Research: Frank Lloyd Wright

After finishing my initial ideas, it was time to research more into other artists to see how I can get inspired by them. I decided to research Frank Lloyd work as I am always amazed by his work.

Instead of describing the obvious in his products, I will try to dig deeper and look at some features that stand out to me and I can implement in my own work. I have formed the basic idea of my designs, therefore, I will try to look at more details or things that make it stand out. 

Biography:

Frank Lloyd Wright was an architect with a very unique style. He was born in 1867 in Wisconsin. His father was a preacher and a musician and his mother was a teacher. In 1885, Wright went for an undergraduate civil engineering degree at the University of Wisconsin. He started working for an engineering department in order to pay for his own tuition. He had the opportunity to work with Joseph Silsbee, an architect which influenced him his career path. In 1887 he dropped out of school to work for Silsbee. In 1888, Wright worked on an apprenticeship with the Chicago architectural firm.  In 1889, he got married to Catherine Tobin and had 6 children.

In 1909, he moved to Germany without his wife and children with a woman called Mamah Borthwick Cheney. They moved back to the United states together and build a house. However, the house was set on fire and it killed Cheney and six others. The house was named Taliesin and was rebuilt once it burned down.

In 1923, he married another woman called Miriam Noel and stayed in the Taliesin again. In 1925, another fire occurred and burned down the house so Wright had to rebuild it.

In 1915, the Japanese Emperor assigned Wright to design the Imperial hotel in Tokyo. After planning and building, Wright claimed that this was an earthquake proof building. In 1923, an earthquake occurred that devastated the city, however, the hotel built by Wright was the city’s only large structure to survive.

In 1928, he married his third wife named Olga Lazovich Milanov.

In 1930’s, Wright retied from running his Taliesin and started designing even more buildings. He constructed 60 middle income homes called ‘Usonian houses. Some of his known works include the SC Johnson Wax Administration building and the Guggenheim museum in New York.

He passed away in 1959 at the age of 91. His style emphasized on simplicity and natural beauty and he was considered on of the greatest architects of the 20^th century.

These were some pieces of his work that I was interested in:

Plywood side chair (1937)

Even though Wright includes geometric shapes in his designs, he creates a very harmonic asymmetry. He created clean lines shapes that interacted with each other to form asymmetry. I could think about the use of various geometric shapes combined to form one asymmetric finish.

I really like the pattern he created by curving out the plywood. I could potentially create a pattern by carving out my products. This might make it more interesting and complex. A feature like carving can make simple ideas look complex and high-end. Additionally, I like that this is a high-chair as it allows the user to rest on the backrest and be more comfortable. It takes into account anthropometrics and it is carefully designed. 

He used plywood in his designs to promote simplicity, durability and practicality.  Plywood can be a material that I could also include in my own designs. I need to take this into consideration at a later stage when I analyse the properties of some materials. Additionally, I like that Wright maintains the original colour of the wood to promote the beauty of it. I like that there is some variations in the shade of the wooden colour as it shows how natural it is.

I can also consider combining purple with a natural wood shade. Looking at this design, made me think of adding purple to any cracks or imperfections the wood may have to show that even those cracks make the design beautiful. This is definitely some food for thought regarding my development. 

Johnson Wax writing desk (1936-39).

I am under the impression that this desk was very advanced and modern for the time it was created. In the previous designs, we notice that he had a tendency of creating objects out of rectangular shapes, however, in this one we see several shapes. There are elliptical shapes created, rectangular shapes, cylindrical, circular. I like how he implemented various shapes in one as it makes the user want to stare at this design more. The more you stare, the more shapes you discover which makes you more engaged with the design. By making the user stare for more time, you achieve to make him more interested in the design and fascinated by it which may possibly increase the likeliness of him purchasing it. 

This is definitely something to think about as I want the users to feel connected and engaged with what they are purchasing.

In this desk, there are several features that can be utilised once this is purchased. There are two layers of desks, storage areas (both large and smaller) which makes it multi-functional. This is what I'm also striving to create as I want it to have several uses.

Frank Lloyd Wright's office building 

I found the same design in a purple colour which was edited after years. This made me realise that even one shade of purple incorporated in the design will still look good. I am trying to find ways to implement purple in a way that is not going to be too distracting. That's why I want to perhaps add a pattern or combine it with natural wooden colour. However, solid purple colours still look good on designs and I have to keep this in mind for the development stage when I start adding my colours.

