ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE IN THE URBAN

ENVIRONMENT
by

BRIAN L. POWELL, B.S.

A THESIS
IN

ARCHITECTURE
Submitted to the Graduate FacuUy
of Texas Tech University in
Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for
the Degree of
MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE

Approved

Accepted

December, 1995
 \ ^ . ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my committee members, Professor Robert Coombs, Dr. Michael

Jones, and Dr. Rumiko Handa, for their patience with me, as well as their imput into my

work. I would like to thank my parents for their insistence that Ifínish,ahhough they

thought I was not hstening. Last I would hke to thank various authors, primarily fíction,

whose writings steered me toward an organic conception of architecture as well as an

appreciation of John Keats.

11
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

LIST OF TABLES v

LIST OF FIGURES vi

CHAPTER

I. INTRODUCTION TO THE THESIS 1

Thesis Statement 1

Description of Thesis 2

II. INTRODUCTION TO ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE 5

III. A SHORT HISTORY OF ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE 19

Introduction 19

European Romantic Movement 19

The Gothic Novel 23

Augustus Welby Pugin (1812-1852) 25

The Gothic Revival 26

John Ruskin (1819-1852) 26

Eugéne Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879) 28

Art Nouveau 30

American Transcendentalism 32

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Johan Wolfgang Goethe 33

Organic Architects 35

111
 Louis H. Sullivan (1856-1924) 35

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) 38

Hugo Háring (1882-1958) 43

Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) 48

IV. ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT 65

V. PROJECT DOCUMENTATION 73

A Central Library for Ellis County, Texas 73

VI. THE PROJECT 82

Introduction 82

Project Statement 82

The Design Approach 82

The Site 83

The Program 84

The Entry 85

The RareBookRoom 86

The Stacks 86

The Music Room and Periodicals 87

Art Gallery 87

Book Processing 87

The Administration 88

The Auditorium 88

Bathrooms 88

iv
 The Formal Expression 89

Structure 90

The Overall View of the Design Factors 91

Description of Ellis County 94

Waxahachie, Texas 94

Historical Description 94

Surrounding Areas 95

Physical Characteristics 95

The Movie Industry 96

Historic District 96

REFERENCES 97

APPENDIX

A.. PROGRAMMING 103

B. WRIGHT'S FROBELIAN EDUCATION 122

 LIST OF TABLES

A. 1 Summary of the Net Square Feet 103

A.2 Statistical Facts About Ellis County 104

A.3 Summary of Required Spaced 105

A.4 Summary of the Reading Room 106

A.5 Summary of the Entry 107

A.6 Sunmiary of the Stacks 108

A.7 Summary of the Music Room 109

A.8 Summary of the Art Room 110

A.9 Summary of the Periodical Room 111

A. 10 Summary of the Rare Book Room 112

A. 11 Summary of the Administration 113

A. 12 Summary of the Projection Room 114

A. 13 Summary of the Book Processing 115

A. 14 Summary of the Rest Rooms 116

A. 15 Sunmiary of the Maintenance Points 117

A. 16 Equipment 118

A.17 Required Foot Candles 119

VI
 LIST OF FIGURES

3.1 Art Nouveau's Use of Iron 57

3.2 Merchants National Bank by Louis H. Sullivan 58

3.3 Falling Water 59

3.4 Plans by Mies van Der Rohe and Hugo Hãring 60

3.5 Farm at Garkau by Hugo Håring 61

3.6 Stockholm Library by Gunnar Asplund 62

3.7 Lecture Hall in the Viipuri Library 63

3.8 Aalto's Office 64

5.1 Plan at Ground Level 74

5.2 Plan at the Second Floor 75

5.3 North Elevation 76

5.4 South Elevation 77

5.5 East Elevation 78

5.6 West Elevation 79

5.7 View from the North East 80

5.8 Interior View 81

6.1 General Design Information 93

A.l CirculationDiagram 121

A.2 Vertical Organization 122

A.3 Site Context 122

Vll
 CHAPTERI

INTRODUCTION TO THE THESIS

Thesis Statement

FoUowers of organic architecture can be divided into two groups, those that have

classical sympathies, and those that have gothic. This is in reference to the origins of

organic architecture in the nineteenth century rivalry betsveen the gothic revival

movement and the neoclassical. Organic architecture grew from the rationalist

philosophies of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Eugené Emmanuel

Viollet-le-Duc and John Ruskin were the primary influences on Frank LLoyd Wright,

who could be called the fírst organic architect. He said that organic form grows its own

structure out of conditions as a plant grows out of the soil.' While most of his writings

about architecture relied on similar metaphors to convey his meaning, his architecture

foUowed a strict logic which is not conveyed in his writing. One particular critic

understood this when he said, "In this sense the laws of organic planning fínd their

continuation and completion in the extemal structure; and the manifold arrangement of

parts, the lively grouping of building masses, are to be viewed as a result of the inner

logic of design, and not as a brilliant showpiece of a deliberately picturesque building."^

This thesis involves an exploration of four approaches to organic architecture. It

became apparent that architects with classical sympathies, such as Alvar Aalto, have had

' Donald Leslie Johnson, Frank Llovd Wright versus America: the 1930's, (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: theMITPress, 1990), 67.

