine Bluffs Development, Glencoe, Illinois, 1915
e) American System-Built Homes

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LARKIN ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, BUFFALO, NEW YORK, 1903
Wright said of the building:

"It is interesting that I, an architect supposed to be concerned with the aesthetic sense of the building, should
have invented the hung wall for the w.c. (easier to clean under), and adopted many other innovations like the
glass door, steel furniture, air-conditioning and radiant or 'gravity heat.' Nearly every technological innovation
used today was suggested in the Larkin Building in 1904." — from Frank Lloyd Wright,

The Larkin Administration Building


Designed in 1904
Client: The Larkin Soap Company of Buffalo, New
York,
Demolished in 1950.
The five story red brick building was noted for
many innovations, including
1. air conditioning,
2. plate-glass windows,
3. built-in desk furniture,
4. Suspended toilet bowls.
Sculptor Richard Bock provided ornamentation
for the building.

1. It is a simple dignified utterance of a plain utilitarian type with sheer brick walls and simple
stone copings
2. Here the support of the building are set inside to leave the necessary support for the outer
base.
3. This innovation eliminated the foundation wall above the ground
4. A simple unbroken wall surface from foot to level of 2nd storey will thus be secured a change
of material occurring at that point to form a simple frieze
5. As the wall surfaces are simplified the matter of fenestrations has a vital role to play
6. Absence of overhanging caves to shade does not affect the walls

UNITY TEMPLE
INTRODUCTION:
Unity Temple is a Unitarian Universalist church in Oak Park, Illinois, and the home of the Unity Temple
Unitarian Universalist Congregation. It was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and
built between 1905 and 1908. Unity Temple is considered to be one of Wright's most important structures
dating from the first decade of the twentieth century. It is located at 875 Lake Street, Oak Park Illinois

The congregation needed a space of worship, as well as a community roomThe budget for the Universalist
congregation was rather small for its needs: $40,000 US dollars; and the proposed building site was long,
but not very wide. Additionally, the building site stood on a busy street. And finally, the architect was
expected to design not only the structure, but furniture and stained glass for the building
PLANNING:

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1. To accommodate the needs of the congregation, Wright divided the community space from the
temple space through a low, middle loggia that could be approached from either side.
2. This was an efficient use of space and kept down on noise between the two main gathering areas:
those coming for religious services would be separated via the loggia from those coming for
community events.

3. This design was one of Wright's first uses of a bipartite design: with two portions of the building
similar in composition and separated by a lower passageway, and one section being larger than the
other.
4. The Guggenheim Museum in New York City is another bipartite design.
5. The main floor of the temple is accessed via a lower floor (which has seating space), and the room
also has two balconies for the seating of the congregation. These varying seating levels allowed the
architect to design a building to fit the size of the congregation, but efficiently: no one person in
the congregation is more than 40 feet from the pulpit. Wright also designed the building with very
good acoustics.

MATERIALS USED:

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To reduce construction costs, Wright chose steel-reinforced concrete as the main building material for
Unity Temple.Built from reinforced concrete poured on the site; that is, wooden forms

were built on site, and concrete was poured into them in order to create the walls

R.C.C. Slab is used here(new architectural expression) It is cast monolithic


To reduce noise from the street, Wright eliminated street level windows in the temple. Instead, natural
light comes from stained glass windows in the roof, or clerestories along the upper walls.

STAINED GLASS:-
To reduce noise from the street, Wright eliminated street level windows in the temple. Instead, natural
light comes from stained glass windows in the roof, or clerestories along the upper walls. Because the
members of the parish would not be able to look outside, Unity Temple's stained glass was designed with
green, yellow, and brown tones in order to evoke the colors of nature.

IMPERIAL HOTEL

1. FORM - Not a single form distinctively Japanese is found here.


2. Characterized by the quality, ”Shibai”, signifying the earnest contemplation
3. SIZE:It is 300’X500’, thus having an even 15000 Sq.Ft.

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4. It is 3 storey high in the main, with special masses equivalent in height to 8 stories
5. It seems to be an aggregate of bldgs.
6. Yet there is a sense of power in the singleness of purpose
7. The structure is a single mass subdividing into groups as the main function itself flows into
varied phases
8. PLAN conveys the idea of service which is in the 2 forms
9. First-constituting as a complex group of hotels complete in all details for the comfort and
entertainment of the people
10. Second-Is a more formal part
11. Thus there is a felicitous system of interpreting and communicationg with a circulatory
system signifying mentall grasp of continuity as the building as a whole becomes a
humanised fabric.
ROBIE HOUSE

Location: Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA


Architectural style(s): Prairie Style

1. Built in 1910
2. The building has a low-proportioned, horizontal profile which gives it the appearance of
spreading out on the flat prairie land.

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3. Steel-framed cantilevered roof overhangs, continuous bands of art-glass windows and
doors, and the use of natural materials are typical Prairie Style features which emphasizes
this "horizonal line" of the building.

4. A CHIMNEY MASS containing the house's four fireplaces rises through the center of the
house acting as the anchor to which the house is designed around on all three levels. The exterior walls
are constructed of a Chicago common brick core with a red-orange iron-spotted Roman brick veneer.
5. The planter urns, copings, lintels, sills and other exterior trim work are of Bedford limestone.
6. The FIREPLACES AND CHIMNEYS are constructed of the same brick and limestone as the exterior and
have a sense of an artistic sculptural shape of their own as opposed to being a part of a wall.
7. The DESIGN OF THE ART GLASS WINDOWS and doors is a sharp-angled multicolored pattern whose
geometry Wright also used for designs of tapestries inside the house and for gates in some of the
porches and garden walls outside.
8. The STRUCTURAL STEEL FRAMING that support the cantilevered roof overhangs also creates
interior spaces that are absent of posts, walls, and other typical obstructions which results in the open
flowing interiors that symbolizes the openness of the American prairie
9. The house leaps off beyond its confines, yet its insistent horizontal lineskeep it earth bound
10. Its ling walls guard the terrace from intruders but permits social intercourse
11. BEDROOMS are elevated to the 2nd and 3 stories
12. The broad central chimney is the unifying device
13. ROOFS are cantilevered beyond the walls and therefore the house looks lower and longer than it
actually is-horizontality is emphasised
HECTOR GUIMARD 1864 - 1942
1. An example for typical elements of Art Nouveau: ironworking and glass, moulded in vegetal and
organic shapes, is the Porte dauphine in Paris (1900) which is very typical is also the "umbrella" that
covers the actual entrance.
2. This Metro entrance is very famous, frequently appears in movies and posters. It is quite different
from other entrances because it is covered by a roof.

M° Porte Dauphine, HectorGuimard – 1889


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Candélabre Val d'Osne de 1920

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