Module 7

Module 7-Video and book references. 

Prairie Style

Frank Lloyd Wright brought Americans out of their box houses into wide-open, horizontal living spaces. For example, in the prairie style house, the fireplace was moved to the center of the house opening up the outside walls for windows. Mr. Wright also opened up the houses by using glass French doors as walls. Tomeck style houses, by Wright, have lower ceiling which make you look around instead of up. He wanted houses to be natural, to create a harmony between the clients and its surroundings. Wright designed the prairie house to revolve around the sun’s movements by making more windows, and the open floor plan so that the sun flowed through freely. Wright was a visionary and his concept of a house was totally different from what was there previously. Wright’s main influence was the importance of place/site; the house is routed to the landscape. The house tries to create a relationship between the building and nature.

Architecture: The science of Design

When building a skyscraper, the architects have many factors to look at before construction can begin. Some of the elements they need to look at are the height of the building, the composition of the building and how big of a base do they need. With a taller building, the architects have to watch out for the wind vortexes and sharp corners and angles. The more square the building, the worse the wind tunnels. The taller the building, the more wind there is near the top. The more wind near the top, the more the building will sway, and if the building sways too far, it could crumble or break the foundation. Concrete is another interesting form of art as it can be used as a buildings structure, a walkway or as glue as in masonry work. It has been used since the ancient Egyptians used a form of concrete to make the pyramids.

In the science of design video, they talked about making the buildings possess tensile strength. This means that the building has to be able to withstand tension and compression. Frank Lloyd Wright described his own work as organic. “Beautiful buildings are more than scientific. They are true organisms, spiritually conceived, works of art, using the best technology by inspiration rather than the idiosyncrasies of mere taste or any averaging by the committee mind.”

I really like the Prairie style video. It broadens your horizons on how houses used to be built and how they are built now. Watching videos on Architecture and how architects design things really makes you think. The things that we take for granted, such as an open floor plan were things that people had to take a risk on inventing and bringing to light. I also like the video about the science of design because there are things about architectural that you never would have known. I did not know that architects have to calculate years of weather before they start construction, so that they know what kind of materials in which to build a building.

I chose these videos because the title sounded interesting and I thought they would enhance my knowledge on architecture.