DESIGN THEORY II

Chapter 1
 Doctrinal Theories

• Doctrine
- a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a Church, political party, or
other group.
- Teaching, instruction; something that is being taught.
- Principle of branch of knowledge or system of belief;
- principle of law established through past experience etc.

• synonyms: creed, credo, dogma, belief, set of beliefs, code of

belief, conviction, teaching; tenet, maxim, article of
faith, canon; principle, precept, notion, idea, ideology, theory, thesis
Doctrine Theory

• Theory of principles or beliefs established by earlier

experiences, teaching or learning.
• Theory of Architecture as the principal link between
design thinking and built architectural works of an
architect- role of theory in design.
Chicago school (architecture)
• Chicago's architecture is famous throughout the world and one
style is referred to as the Chicago School.
• Much of its early work is also known as Commercial style.
• In the history of architecture, the first Chicago School was
a school of architects active in Chicago at the turn of the 20th
century.
• They were among the first to promote the new technologies of
steel-frame construction in commercial buildings, and developed
a spatial aesthetic which co-evolved with, and then came to
influence, parallel developments in European Modernism.
• A "Second Chicago School" later emerged in the 1940s and 1970s
which pioneered new building technologies and structural
systems such as the tube-frame structure
First Chicago School
• While the term "Chicago School" is widely used to describe
buildings constructed in the city during the 1880s and 1890s.
• Chicago buildings of the era displayed a wide variety of styles
and techniques.
• Contemporary publications used the phrase "Commercial Style"
to describe the innovative tall buildings of the era rather than
proposing any sort of unified "school".
Some of the distinguishing features of the Chicago
School

• The use of steel-frame buildings with masonry cladding

(usually terra cotta), allowing large plate-glass window areas and
limiting the amount of exterior ornamentation.
• Sometimes elements of neoclassical architecture are used in
Chicago School skyscrapers.
• Many Chicago School
skyscrapers contain the
three parts of a
classical column.
• The lowest floors
functions as the base,
the middle stories,
usually with little
ornamental detail, act
as the shaft of the
column, and the last
floor or two, often
capped with
a cornice and often
with more ornamental
detail, represent the
capital.
Neoclassical architecture
An architectural style produced by
the neoclassical movement that
began in the mid-18th century.
In its purest form, it is a style
principally derived from the
architecture of classical antiquity,
the Vitruvian principles, and the work
of the Italian architect Andrea
Palladio.

Neoclassicism is the name given to

Western movements in the
decorative and visual arts, literature,
theatre, music, and architecture that
draw inspiration from the "classical" In Central and Eastern Europe, the style is
art and culture of Ancient usually referred to as Classicism while the
Greece or Ancient Rome. newer revival styles of the 19th century until
Neoclassicism was born in Rome in today are called Neoclassical.
the mid-18th century, but its
popularity spread all over Europe.
 Frank Llyod Wright