'lbid.
 2
more success in designing within the urban environment than those architects, such as

Frank Lloyd Wright^, who were sympathetic to the relatively "modem" teachings of

Ruskin and Viollet-le-Duc. The term "modem" is used to highlight the historical position

of these two architects, who were seeking to replace Neoclassical architecture with an

architecture that was appropriate to their time. That was one of Wright's goals. Aalto

was able to incorporate many influences into his architecture.

This thesis is based on the following two hypotheses: (1) Despite Wright's antithapy

toward cities, the urban environment is appropriate for organic architecture.^ (2)

Organic architecture both influences and reflects the organic nature of the urban

environment. The written thesis will be informed and supported by the design

exploration of a library for Ellis County, Texas.

Description of Thesis

This thesis is arranged in two parts: the theoretical exploration, and the design

project. This format allows the author to demonstrate his understanding of architecture

in both graphic and written forms. This is necessary because architecture is both a

physical manipulation of spatial environments and an abstract intellectual exercise. A

building is quite literally a permanent part of the lives of people, and it becomes

important for the architect to recognize both the basic needs as well as the higher needs

of people. Basic needs can be met by simply erecting the most convenient stmcture and

^ Mark Alden Branch, "Organic Architecture: A Breed Apart." Progressive

Architecture, June 1992, 68.

'lbid.
fumishing it with what is at hand. The architect is also concemed with higher needs,

usually addressing issues of beauty. As the actual art is nonverbal, careftil graphic

representation of the building is necessary as the most economical means for exploring

architectural hypothesis.^ The written part of this thesis concems the clarifícation of the

concepts that drive design decisions.

The theoretical exploration includes a review of the works and design methods of

Louis H. Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Alvar Aalto, and Hugo Håring, and the major

influences on their careers. Each architect has a different approach to organic form and

philosophy. Some built in urban environments and others did not. This review will

reveal the influences that either hindered or helped the creation of organic form within

the urban environment.

The author's design exploration is situated in a small scale urban environment. The

vehicle is a library for Ellis County, Texas. The site is in Waxahachie, Texas, a small

city southeast of Dallas. It is thirty-fíve minutes by automobile and forty-fíve minutes

from Fort Worth.^ The majority of the urban buildings in Waxahachie were built before

the tum of the century. The city has been slowly growing over the past few years, due in

^ An actual building is the ideal medium for any architectural exploration. This was an
attitude adopted by Mies van Der Rohe who believed that architecture began with the
materials of a building not a piece of paper. Although Mies does not fall under the
umbrella of organic architecture, he was also heavily influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Peter Blake, The Master Builders: Le Corbusier, Mies van Der Rohe, Frank Llovd
Wright, (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc, 1976), 169-195.

^Time is based on the use of Interstate Highway 35, at 55 m.p.h. Commuters from
Waxahachie to Dallas and Ft. Worth will be more concemed with how long it wili take to
arrive at their destinations. The range of human travel has been extended so much that
time has become a more relevant measure of distance than miles.
part to the people commuting to the larger metropolitan areas to work. Waxahachie

appeals to many people as a place to live. A large number of the population are retirees,

who are very active both in civic and private forums. There is one small accredited four

year coUege in the town, the South Westem Assembly of God College. Waxahachie has

attracted several medium sized industrial plants and still has a broad agricultural

industry. This site is chosen because it is an example of penturbia, which is the new

direction of urban development in the United States.'

^ Jack Lessinger, Ph.D., Penturbia (Seattle, Washington; SocioEconomics, Inc, 1990),

1.
 CHAPTERfl

INTRODUCTION TO ORGANIC

ARCHITECTURE

"Organic form grows its own structure out of conditions as a plant grows out of the

îoil."* This statement is a metaphor that Frank Lloyd Wright used to defíne organic

irchitecture.^ This is a process of design that develops a unique building from its initial

:haracter and its site using organic form to create an effect on the user of the building.

3rganic forms are not imitated from nature; but the organic architect does emulate the

latural processes of growth and erosion that create organic form. Examples of these

Drocesses include, geological erosion, geological accretion, plant and animal growth.

fhey are known through direct observation by the architect, or through examining the

îbservations of scientists. If a building has been designed from the inside out, it is

îrganic'^ The architect has emulated the evolutionary responses of organic entities to

heir environment.'' Organic form follows logically from the design and avoids

íecoming merely an exercise in picturesque building.