Arm Chair (1925)

An ongoing theme noticed in Wrights work is the geometry he creates within these products. However, in comparison to the previous one, Wright creates perfect symmetry in this design. This makes the piece very well balanced and makes it more coherent. To be honest, I like the symmetric approach more than the asymmetric. Especially for university students, I feel like symmetry would be a safer option than creating something asymmetric. 

In my own chair design, I am still considering if I should include arms or not. In this chair design I feel like the arms match the vibe very well. I need to see if in my development stage it would be beneficial to add arms. 

Additionally, I like that the chair is tilting as it has an angle to it. This will allow the user to rest properly. There is a horizontal plank along the placement of the neck as Wright wanted to take into consideration the anthropometrics. Neck problems are very common when reading as people tend to have a really bad posture. I need to take this into consideration and see what features in my own design can help improve this. 

Plywood Chairs

What stands out to me in these chairs, is the size of them. I decided to include these in my research as they are very large in size. Personally, I think they appear very inviting to the user as there is a lot of space for them to relax. They also have plenty of space to sit comfortably in various positions. By increasing user comfort, you also increase user purchases. 

I need to carefully consider my measurements to make sure that they entice people and make them feel more invited. These can act as lounges even though the primary purpose of them are chairs. They have a lot of leg space which allows the user to sit down with their legs crossed and enjoy. 

For my own measurement, I could carry out a test of an average sized chair and then see how I can enlarge it to make it more comfortable. I need to enlarge it to a logical extend so it can still be convenient to be placed in an apartment.

Origami chair 

He wanted to create this chair to fit in his classic forms and balanced proportions. Balanced proportions are an ongoing theme seen in Wrights work as he wants to maintain a very symmetrical and geometric approach. This chair is called origami as it is made out of a single piece of plywood that is folded. He inspected the way origamis fold closely in order to achieve the same effect.

I find this concept very fascinating and I want to look into it more. Since my initial idea was to create geometric foldable furniture, maybe I can look into origami and draw inspiration from some existing designs. 

Regarding the colour scheme,  Wright used the natural colour of plywood on the outside and then used peach padding for the inner part. I could potentially explore a similar concept. I really like the aesthetics of natural wood so I could add it on the exterior and then implement shades of purple on the interior. This will create a nice contrast which would look very pleasing.

Peacock chair (1921-1922)

This chair was designed for the imperial hotel and he wanted to incorporate Japanese elements and geometric abstraction. The hexagon created at the back symbolises the ornament of the cornice and ceiling and derives from forms found in Japanese art. This chair was specifically designed for the hotel's Peacock banquet room. 

The hotel had geometrical motifs in both the interior and exterior which were showcased in the design of this chair. Wright wanted to promote organic wholeness in his designs which is evident throughout his work. He wanted to show simplicity and wholeness in this chair.

Just like the previous designs, I am very impressed by the amount of shapes seen in this design. I spent several minutes looking at this to try and find all the shapes created within this design. Looking closely, you can observe triangles, rectangles, trapezium, hexagon, rhombus. At first, you don't notice all the shapes created within this design, however, that's exactly what makes it interesting. 

I am definitely very interested in creating something similar to this. My initial ideas were very simple yet effective. However, in my development stage, I definitely want to experiment more with shapes and designs.

Stacking cabinets 

Unlike the other designs I looked at, this has a simpler approach. There are not many shapes created to maintain a minimalistic approach. There are several squares seen throughout. Wright carved out the cabinet to create square patterns. I find that detail unique as it makes it more intricate. I would picture this to exist in a older, more classic house like a grandparents house. I would not picture such piece of furniture to be placed inside a student accommodation. They rich wooden colour makes it look very expensive and high end which might not match with many room aesthetics. I could potentially explore different finishes and see which one suits it the most.

However, I like the simple pattern on the cabinet and I could explore some patterns in my own designs. I could relate my patterns with one of the three themes I decided to explore in more depth (royalty/ literature/ magic) in order to create a deeper meaning behind my designs.

I benefited a lot from this research as I came up with many ideas that I could potentially explore in the future. I will continue blogging other artists in the following blogs. 

References: 

Kaufmann, E. (2020) Frank Lloyd Wright. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frank-Lloyd-Wright  [Accessed: 11/02/21]