FYI: The First Order has temporarily relocated HQ to Kharkiv, Ukraine.
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FLW homes tend to leak as much as English cars.
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I’ll have to re-watch the doco, but a big standout for leaks was the Johnson Wax main office building in Wisconsin. Leaks galore.
Then there was his taking credit (in his early years) for buildings he did not design, that to enhance his resume. An imaginative designer, but not a good engineer. Definitely a dick.
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All the charm of an automobile showroom.
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On the tour at Fallingwater the tour guide said that the contractor didn’t trust Wright’s calculations and so used more concrete than was called for, making the terrace too heavy and that’s where the stress cracks came from. Whether that’s true or not I can’t say.
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I like FLWs architectural design aesthetic, but I’ve never encountered any furniture of his that was actually comfortable.
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Mine was the University of Illinois in Chicago. The only thing significant I remember about the time I spent there was the brutalist architecture. I loved it, and now it’s mostly non-existent compared to what it was. The concrete elevated pathways are gone, the Circle Forum is gone, and many of the buildings have been skinned with generic facades. The campus has completely lost its character. https://uicarchives.library.uic.edu/historic-netsch-campus/
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FLW’s structures all had the same sets of issues- leaks, cracking walls, mold, etc, from thinking too much like a designer and never stooping to talk to an engineer or a contractor. Marin County Civic Center battles roof leaks constantly because the design depends entirely on a thin rubber membrane to waterproof it (which the sun attacks constantly). Falling Water has constant rot and mold issues. The windows of the LLoyd-Jones house leak like crazy. The list goes on. Wright never seemed bothered by any of this. You were expected to suffer for his art.
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Wow that is stunning!
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Supermarket boxes don’t look any better when they are chalked white or have an aluminium plank facade that makes them look like they were build out of containers.
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Yeah, you just have to look elsewhere in the world where Wright isn’t viewed as a god of architecture to see that. Japan’s Wright-designed 1923 version of Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel survived WWII only to be knocked down in 1968 and replaced with a rather generic hotel tower. It was just not in good shape and unlike in the West there wasn’t the huge outcry tearing down a FLW building would ensue.
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The UIC campus brutalist architecture made for some nice backdrops in the movie “Stranger than Fiction”
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Can confirm on both counts. I have visited FLW homes and also own an MGB.
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Brutalist buildings have a forlorn grandeur. Their simple shapes and aged concrete feel like the remains of a rich temple looted by Vandals years ago. They often beckon you in with large openings and open suddenly to hidden courtyards, stairs, and surprise spaces luring you deeper into their oppressive magnitude.
In Video Games they should always be rendered with uncomfortable close fog distance to simulate the perfect pairing of surprise, eeriness, and oppression.
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Well, I guess I’ll be the lone voice saying I like the look of it and don’t see it as unlivable. Rugs and tapestries would do to warm up the larger spaces.
Looking at the drawings it appears the lower level has a bar on one end and a mini-hotel on the other. So you can throw epic parties where nobody has to drive home drunk or you can operate a B&B or mini-resort.
Down side of this kind of construction is that if you need to do plumbing or electrical repairs, changes or upgrades then you have a tough time of it. Kind of like having to do heating work on an Eichler.
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Actually, one of the deals about Bauhaus was the guideline that form follows function. Not many Brutalist buildings are very comfortable, either to look at or work in.
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I’ve only been in the theatre complex (to see the revival of The Black Rider) but the Barbican in London is pretty nice.
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Good choice. I’d cite that as one of a handful of exceptions in terms of pleasing aesthetics for a brutalist building. The big windows and greenery there more than offset the concrete.
Sure, if you like living in the real-world version of JG Ballard’s High Rise. I’ll pass.
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