This page is referenced by:

• 1 2015-10-29T23:33:52-07:00 Legacy After Death 41 plain 2015-12-16T17:30:32-08:00
  

  “One of the founders of modern architecture in North America, Frank Lloyd Wright embraced the use of new technology, materials and engineering to create some of the 20th century’s most influential and iconic buildings.”  
                                                                                                                                                                      ~Design Museum

  
  
  
  Legacy Principles:
  In his book, Fallingwater Rising: Frank Lloyd Wright, E. J. Kaufmann, and America's Most Extraordinary House, Franklin Toker analyzes the main ideas spread throughout Wright's work, and divided all of Wright's ideas into six basic principles.  The "six principles of organic architecture," found on page 232, include:

  • Integration of the house and its site:  Looks at how nature and architecture compliment each other and play off of one another.
  • Space as the reality of the building:  Allowing the house and it's structure to be honest with those inhabiting it.
  • Emphasis on the articulative nature of materials used:  Allowing the materials to be used honestly.  In other words, Wright tries to use the materials as they are, without changing them too much to the point where the material is just being used for ornamentation rather than purpose.
  • The logic of the plan:  The flow and hidden thoughts placed into the floor plan of a building in order to make most effective use of the space and to give it purpose.
  • Plasticity and the continuity:​  The quality and the durability of the materials and the products as a whole should meet high expectations.
  • Grammar or congruity of all elements in forming the whole:  How everything is worked into one another and if the structures are honest with those who look at it.

  Though not a principal of organic architecture, Wright was adamant in using new materials and technologies to improve the structural integrity of the buildings.  Wright highly believed that integrating new technologies and materials into architecture and architectural practices would allow for more imaginative freedoms and liberties that were, at the time, limited by less-than-adequate construction techniques.
  
  Frank Lloyd Wright Today:
  The principles listed above come together to embody organic architecture, a term Wright coined describe how architecture should compliment nature by working with it in form rather than against it, as many architects at the time were doing.  Moreover, all of the listed principles are used in various ways today.  For example, "the logic of the plan" idea, first prevalent in Wright's Prairie Style homes, has evolved into the 'open-concept' style that is currently in style.  The idea of open-concept is that everything is within view so that one can perform daily tasks with optimal knowledge of what is going on around them (excluding private rooms, such as bathrooms, etc.).  Another example would be of homes in San Diego.  While Wright didn't build any homes in San Diego himself, many of his apprentices from the Taliesin Fellowship as well as architectural scholars, and his sons Lloyd Wright and John Lloyd Wright, created many "Wright-inspired" buildings. Furthering Wright's legacy of such principles, Taliesin and its Fellowship are still in operation and educating students about the wonders of architecture today.
  
   

  Sources:

  • Design Museum.  "FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT: Architect (1867-1959)." Design at the Design Museum. Design Museum, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2015. <http://design.designmuseum.org/design/frank-lloyd-wright>.
  • Toker, Franklin. “Fallingwater Rising: Frank Lloyd Wright, E.J. Kaufmann, and America's Most Extraordinary House.”  New York: A.A. Knopf, 2003. Print.
  • York, Keith. "Frank Lloyd Wright's Legacy in San Diego." Frank Lloyd Wright's Legacy in San Diego. Save Our Heritage Organisation, 2006. Web. 19 Nov. 2015. <http://www.sohosandiego.org/reflections/2006-1/wrightlegacy.htm>.