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Re: [OM] Imgs of final jury architecture students, OM 50/2 and 21/3.5

Subject: Re: [OM] Imgs of final jury architecture students, OM 50/2 and 21/3.5
From: Paul Braun <pbraun42@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 10:18:44 -0500
On Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 10:09 AM, Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
> What is a challenge is being inventive and creative, but still
> maintaining visual harmony with the surrounding landscape. These days,
> the surrounding landscape is not just the lot which the building is
> standing on, but the surrounding community.
>
> Here in Denver, just south of the DTC along I-25, is a building that
> is wider at the top than the bottom. It has the visual stance of
> leaning. It reminds me of a half-eaten chocolate cupcake. It just sits
> there and doesn't fit in at all with the surroundings. Yet, right
> across I-25 is the IKEA store, which takes "box" to an artform. Does
> IKEA fit in with the surroundings? Yes and no. It's essentially a
> warehouse, so it fits in to the surroundings in that manner, but a
> warehouse that is painted bright blue and yellow. Nothing subtle about
> it. In the world of "Times Roman Buildings", it's pure "Helvetica".
>
>
Exactly.  That's really what Wright's "Organic Architecture" philosophy was
about.  It was partially the idea that a building should look like it
belongs, that it reflects the surrounding landscape.  It's a unified whole
- structure and land, interior and exterior.  The materials should be used
for their natural properties - don't use concrete and then try to make it
look like wood.  Let it look like concrete.

There are plenty of buildings that have been built that stand out like a
sore thumb, yet the architecture world heralds the designer as a genius.
Although the building may actually look like a twisted heap of stainless
steel piled into a middle of a forest... different strokes, I guess.  Ever
since I've been studying Wright's work, when I walk into one of his houses,
primarily from the Prairie era forwards, I just feel at home.

Taliesin in Spring Green, WI and Fallingwater in PA are prime examples of
harmony with nature.  Wright grew up around Spring Green, and the land is
full of limestone outcroppings. So, he had the stonemasons cut and lay the
stone walls to resemble those outcroppings.  And he placed the house below
the peak of the hill - "Taliesin" is Welsh for "Shining Brow", meaning that
he felt it was wrong to perch a house on top of the hill, but it should
nestle in just below it.  Same with Fallingwater - in reality, it looks a
lot like the rock outcroppings surrounding Bear Run.


-- 

Paul Braun  WD9GCO
Music Junkie

"Music washes from the soul the dust of everyday life." -- Harlan Howard
-- 
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