ON AND BY FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

A Primer of Architectural Principles

 

I spoke with an architect whose favourite book was The Fountainhead, and whose most-admired architect was F. L. Wright. Naturally an enthusiastic discussion on Fallingwater followed. Today I have precious little knowledge of art and architecture; back then it was even less.

 

Wright-I thought. Was he one of the Wright Brothers who invented the airplane? Did he also build houses? Many people don’t know who Tyler Durden, the real Hannibal, or Eduardo Saverin are. Similarly, I had no idea till then that FLW was one of those professionals who is revered within the vocation of architecture. He looks like a fully scalped Alfred Hitchcock (see below).

 

On the left is a picture of Falling Water - a house designed by FLW for an American businessman. It’s a country home built on a waterfall; asking a  jargon-loving architect to describe it would be his wet dream. And if the architect is a lady, she will never be done talking about it.

 

On to the book in question.

 

It is a 372-page hard-back with wide margins. Some of these are illustrated with section-diagrams and concept drawings. However most of the margins are empty spaces, giving the impression that this book isn’t a coffee table book or conversation piece, but a book which will be best put to use by a working professional whose notes, observations and markings will fill up these blank spaces. Chuck Palahniuk (the creator of Fight Club, and Tyler Durden) said “I don’t want to die without any scars”. This book with it’s wide empty margins, working notes and rough drawings is saying the same thing; inviting the pro to put it to the best possible use by wearing out it out with jots, dog-ears, ink-stains and the like.

 

The cover is brilliant. It is a large semi-transparent/cloudy sheet (usually used to cover an artists’ canvas and protect the charcoal) that is doubly folded. On it is printed the title; the bottom half is a very neat sketch of something I can only describe as a structure. It’s a wily marketing gimmick that pays homage to a student who would use a cover, something just like this one, to protect a treasured book.

 

This is how the book is described on the inner panel: On and by Frank Lloyd Wright: A Primer of Architectural Principles contains fourteen analytical essays that use Wright’s buildings - the legacies he left us - as a means to understanding his complex creative process. Architect of many of the twentieth century’s most important buildings, Wright largely remains an enigma today. Written by renowned architects and architectural historians, On and by Frank Lloyd Wright provides a unique and informed look at Wright’s buildings from inception to completion, from his earliest works to his final masterpieces. With over four hundred images, including photographs, archival material, and diagrammatic analyses, the primer provides a more complete understanding of Wright’s work than previous studies. The final word comes from the master himself in a set of three essays in which Wright discusses his own architectural philosophies - a final lesson from this great American teacher.

 

The editor - Robert McCarter is a practicing architect and Professor at the University of Florida, where he was Director of the School of Architecture from 1991-2001. He has written for numerous international publications and is author of the comprehensive monograph Frank Lloyd Wright as well as Unity Temple and Fallingwater in the Architecture in Detail series and Louis I Kahn. He’s also the author of William Morgan: Select and Current Work.

 

Seems like a good book; ideal for, say, a student’s twenty-fourth birthday gift.

Fallingwater

FLW (l) & Hitchcock (r)

Wright was a witty character who didn’t have orange hair. He is quoted as saying - a doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his client to plant vines.