• (June 8, 1867- April 9, 1959) was born in Richland Centre, was an

American architect interior designer, writer and educator who
designed more than 1,000 projects, which resulted in more than
500 completed works.
• Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of
Architects (AIA) as “the greatest American Architect of all time”.
• Frank Lloyd Wright’s
architectural principles were
forged in the pioneering
environment of late-
nineteenth-century Chicago.
• Arriving in 1887, Wright
would spend the first twenty
years of his career working in
the city and its suburbs.
• In Chicago, Wright was
exposed to the work of the
nation’s most progressive
architects and designers.
• The year he arrived saw the
completion of H. H.
Richardson’s seminal
Marshall Field Wholesale
store, construction was
underway on Burnham and
Root’s Rookery Building, and
work would soon begin on
Adler and Sullivan’s
Auditorium Theatre.
• Wright began his career as an architect.
• He first secured a position in the office of Joseph Lyman Silsbee,
whose “superior talent in design,” Wright stated, “had made him
respected in Chicago.”
• Several of Wright’s Prairie School contemporaries, including
George Washington Maher and George Elmslie, passed through
Silsbee’s office.
• The ambitious young Wright did not remain long with Silsbee.
• In early 1888 he secured a position with the prestigious architectural firm of
Adler & Sullivan.
• The partnership produced many of Chicago’s earliest tall buildings and large
commercial projects, including the famed Auditorium Building, which Wright
would work on as a draftsman.
• Sullivan soon recognized Wright’s emerging talents, making the draftsman his
personal assistant and spending hours mentoring him and shaping his
philosophies.
• Wright was profoundly influenced by Sullivan's idea of a uniquely American
architecture reflecting the Midwestern landscape and suited to a modern
American way of life.
• Prairie style, in architecture, American style exemplified by the low-lying
“prairie houses” such as Robie House (1908) that were for the most part built
in the Midwest between 1900 and 1917 by Frank Lloyd Wright.
• Among the Midwest architects who were influenced by this style of design
were Walter Burley Griffin, George Grant Elmslie, William Drummond, George
Maher, Robert Spencer, Hugh Garden, Marion Mahony, Henry Trost, and Barry
Byrne.

Prairie houses and other buildings were generally two-story structures. They utilized
horizontal lines, ribbon windows, gently sloping roofs, heavy-set chimneys, overhangs,
and sequestered (Isolate or hide away) gardens.
Prairie Style House

Horizontal pitch roof

and terrace
Extending roof highlights scale

Repetition

Basement floor acts as a pedestal Continuous band of windows under eaves

For main floor above Further accentuates horizontal nature
Character of Prairie Style House
• A bold new approach to domestic architecture, the prairie style

• First uniquely American architectural style; inspired from flat landscape of

America

• Architecture should be suited to its environment and be a product of its place,

purpose and time

• Generally two-story structures

• Horizontal lines

• Ribbon windows

• Gently sloping roofs and overhangs

• Heavy-set chimneys and

• Sequestered (isolated, hidden) gardens

Beliefs and Philosophy:

• Beautiful buildings are true organisms, spiritually conceived,

works of art, using the best technology by inspiration.
• Nothing in the world is as powerful as an idea. A good idea never
dies and never ceases changing its form of life.
• Need in architecture is the very thing that need in life integrity.
• It is nature of any organic building to grow from its site to come
out of the ground into the light, the ground itself always held as
a basic component part of the building.
• Form and function are one (using nature as best example of this
integration).
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
1867-1959

Initially trained as an engineer, Wisconsin-born

Frank Lloyd Wright worked for various architects,
including Louis Sullivan, the great designer of
early skyscrapers, before setting up his own
practice. Based in Chicago, Wright made his
name designing large, low-slung houses for
wealthy clients, as well as his own homes,
Taliesin in Wisconsin and Taliesin West in Arizona.
He went on to design larger buildings, such as
Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel and the 1936 corporate
headquarters for Johnson Wax in Racine,
Wisconsin, known for its innovative interior
columns. A series of less-costly houses in the
1930s brought Wright's design ideas to a wider
clientele, and after World War II he continued to
experiment, designing New York's Guggenheim
Museum, with its unique spiral ramp. Such
spectacular buildings made Wright one of the
most influential architects of the 20th century.
• His innovative use of material, his rejection
of rooms as defined boxes of walled in
space and his commissions such as Price
Tower or Solomon Guggenheim Museum.
• His ideas of “Organic Architecture which
were influenced greatly by his friend,
mentor and Lieber Master Louis Sullivan,
evolved over his life time.
Principles of Frank Lloyd Wright
• Organic Architecture

• Unity of Form And Function

• Strong horizontal lines and hidden entries

• Simple geometric shapes

• Integration of building with natural surroundings

The Principles of Wright’s Organic Architecture

• He wanted organic architecture to be more than his own work, more

than his own ‘style’.
• He wanted to generate a philosophy of building that could inspire and
guide architects and laymen long into the future.
• While it is not easy to define organic architecture, there are principles
at work in Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings that transcend his personal
expression.
• It is important to note that Wright was not the first architect to use
the term organic architecture, nor was he the last.
• The concept of an organic style meant different things to different
architects and manifested itself in a variety of ways.
Below are some of the principles of Wright’s organic architecture.

