Making it Real
The form of building you design
will depend on how you think it
should touch the ground.
Will your building touch the ground
lightly?
Will your building honour the
ground on which it is built?
The Houses of Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was a Midwesterner (whose family had emigrated from Wales); he was
familiar with the flatlands of the Great Plains.
Given the word, flatland, how do you think his houses looked?
Wright's houses are known for being long, horizontal, and often one story tall -- in other words,
fairly flat. They are called "prairie" houses, after the flat expanses of land between the
Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.
Which approach works for You?
• You need to decide which approach you
identify most closely with and consider
which you believe is the most sustainable?
–The building that touches the ground as lightly
as possible
–The building that honours the ground it sits
upon and ‘begins on the ground not in it’.
What if neither approach appeals to
you?
• Sketch and/or mind map alternative ideas
that occur to you and only when you have
some original ideas noted down do some
research into sustainable building
techniques and the work of
original/creative designers and their
thinking in this area.
This is called Edge House and it appears to be a simple
idea. It looks as though it has been folded rather like a
piece of card.
The Famous Writing Hut
of George Bernard Shaw.
It was built on a turn table
so he could turn it as the sun
moved and always keep the sun
on the front of the hut.