ABSTRACT
There s a story told that when Frank Lloyd Wrght was gven the commsson for Fallngwater by Edgar Kaufmann he drew nothng for nne months (see McCarter, 2002). Then he nvted the clent to see the desgn for hs new weekend house, and proceeded to complete sketch desgn drawngs, from whch the bult house hardly devated, n the two hours whle Kaufmann was drvng to see hm. If ths s true, t s evdence that Wrght had a clear archtectural dea for how the house should be composed, and that what he dd, whle hs clent was drvng to see hm, was apply that dea as a medator
Wrght’s archtectural dea, expressed n words, was to mark a place for a fire on the rocks besde a waterfall and to let a house, composed of rectangular horzontal planes, grow from that hearth over the water. Ths dea was the bass for a negotaton, played out on the paper on Wrght’s drawng board, between the condtons presented by the ste and the desres assocated wth a place to lve. Ths s what an archtect does: comes up wth an dea by whch the desres contaned n a desgn bref mght be reconcled wth ther condtons, physcal and otherwse. The dea emerges nether from
T W E N T Y B U I L D I N G S e v e r y a r c h i t e c t s h o u l d u n d e r s t a n d
Identification of place; using things that are there
In archtecture, the first decson s to choose a ste. Sometmes whle wanderng through the countrysde one encounters places – a clearng n the woods, a ledge of rock alongsde a stream, a recess n a clff face wth a vew of the sea – that seem to nvte one to settle, f only for a moment. Whereas most parts of the countrysde – pathways, open moors, beaches – tend to keep one movng, such settlng places seem to nvte one to stop. Maybe they do ths because they offer a sense of protecton, enclosure, a refuge; maybe they are lght, warmed by the sunshne; maybe they offer a vewpont, from whch to enjoy a prospect. Recognsng and nter-relatng wth such places s a fundamental act of archtecture. Identficaton of place s the conceptual seed from whch archtecture grows.