1. Building and Site

• The two have a very special relationship in organic architecture. The site
should be enhanced by the building, and the building derives its form
partially from the nature of the site.
• Sometimes this is done by similarity (prairie house and prairie
landscape), sometimes by contrast (Fallingwater and a forest glen).
• 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.

Fallingwater- F. L. Wright Villa Savoye- by Le Corbusier

2. Materials
• These are used simply in a way that enhances their innate (natural)
character and optimizes their individual color, texture, and strength.
• One material is not disguised as another.
• The way a building comes together, how one material joins another; the
very form of the building should be an expression of the nature of the
materials used.
• In organic architecture, only a few materials are used, both inside and
outside.

Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House- Barcelona Pavilion-

Fallingwater- F. L. Wright Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
3. Shelter
• A building should convey a sense of shelter, refuge, or protection
against the elements.
• Its inhabitants should never lack privacy or feel exposed and
unprotected.
4. Space
• “The reality of the building does not consist of the roof and the
walls but the space within to be lived in”, said Wright.

• Rooms are never simple rectangles but are broken up vertically

and horizontally (alcoves, L-shapes, lowered ceilings, and decks)
to give the eye and mind something delightful and sometimes
something mysterious to enjoy.
• An area is never fully comprehended when viewed from one
point but must be slowly experienced as one moves through the
space.
• One space can introduce another, heightening the effect, or
function as part of a series, such as the playroom hallway and the
playroom in the home.

• The interior space determines exterior form (as in Unity Temple).

Interior space is not packed in boxes called rooms; rather, space
should flow freely from interior area to interior area.
5. Proportion and Scale
• The human body should be the measure of a building and its
furnishings.
• Wright spoke of the “integral harmony of proportion to the
human figure—to have all details so designed as to make the
human relationship to architecture not only convenient but
charming.”

6. Nature
• Nature is an architect’s school.
• The creative possibilities of form, color, pattern, texture,
proportion, rhythm, and growth 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.
7. Repose
• Quiet, serene, tranquil (free from disturbance) space is a fitting
environment for human growth.
• It is achieved by simple architectural masses that reflect the
uncluttered spaces within and that are carefully related to the
site.

8. Grammar
• Each building has its own grammar, its distinct vocabulary of
pattern and form.
• All parts of the building from the smallest detail to the overall
form thus speak the same language.
• The grammar may be completely different for two buildings,
although both are organically designed (the Johnson Wax Building
versus Taliesin West).
9. Ornament
• Not all organic architecture has ornament, 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, and tile
or glass mosaics.

10. Human Values

• “All values are human values or else not valuable”, said Wright.
• “Human use and comfort should have intimate possession of
every interior—should be felt in every exterior.”
11. Simplicity
• Organic architecture is simple
because its scheme and design
are clear.

12. Mechanical Systems and Furnishings

• These are an integral part of the
building: they are not added on,
stuck in or unduly exposed.
• Sculpture and painting have to
become elements of the total
design.
• Furniture should be built-in as
much as possible.
A key element to this American dream was the built environment. Frank Lloyd
Wright said In the Realm of Ideas:

