How Frank Lloyd Wright Tried to Solve the City
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How Frank Lloyd Wright Tried to Solve the City
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Re: How Frank Lloyd Wright Tried to Solve the City
#2Wasn't Frank Lloyd Wright the inspiration for the main characer of Ayn Rands 'The Fountainhead?' She uses him to draw a figure, mocked by regular architects, fighting against the 'fake' style of that day: architects trying to build 'classic' buildings from Greek times with columns and all. In the novel 'man' is what the buildings are about, if I'm correct. I don't know for sure, but I imagine Frank got his share of ridiculement as well.
Re: How Frank Lloyd Wright Tried to Solve the City
#3There are more architects who tried this. Christopher Alexander dedicated a lot of time to solve building countries to doorsteps.
What amazed me after reading some of his books are the physical effects of today's cities on humans (and animals).
Some examples:
Living higher than 4 stores: there is evidence that this will disconnect you from the life happening on ground level.
Streets made for cars: cars are more important than humans.
Re: How Frank Lloyd Wright Tried to Solve the City
#4Wasn't Frank Lloyd Wright the inspiration for the main characer of Ayn Rands 'The Fountainhead?' She uses him to draw a figure, mocked by regular architects, fighting against the 'fake' style of that day: architects trying to build 'classic' buildings from Greek times with columns and all. In the novel 'man' is what the buildings are about, if I'm correct. I don't know for sure, but I imagine Frank got his share of r…
From Wp[1]: "The character of Roark was at least partly inspired by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Rand described the inspiration as limited to "some of his architectural ideas [and] the pattern of his career".[19] She denied that Wright had anything to do with the philosophy expressed by Roark or the events of the plot."
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Howard_Roark
Re: How Frank Lloyd Wright Tried to Solve the City
#5I'd recommend Leon Krier's Architecture of Community if you want a better look at this: http://www.amazon.com/The-Architecture-Community-Leon-Krier/... He gets somewhat repetitive and preachy, IMO, and I don't feel the book delivers on its promises, but it's a much more in-depth look at the ideas faintly alluded to in the article.
Differently, check out Vishaan Chakrabarti's A Country of Cities, which disagrees with Krier (and thus agrees with Wright) on the skyscraper: http://www.amazon.com/Country-Cities-Manifesto-Urban-America... It suffers, IIRC, from not enough citations but is otherwise pretty strong on its argument.
I tend to lean towards agreeing with Chakrabarti and Wright more on the vertical space issue, largely because Krier never quite managed to form a coherent argument against density except that it was being done badly. Krier, on the other hand, highlights the idea of the poly-centric city which is at least a reality in Seattle (where I live).
Re: How Frank Lloyd Wright Tried to Solve the City
#6There are more architects who tried this. Christopher Alexander dedicated a lot of time to solve building countries to doorsteps. What amazed me after reading some of his books are the physical effects of today's cities on humans (and animals). Some examples: Living higher than 4 stores: there is evidence that this will disconnect you from the life happening on ground level. Streets made for cars: cars are more impor…
To clarify: these are examples of what NOT to do, and Alexander stated them as such.
Re: How Frank Lloyd Wright Tried to Solve the City
#7There are more architects who tried this. Christopher Alexander dedicated a lot of time to solve building countries to doorsteps. What amazed me after reading some of his books are the physical effects of today's cities on humans (and animals). Some examples: Living higher than 4 stores: there is evidence that this will disconnect you from the life happening on ground level. Streets made for cars: cars are more impor…
To clarify: these are examples of what NOT to do, and Alexander stated them as such.
I disagree. I can't ride a human to work. :-)
Re: How Frank Lloyd Wright Tried to Solve the City
#8Wasn't Frank Lloyd Wright the inspiration for the main characer of Ayn Rands 'The Fountainhead?' She uses him to draw a figure, mocked by regular architects, fighting against the 'fake' style of that day: architects trying to build 'classic' buildings from Greek times with columns and all. In the novel 'man' is what the buildings are about, if I'm correct. I don't know for sure, but I imagine Frank got his share of r…
From Wp[1]: "The character of Roark was at least partly inspired by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Rand described the inspiration as limited to "some of his architectural ideas [and] the pattern of his career".[19] She denied that Wright had anything to do with the philosophy expressed by Roark or the events of the plot." [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Howard_Roark
Hey thanks! I'd never realised they were from the same time-frame and knew each other. From the same article: "Rand's denials have not stopped other commentators from claiming stronger connections between Wright and Roark.[21][22] Wright himself equivocated about whether he thought Roark was based on him, sometimes implying that he was, at other times denying it.[23] Wright biographer Ada Louise Huxtable described the "yawning gap" between Wright's philosophy and Rand's, and quoted him declaring, "I deny the paternity and refuse to marry the mother."[24]"
Re: How Frank Lloyd Wright Tried to Solve the City
#9I recommend everyone to visit his masterpiece building: Fallingwater tucked in the Pennsylvania countryside, and also a nearby smaller house Kentuck Knob. I visited both twice. During my second visit I stood breathless before the Fallingwater and weeped, so beautiful and perfect it was.