Midwest (1) – Frank Lloyd Wright @ Chicago
October 5, 2013, Oak Forest, IL
He decided to quit his engineering degree and went to Chicago to pursuit his Architecture career. Then he was 20.
Some of his early work at Oak Forest, designed when he worked for Louis Sullivan are shown below. These residential houses still look Victorian, but with his personal voices on geometric shapes such as horizontal lines and triangles.
He explored about 10 years before he settled down his Prairie Style. People said that he felt naturally adding in horizontal lines in the design probably because he grew up in the mid-west plain. He went to Japan 1905 for the first time. Certainly, you can see the similarity between Japanese temples and Prairie homes, both in terms of color and style. (one picture I took in Tokoyo and the other one I took in Oak Forest)
Visit his home is about discovery. What interesting things have you found, visitors?
Fun rhythms planned into the space： he plans intelligent games with his visitors in his interior design. As an example, walking in his houses, the visitors sometimes enter a small, tight, dark space and feel uncomfortable. Then suddenly they are released to high ceiling and large windows, open spaces. Can you see this below? The picture is playroom in his house in Oak Forest.
Bring in nature in the building: he sometimes planned houses around an old tree. The living room typically has front and back large windows. We can see through the house and see the view in the backyard, e.g., a lake. Even, he likes to use rocks which contain fossils, which is unusual in his era.