…architecture is life; or at least it is life itself taking form and

therefore it is the truest record of life as it was live in the
world yesterday, as it is lived today or ever will be lived.
Fallingwater
1936–39, HOUSE, PENNSYLVANIA, USA
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
The American architect Frank Lloyd Wright created some of the most
memorable and striking houses of the 20th century and Fallingwater,
which he designed for Edgar Kaufmann, a wealthy department-store
owner, is the most famous of them all. Built on a rock ledge right
above a waterfall in the wooded countryside southeast of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, Fallingwater features dramatic, jutting balconies and
big expanses of glass. The way in which its stone walls and concrete
balconies emerge from the woodland setting and appear to float
above the mountain stream creates a unique marriage of architecture
and site.
Neither Kaufmann nor his building
contractor were confident that the
structure of the house would be stable,
and the construction was plagued with
disputes between Wright, his client, and
the builders. The cantilevered (jutting)
balconies were the most challenging
element of the design, and the builders
had to strengthen them with additional
steelwork, but this made them heavier
than Wright had originally intended them
to be and probably contributed to a slight
sagging.
The resulting house was, however,
spectacular. A huge, stone-floored living
room offered plenty of space for sitting
and eating. The broad windows of the
living room and bedrooms look out onto This skillful linking of the interior and
stunning views of the trees surrounding exterior, together with the way in which the
the house, and the generous balconies— house itself seems to form part of the
two connected to the living room, two waterfall and woodland, is perhaps the
more to the bedrooms, and a fifth to the ultimate example of what Wright called
gallery at the top of the house—invite “organic architecture.”
family and guests to step outside.
 His client’s new house,
duly produced
drawings in a couple
of hours.

The perspective in
Wright's drawing

TRAYLIKE BALCONIES
Appearing to float above
the falls,

GUEST HOUSE
Linked to the main house
by a curving path are a
GLASS AND guest house.
STEEL Wright made sure
Wright liked the that water—such an
way in which a important presence in
fragile material the main house—was
such as glass also a feature of the
EXTERIOR STAIRS guest house by
could butt up
Steps made from natural stone, linking the incorporating a
against rough,
building both to the nearby guesthouse and the swimming pool, fed by a
rugged stone,
stream. The stone for the house came from the spring, which overflowed
creating an
small quarry near the building site. As a result into the river.
unusual contrast
there is perfect harmony between the rocks on
which the house stands, in texture.
 LIVING ROOM
The huge living GLAZING
room shimmers Provides an
with light from the uninterrupted
wide row of view of the
windows running surrounding
long its southern woods and
side. “dissolving” the
corner of the
HEARTH AND building.
KETTLE
For Wright the
hearth was
the vital, living
center of any
house,
providing
physical
warmth

The tone of the interior is set mainly
by the abundant use of natural
materials, particularly the rugged
stone.
STONEWORK DETAIL
Many of these are long and thin
and have been skillfully laid in neat
patterns.
EDGAR KAUFMANN'S
BEDROOM This view through the
bedroom window to the trees shows
Wright’s mastery of spatial and textural
effects in one of the smaller rooms.
Falling Water, Bear Run, Pennsylvania

• Literal design of every element of a building: From the windows, to

the floors, to the individual chairs intended to fill the space.
• Everything relates to one another, reflecting the symbiotic ordering
systems of nature.

 Harmony and fit with nature

 Characteristic Cantilevers
 Style - Distinctive feature - The strong horizontal and vertical
lines
His essay “In the Cause of Architecture” defined the following principles:

1. Simplicity:
• Everything that was unnecessary, including interior walls, should
be eliminated.
• There should be as few rooms as possible.

2. Multiple Style:
• There should be less lip service paid to the style of the times and
more concerned to the requirement of the individual.
• Above all the architects should design for the client’s
requirements.

3. Sympathy with the environment:

• Site and architecture should be in harmony.
• Building should grow from their environment.
• The colours should also be in sympathy with the surroundings.
4. The “nature “of materials:
• All building materials should show their natural characteristics.

5. Building should bring joy:

• These principles were similar to Arts and Crafts Movement but
Wright was not as innately conservative or rooted in tradition as the
members of that movement.
• He not only embraced new materials but used them joyfully to
“ break the box” and open up the buildings- steel beams allowed
him to span space and create dramatic cantilevered roofs and
poured concrete.
Colleagues and influences
Wright rarely credited any influences on his designs, but most architects,
historians and scholars agree had five major influences:

a. Louis Henry Sullivan (1856-1924) was a mentor of Wright. Wright worked

with him for 7 years and took over many Sullivan's ideas but developed
them into his own architectural language. Sullivan's - "Form follows
function" was taken by Wright and adopted as "Form and function
should be one, joined in a spiritual union".
b. Nature, particularly shapes/forms and colors/patterns of plant life,
c. Music (his favorite composer was Ludwig van Beethoven),
d. Japanese art, prints and buildings,

