So, I clicked on the Wired link, and got their ‘shame on you for running an ad blocker’ message. So I whitelisted them, as they asked, and reloaded the page. And got their ‘shame on you for running an ad blocker’ message. So, they’re blacklisted again, which really doesn’t matter, since I won’t be going back.
Oh, so why am I posting here, instead of at Wired? Because I couldn’t get past their ‘shame on you for running an ad blocker’ mesage to find the contact page and I really, really needed to vent.
Funny thing is, the designer, Alex Jordan Jr, never even met Frank Lloyd Wright. He was completely self-taught. He was a rich kid whose dad gave him the land, and he hired people to help him build his house, which got bigger and weirder and stranger as it went. The story goes that when people would stop by and ask to look inside, he’d flip them off or tell them to take a hike – he was a very eccentric solitary guy. But one day he said “sure, you can look inside… for a dollar,” and was surprised when the people paid up. So he decided to make it a tourist attraction and started adding on all the museum wings. He saw himself as a sort of new-age Walt Disney and designed (aka. commissioned) his automaton rooms and the huge carousel. Fun fact: the house has no bedroom, because Alex Jordan Jr. would just crash on one of the many couches around the home.
Sooooo…back in the day, the tour guide souvenir book was pretty inexpensive, so I bought one. And I read it. Everything except for ‘won birth lottery’ is in it. Disciple doesn’t necessarily = student FLW personally instructed.
I promise i wasn’t trying to mansplain the House on the Rock to you. I was just mentioning some wacky facts about the place, because I think it’s fascinating.
OK. That’s fair. It’s a reasonably obscure place to non-cheeseheads. I will put in a vote for a simple drive around Spring Green. In the spring. It’s super lush and quite pretty. Also, Devil’s Lake, not far away is a lake next to a drummond, pretty rare. And then just keep going north to The Dells, because everyone needs to see that place to believe it’s real.
Being from Massachusetts (and Ohio before that) I’d never heard of the House until my boyfriend remembered visiting as a kid and decided on a road trip to show me the place. We drove up via Chicago and did the House and the Dells in one exhausting and stunning day.
All the Utopian architecture styles have some stunning features, which are sadly usually outweighed by the craptastic ones. To me, the most interesting idea is that many are designed to be built by non-architects. Trouble is getting that past local zoning and permitting committees; I tried to get approval for enclosing a back porch, and was laughed out of the room.
oh yeah. I just meant that this was the thread full of flowing, curvilinear buildings and that’s what she built. huge coincidence she would be in the news (and for passing) on the same day as the OP was noteworthy is all.
Never ever hire an award winning architect. Find a building its users love. Then track down its architect and hire that unknown nobody. Or just knock off that building.
We need machining and electronics (and other) design decentralized and democratized enough that the patent system designed for corporate behemots will not be in the way anymore. Too many of too broke targets. When the adversary has a big gun, don’t send an elephant, send lots and lots of ants.
Such “architects” should be publicly hanged on their abomination and then left there as a warning for others.
…and those bureaucrats should be disposed of as well.
My first exposure to Zaha Hadid was when I was living in Cincinnati; her first-ever American building was the Contemporary Arts Center, built in 2003. It’s in many ways the opposite of the kind of building she became known for: it’s a jagged, chunky, Brutalist block that does anything but flow.
I’m told that one needs to be very careful building underground homes. just building to make it structural is not the only concern since any radon will fill the space and prematurely kill your whole family if you don’t do extensive checks and adequately vent it. radon can be a problem aboveground, too, but far less concentrated than inground.
During the opening ceremony for the building, the elder statesman of architecture, Philip Johnson, was the guest of honor. With Peter Eisenman behind him, he spoke about how this was a unique building, about how his friend Frank Lloyd Wright would appreciate its audacity, etc. Eisenman grinned hugely behind him. And then Philip Johnson said, “I encourage the staff and students to make good use of this building, and do it fast, because the whole fuckin’ thing’s made out of drywall and it’s gonna fall apart in five years. Good day,” and he waved and left. The crowd went nuts as Peter Eisenman turned cherry red.
I can’t help but notice that most of these ‘Utopian architectures’ are basically big versions of one single idea.
I’m not sure that makes sense conceptually. I’d see ‘Utopian architecture’ as something that offers up all kinds of completely different options and embraces our diversity while still offering (at a minimum) the standards of living and convenience of our best non-Utopian societies.
Is there a community that consists of tiny homes as well as other homes for other types of people (lots of us are cool with apartments) that has all the access, utilities, and tech but also has a social community bridging them in some way along with some self-governance?
Because otherwise they’re just tiny houses for individual people.
