ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE
james@schildrotharchitect.com
J A M E S W A L T E R
S C H I L D R O T H
ABC’s of Organic Architecture with my take on why I included these words.
A. ARCHITECTURE FROM PRINCIPLE: This is Organic Architecture. Why would you want anything else?
B. BEAUTY "Truth is beauty and beauty truth" Someone once said.
C. COURAGE, CREATIVITY, CONTINUITY It take great courage to be different. An organic creation is always different and takes a bit of time to understand. As organic architecture is experienced and lived in, the purpose of the form of the design becomes clear. The forms and design of an organic architecture results from the needs and conditions of the client and site.
D. DEPTH DIMENSION: The THIRD DIMENSION: INTERPRETATION
By Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect
Page 224 A Testament 1957
"To sum up, organic architecture sees the third dimension never as weight or mere thickness but always as depth. Depth an element of space; the third (or thickness) dimension transformed to a space dimension. A penetration of the inner depths of space in spaciousness becomes architectural and valid motif in design. With this concept of depth interpenetrating depths comes flowering a freedom in design which architects have never known before but which they may now employ in their designs as a true liberation of life and light within walls; a new structural integrity; outside coming in; and the space within, to be lived in, going out. Space outside becomes a natural part of space within the building. All building design thus actually becomes four-dimensional and renders more static than ever the two- dimensional effects of the old static post and girder, beam and box frame type of construction, however novel they seem to be made. Walls are now apparent more as humanized screens. They do define and differentiate, but never confine or obliterate space. A new sense of reality in building construction has arrived.
Now a new liberation may be the natural consequence in every building exterior. The first conscious expression of which I know in modern architecture of this new reality - the "space within to be lived in" - was Unity Temple in Oak Park. True harmony and economic elements of beauty were consciously planned and belong to this new sense of space-within. The age-old philosophy of Laotze is alive in architecture. In every part of the building freedom is active. Space the basic element in architectural design.
This affirmation, due to the new sense of "the space within" as reality, came from the original affirmative negation (the great protestant) 1904, the Larkin Building of Buffalo- now demolished. Here came the poetic principle of freedom itself as a new revelation in architecture. This new freedom that was first consciously demonstrated in Unity Temple, Oak Park (1906) as written in 1927 for AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. With this new principle at work in our American architecture came a new sense of style as innate. A quality natural to the act and art of modern habitation: no longer applied by "taste." (Again: "Such as the life is , such is the form" - Coleridge gives us perhaps a better slogan than Form Follows Function.) For Americans as for all shades and shapes of human beings everywhere "style" becomes generic: poetic expression of character. Style is intrinsic-or it is false. As a characteristic of " the space within to be lived in" - the life of style is perpetually fresh."
The THIRD DIMENSION
Contrary to popular belief, the third dimension is not thickness but depth. The term “third dimension” is used in organic architecture to indicate the sense of depth which issues as of the thing not on it. The third dimension, depth, exists as intrinsic to the building.
Page 323 THE FUTURE OF ARCHITECTURE By Frank Lloyd Wright
E. EXPRESSION OF PURPOSE "Form follows Function" Louis H. Sullivan, Architect. "Form and Function are one" FLLW.
F. FREEDOM "Organic Architecture like freedom cannot be put on, it must be worked out from within." FLLW page 240 Writings and Buildings.
G. GENEROSITY: Giving always precedes receiving. Real giving is unconditional. A real gift is something that the person really needs.
H. HARMONY: Order: "Therefore the first great necessity of a modern architecture is this keen sense of order as integral. That is to say the form itself in orderly relationship with purpose or function: the parts themselves in order with the form: the materials and methods of work in order with both: a kind of natural integrity,-the integrity of each in all and of all in each. This is the exacting new order." FLLW page 200 The Future of Architecture
I. INTRINSIC, INDIGENOUS Intrinsic is of or a part of a thing not something stuck on or applied. Integral. The word Intrinsic can be used in place of the word organic as it describes "Organic Architecture", or "Intrinsic Architecture"
J. JOY: Making architecture can be fun if both client and architect are on the same trip. The process of working with a creative architect in the design of your home may be one of the most enjoyable experiences you will have in life.
K. KNOWLEDGE: The architect is the master of the knowledge.
L. LIGHT: Natural sun light is what brings life to Organic Architecture. Natural light is continuously changing moment to moment. The Organic Architect designs with the light.
M. MIND: "Where the mind goes, the energy flows" David Copeland
N. NATURE: We are all a part of nature so why not design buildings that are based on the beauty that we enjoy in nature. Nature is the starting place for understanding what is beautiful to the human being.
