Frank Lloyd Wright:

His initial architectural style, the iconic “Prairie House” was the first of truly American
architecture. With the Prairie House, Wright emphasized on bringing harmony between the
indoors and outdoors. Wright embraced the latest technology and materials to the point of
pushing the boundaries of architecture. By experimenting with these to the near brink of failure,
he created designs that were uniquely his own.

Even when he shifted his beliefs to a more egalitarian way of building – the Usonian house –
after the Great Depression, his never wavered in his beliefs about harmony with nature. He
focused his career on building beautiful affordable homes.

 “In organic architecture then, it is quite impossible to consider the building as one thing, its
furnishings another and its setting and environment still another,” he concluded. “The spirit in
which these buildings are conceived sees all these together at work as one thing.” To that end,
Wright designed furniture, rugs, fabrics, art glass, lighting, dinnerware, and graphic arts.

- Making the site, the building, and the landscape as one.

Oscar Niemeyer:

- Began his career as an orthodox modernist. Through the course of his career, he saw the
deficiencies of modernism, and the importance of integrating the local tradition.
- First modernist architect to practice “Regional Modernism” – elements of the local and
the standardized modern.
- Including curves in his buildings since he felt straight lines were European/authoritarian
- “What attracts me is the free and sensual curve – the curve I find in the mountains of my
country, in the sinuous course of its rivers and in the bodies of beautiful Brazilian
women.”
- Integrating the arts – confluence of fine art and architecture. Buildings are defined by the
art on them – Eg: Michealangelo and the St Peter Basilica

Norman Foster:
- Buildings embody many different stories – the story of how it was made, the story of
what sets it apart.
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