a emo ML cis Lem e) ar BNET Lel at was an urben or suburban development concept proposed by ‘throughout most af his lifetime. He presented the idea in his book The Disappearing Cityinag32 A few years later he unveiled a very detailed twelve by twelve foot (37 «3.7_m) scale model representing @ hypothetical four square mile (a0 km’} community ACCORDING TO HIM, CITIESWOULD NO LONGER BE CENTRALIZED; NO LONGER BEHOLDEN TOTHE PEDESTRIANOR ‘THE CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT Pweg PROPHETIG VISION OF MODERN AMERICAEurope sets the stage for Wright's comeback. Le Corbusier formulates his ideas for the future, designing a contemporary city for 3 million inhabitants. In 2922 the principles are clear. This city is dense, rational, organised; to put it ina nutshell - urban.Wright's answer is as radical as it is diametrically opposed. Broadacre isn't a city; it is alandscape. Decentralised in organisation it is self- sufficient in supply, republican in constitution, and populated by auto - mobile citizens. ins 7 Centred on the homestead, Peer een eae the single family house, Cala = Broadacre sprawls.Wright perceives himself and his rebellion as "an army under siege". The atmosphere in Taliesin at the time is described like this: » It was not a civilized situation - it was a heroic one. « VI.) 5 From this milieu emerges the plan for a community laying out their cities according to family values, spirituality and knowledge. ~ Everyor Owns | land, es ola atleast one. plan covers. Four. za emo ML cis Lem e) ar BNET Lel at The city starts with the single family house. Due to Broadacre's economical logic it is being built by oneself (in a DIY network). Using standardized elements and partly prefabricated building modules it is fairly extendable . But first of all it is affordable, although money has almost no relevance in Broadacre. The Usonian House as a typology evolves.» Everywhere now human Ty voice and vision are annihilating distance - penetrating walls. Wherever the citizen goes (even as he goes) he has information, lodging and entertainment. He may now be within easy reach of general or immediate distribution of everything he needs to have or to know: All that he may require as he lives becomes not only more worthy of him and his Mobility and information conveying systems are freedom but convenient to prerequisites for Broadacre. him now wherever he may Wright esteems the importance of "communication choose to make his home. machines" as follows:The road is a symbo! « of individual i freedom. Cars aren't simply contemporary VJ or modern, they ‘ull represent democracy itself. The technology to cross and to communicate long distance facilitates: air, light and freedom of movement. The notion of an aircraft in everyone's front yard is a convincing image. Total mobility is inevi {Resolving the volume of traffic as well as coming to terms with prosperity shift focus. Horizontality and mobility are at the centre of attention in master plan simulations of the time.Aa eee Wid) According to Wright, technology ‘and planning were tools in the ‘great struggle forsocial reform, Frank Lloyd Wright believed that by designing a better city, ‘America’s social failures would simply dissolve. He imagined himself as someone wha could solve a huge number cof social issues and sacial problems through design. ‘The key toWright"sutopia, of course, were the tremendous technolagical advances made at thedawn of the 2oth century— perhaps none moreimpartant thanthe car. Broadacre Citys really vision offifeas gas station. Ey ontVISION OF THE GAS STATION AND THEALT UNIVERSE PULP Si * Inhis 2932 boak The Disappearing City, Wright explained that the answerte the problem of how the people of this utopian community might buy goods, + Inthe gasoline service station may be seen the beginning of an important advance agent of decentralization by way of distribution and also the begining of the establishment ofthe Broadacre Cty. Wherever the service station happens to be naturally located, these naw crude and seemingly insignificant units will grow and expand into variaus distributing center for merchandise of all sorts. They are already doingso in the Southwest to a great extent. The vehicles were sleek and modern—but they were shoum flosting seross pastoral, exurban scenes of wide ‘open spaces and verdant fieldsOTe Le aay 10) HAT'S ALL AROUND US AND THE REALITY TODAY becengte = Broadacre City is the reality that is today. To some extent the interstate highways, the rise of massive shopping malls, the ‘cookie-cutter developments in suburbia —they are Broadacre, and Broadacre is them ina lotof ways. Not necessary planned, more in apiece meal fashion, "= Ifwelookat Broadacre City piece by piece and drawing by drawing, sure enough almost everything he designed wecan find in there. * Broadacre was a testing ground for perfection, or at the very least something more civilized than the chaos that seemed to define 2zath century if ‘= Wright foresaw that his model for the perfect community would probably never actually be buit to his specifications, He believed that perhaps America was too broken to recover from the degradation of the city; too blind tothe possibilities of what he saw as abetterwayoflife. = We got the cars; the spraw/; the gas stations. Cities as diverse as Los Angeles and Houston and Janesville, Wisconsin are in some ways versions of Wright's Broadacre dream. But in the end, for better and for worse, America never saw the rise of that architect king,