Product Description

This monograph explores the underlying themes and principles of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture. It examines the consistent and systematic qualities underlying all of Wright's designs. The text's chronological presentation, which emphasizes key designs and those related to them thematically, is paralleled by an examination of the development of three primary principles, simultaneously active in Wright's work, and singled out by him as being of fundamental importance in his understanding of architecture. First, Wright's development of concepts and methods for making architectural space; how these ideas derived from his designs for interior spaces and their experience; and how in Wright's architecture the occupant's movement (position) was critical to the experience of the spatial order (composition). Secondly, Wright's development of concepts and methods for ordering space through the manner of its construction; how this order determined his search for "the nature of materials" and structures. The author then considers the third aspect of Wright's designs: the architect's development of concepts and methods for establishing the relationship between his architecture and the landscape; and how he designed buildings where landscape, interior space and construction materials are woven together to become the setting for the repeated rituals of daily life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #546816 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Amazon.com Review
Of all the books that have appeared in the last 10 years on Frank Lloyd Wright and his architecture, this is the one that will last. It is in all ways comprehensive: its text is as organized and complete as a set of blueprints; its striking pictures of projects as small as the modest Usonian houses or as grand as the Guggenheim Museum are arranged in order by the visual information they reveal about each project; and even its copyediting is noticeably coherent, with dates just where one expects such details to be, in the first picture captions for each project. The book as a whole is so carefully conceived that, reading it, one knows exactly where to look for any particular bit of history. And while, for casual readers, the essays may offer too much to digest at first, Robert McCarter's prose is agile and passionate. "Wright understood buildings to be the background or framework for human existence," he writes. "Architecture gave dignity to daily life." --Margaret Moorman

From Library Journal
This book is not a biography of Frank Lloyd Wright but rather an investigation into Wright's philosophy of design and space. McCarter (architecture, Univ. of Florida) dulls his attempt, however, by writing a chronological narrative in the irritating manner of a tour guide, using the first-person plural "we." The reader is bombarded with descriptions of sizes and shapes of rooms and hallways, heights of ceilings, and textures of concrete slabs; there is so much minutiae that it is impossible to see the theory through the clutter. The book is filled with beautiful photographs and illustrations, as most books on Wright's works are, but they do not aid in the tour, and often we are left to our own imagination concerning the appearances of rooms and their decor. The author does offer valid insights into Wright's philosophy, but these expositions are buried under page after page of details. More discussion and less description would have greatly improved this book. Recommended only for specialized architectural and interior design libraries; general collections should consider Neil Levine's The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright (LJ 6/1/96).?Glenn Masuchika, Chaminade Univ. Lib., Honolulu
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher
This monograph explores the underlying themes and principles of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture. It examines the consistent and systematic qualities underlying all of Wright's designs. The text's chronological presentation, which emphasizes key designs and those related to them thematically, is paralleled by an examination of the development of three primary principles, simultaneously active in Wright's work, and singled out by him as being of fundamental importance in his understanding of architecture. First, Wright's development of concepts and methods for making architectural space; how these ideas derived from his designs for interior spaces and their experience; and how in Wright's architecture the occupant's movement (position) was critical to the experience of the spatial order (composition). Secondly, Wright's development of concepts and methods for ordering space through the manner of its construction; how this order determined his search for "the nature of materials" and structures. The author then considers the third aspect of Wright's designs: the architect's development of concepts and methods for establishing the relationship between his architecture and the landscape; and how he designed buildings where landscape, interior space and construction materials are woven together to become the setting for the repeated rituals of daily life.

Customer Reviews

Great book, different outlook on the man+his work
Oustanding commentary, well researched and insightful. The text here is mighty different from other commentaries on Wright, and feels much more substantive. Ony con: not enough images + some floorplans are reproduced too small to read clearly. - not a photo overview, a study on the man.

Useful not only for reference on his work
This is a great book, not only as a reference for FLW's work, divided into sections of building type, containing hundreds of great photographs and drawings of his works (about 20 on Fallingwater alone), by which you can really get to know his work in detail. Because it's so visually rich, it is also a reference for constrution techniques and details (and, as you know, FLW is a very echletic architect). The text is very well written and covers everything related to each work, like clients' reviews, technical specifications, the story of the building, and so forth. I recommend it to anyone interested in architecture and FLW.