O. ORGANIC, ORIGINAL: "In organic architecture, any conception of any building as a building begins at the beginning and goes forward to incidental expression as a picture and does not begin with some incidental expression as a picture and go groping backward." FLLW page 217 The Future of Architecture.
P. PRINCIPLE: Real architecture is created from the principles of life and because each client is unique the form of each design is original. The principles for this creative expression is to be found by understanding life itself.
Q. QUEST for the creative idea.
R. REPOSE, RELATIONSHIP: Everything in the universe is interrelationship with everything else. "Part is to part as part is to whole." FLLW Repose in architecture is a building that is comfortable with all the interrelationships.
S. SPACE, Simplicity
SPACE
Organic Space shelters and defines but never limits or confines. JWS
ARCHITECTURAL SPACE
The most important thing that Mr. Wright gave us all in
Architecture, to my way of thinking, was his understanding
of the concept of "Organic Space".
As used by Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect:
Space is far more than area or volume.
Space engages and involves the mind of the person that is having the experience. This involvement invites the mind of the person experiencing the architecture to be in relationship to the architecture by completing the space in the imagination.
Space never confines. Space is always in relation to the beyond.
Space allows the mind to complete, in imagination that which goes beyond.
Organic Space shelters and defines but never limits or confines.
Some of the so called organic shapes to my mind do not have this aspect of Space. They have curvilinear shapes that are called organic, but they are still boxes, because they confine and contain the same as a rectangular box. To be Organic, Architecture must have this quality of Organic Space. It must allow the mind of the person to freely play with the infinite just as it does in the out of doors in nature.
James Walter Schildroth, Architect
June 24, 1999
"... Organic architecture is the growth in space of an idea...
There will never be too many of the complete architect. He
is the master of the elements: earth, air, fire, light and
water. Space, motion and gravitation are his palette; the
sun is his brush. His concern is the heart of humanity... "
Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect 1949
When I design I don't do it from the outside by looking at it but first from the inside. I stand on the site where the house will be built and then as I work the design in my mind I let the house take form around me. I call this conceiving the building in space. JAMES WALTER SCHILDROTH, ARCHITECT
This, I believe, is the secret of simplicity. Perhaps we may truly regard nothing at all as simple in itself. I believe that no one thing in itself is ever so, but must achieve simplicity (as an artist should use the term) as a perfectly realized part of some organic whole. Only as a feature or any part becomes a harmonious element in the harmonious whole does it arrive at the estate of simplicity. FLLW
T. TRUTH is a divinity in architecture. FLLW
U. UNITY "Part is to part as part is to whole" FLLW
V. VISION: The idea comes from within the mind. Inner vision or Insight.
W. WISDOM
“WISDOM IS UNDERSTANDING WHAT OTHERS ONLY KNOW.”
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, ARCHITECT
WISDOM
HERE IS THE TEST OF WISDOM….
WISDOM IS NOT FINALLY TESTED IN
SCHOOLS…..WISDOM CANNOT BE
PASSED FROM ONE HAVING IT TO
ANOTHER NOT HAVING IT…………
WISDOM IS OF THE SOUL...IS NOT
SUSCEPTIBLE OF PROOF…IS ITS OWN
PROOF…APPLIES TO ALL OBJECTS
STAGES AND QUALITIES..IS CONTENT.
WISDOM IS THE CERTAINTY OF THE
REALITY & EXCELLENCE OF THINGS…
SOMETHING THERE IS IN THE FLOAT
OF THE SIGHT OF THINGS THAT
PROVOKES IT OUT OF THE SOUL.
Walt Whitman
Copied from the wall of the Hill Side Theatre at Taliesin, Spring Green, Wisconsin.
X. EXCELLENCE There is an "X" factor in creativity. After understanding the conditions of client and site. After understanding the needs and conditions their come the time when the reason must be put aside and the problem turned over to the unconscious mind. This is where the direction for the design will come. The right side of the human brain. No one ever thought of a creative idea because thinking is a left brain activity and for the right side to work the left side must be distracted or turned off.
Y. YOUTHFULNESS: This is a state of mind and not the number of years one has lived. A young mind is always open to the unknown.
Z. ZEST FOR THE CREATIVE LIFE
The yin-yang symbol has many interpretations and explanations.
I use it here to represent my belief that the solution to all problems are contained with in the conditions of the problem. The small dot in each yin and yang is the seed or beginning of the direction toward the next thing. I don't look out side for something to copy, I look within the conditions that exist for direction and inspiration. For me this is the Organic Way.
ABC,s of Organic Architecture
The principles of Organic Architecture as developed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect have guided my work. These words represent some of these principles.