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition
between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous
and influential of all composers.
e. Froebel Gifts
The Froebel Gifts (German Frobelgaben)
are a range of educational materials
designed by Friedrich Frobel. In his
autobiography cited them indirectly in
explaining that he learned the
geometry of architecture in
kindergarten play, writing "For several
years I sat at the little Kindergarten
table-top... and played... with the cube,
the sphere and the triangle - these
smooth wooden maple blocks... All are
in my fingers to this day...”
Frank Llyod Wright’s work can be
divided 4 Periods
1. Early Period-Derivative of work of his
contemporaries styles, e.g.. His early works
at Alder and Sullivan was heavily
influenced by Louis Sullivan. Even his
freelance work the “bootlegged houses”.

2. The Prairie Period- 1901-1910 saw Wright

produce a new house which was
characterized by horizontally and organic
architectural principles- use of natural
materials and harmony between the
building and its site.
3. The Textile Block Period- This
phase saw Wright build
decorative, Mayan inspired,
cast concrete houses in
California –
a. La Miniatura, the Millard
House is the so-called textile
block house, the first of only
four designed by the
architect in 1923-24.
b. The Storer House is a Mayan
Revival textile block house
which was built in 1923 in
Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles,
for Dr. John Storer.
c. Built for Charles and Mabel
Ennis in 1924, the Ennis
House is the last of four
Wright’s textile block houses.
4. The Usonian Period
When Frank Lloyd Wright
began practicing
architecture at the turn of
the 20th century,
American suburbs were a
pastiche of borrowed
European architectural
styles. But Wright had a The Rosenbaum House is one of the first Wright’s Usonian
style homes and according to many, one of the finest
vision; he wanted to create
examples of the architect’s vision of the middle-income
a style that was uniquely family houses
American, inspired by the
landscape and free of
associations with the old
world. He called this
unique style "Usonian", a
play on "USA." Identified as
being dated 1935-1955,
Usonian houses were
lower cost than Prairie
could be self built and Also known as Jacobs I, the Herbert and Katherine Jacobs
could also be First House was designed by Wright for Madison journalist
Herbert Jacobs and his wife Katherine.
prefabricated.
Masterpieces of
Frank Lloyd Wright

Falling Water, Bear Run, Pennsylvania

 Literal design of every element of a
building: From the windows, to the
floors, to the individual chairs intended
to fill the space. Everything relates to
one another, reflecting the symbiotic
ordering systems of nature.
o Harmony and fit with nature
o Characteristic Cantilevers
o Style - Distinctive feature - The
strong horizontal and vertical
lines
2. Winslow house, Chicago
3. Prairie Houses
a. Dana-Thomas House Springfield, IL,
b. Darwin Martin House Buffalo, NY,
c. Robbie House, Chicago,
d. Meyer May House Grand Rapids,
Mich. 2

3.b

3.a 3.c
4. Unity Church (1904), Oak Park, Illinois
Unity Church was the first public
building in America to be built entirely
of exposed concrete. Concrete was
used partly to keep construction costs
low, but also because of Wright’s
“principle of integrity.”

5. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

(1956), New York, New York
In 1943, Wright accepted a commission
to design a museum to house the
Solomon R. Guggenhiem Collection of
Non-Objective Painting. .”

5
 6 7
6. S.C. Johnson Research Tower (1944), Racine, 7. H.C. Price Company Tower
Wisconsin (1952), Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Tower for the S. C. Johnson research The 221-feet-tall Price Tower in
laboratories to balance the predominantly Bartlesville, Oklahoma, is one
horizontal composition of the Administration of Wright’s only built
Building. From the central core, the floor slabs skyscrapers.
are cantilevered out like branches of a tree.