The term "initial character" refers to the program of a building and to the materials

;hosen. Wright, Aalto, and Hâring gave an equal emphasis to both in their work.'^ These

^Donald Leslie Johnson, Frank Llovd Wright versus America: the 1930's. (Cambridge,
Vlassachusetts: theMITPress, 1990), 67.

'lbid.

'^Branch, "A Breed Apart."

'' Geological phenomenon have been included under the term organic based on the
îxplorations of Alvar Aalto and Reima Pietillã, both of whom have used a large amount
)f geological imagery in their work.
 6
architects are connected to the Functionalist movement as participants or in Wright's case

foremnner. This connection suggests that the requirements of a building contain at least

a part the character of a building. If possible, materials were often decided on before a

form was given to the building, weaving their characteristics into the early stages of

design.'^ Wright was especially fond of doing this.

This has an important implication for the use of materials. An organic architecture

develops form in a way that is analogous to biological growth,"* requiring the architect to

design a building from the specifíc requirements of both the program and the site.'^ In

fact, an organic architect wiU state that a building is grown out of the site.'^ This is a

very literal description of the design process of organic architecture.'^ The organic

architect takes the environmental stimulants of the site and adapts the basic aspects of the

building accordingly, while respecting the nature of the materials that are chosen. The

materials play the role of genetic pattems in the building by suggesting a possible range

of responses to the site. Different materials have distinct properties in terms of both

visuai appearance and constmction methods. Masonry, wood, steel and concrete follow

•'Chapter III, pp 37-55.

•'lbid.

"* Stanley Abercrombie, Architecture as Art: An Esthetic Analvsis, (New York: Van
Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1984), 102.

•'Branch, "A Breed Apart."

'^ A building is grown from the site as opposed to being fítted to the site. Ibid.

'^ Ibid. This is very similar to statements made by Frank Lloyd Wright about how he
designed a building.
 7
different structural logic and serve as a basic patlem for ihe development of form in

much the same way that DN A. cames the pattem for bioiogical development. This issue

has become confused by twentieth century technology in which brick can be hung on

steel frames that usurps the bricks structural properties. The author speculates that such

stmctures are hybrids and follow their own stmctural logic; they form an interesting

direction in which to develop organic architecture. In organic architecture form will

always demonstrate the characteristics of the materials used.'*

Organic architecture is a product over time of a certain cultural orientation to

nature. '^ Three general orientations presented in Culture and Environment by Irwin

Altman and Martin Chemers quoting anthropologist Florence Kluckhohn (1953) are:
(1) people as subjugated to nature, living at the mercy of a powerful and uncom-
promising nature; (2) people as over nature, dominating, exploiting, and control-
ling the environment; and (3) people as an inherent part of nature, like animals,
trees, andrivers,trying to live in harmony with the environment.^^

These three orientations were presented as a range of values rather than a comprehensive

list. "Most cultures, especially technologically complex ones, are apt to have elements of

all three perspectives embedded in their value systems, and so what we have presented

should be taken as a highlighting of altemative perspectives, not a categorical

classifícation system."^* The first orientation, people as subjugated to nature, is

'^Malcolm QuantriU, Alvar Aalto: A Critical Studv, (New York: New Amsterdam
Books, 1983), 1.

'^lrwin Altman and Martin Chemers, Culture and Environment, (Monterey, Califomia:
Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, 1980), 15.

^^lbid.

2' Ibid., 24.

 8
predominant in cultures located in harsh climates such as found in deserts. Organic

architecture is not an expression of a people that are subjugated to nature. Advanced

technology, such as HVAC systems, reduce the influence of this orientation. The second

orientation, people as above nature, has been the predominant orientation in westem

cultures for the past two hundred years and results from 2,000 years of Judeo-Christian

development and 200 years of the scientifíc/industrial revolution.^^ This orientation

holds the view that" humans are separate from nature, are superior to it, and have a right

and even a responsibility to control, subjugate, and bend the environment in accordance

with human needs."^^ The third orientation, people as a part of nature, is predominant

among oriental cultures. It is entirely possible that Wright and Sullivan were indirectly

influenced by an oriental conception of the unity of man and nature; however, this

influence would have come through American Transcendentalism, a philosophy that

jrew out of the view that people are above nature.

Organic architecture is an expression of a people who believe that it is theirrightto

xploit nature. Two things can be inferredfromthis statement; one, the exploitation is

Dwards a specifíc goal; and, two, that the goal is for the benefít of people. The primary

oal of organic architecture is to better the human condition through a pedagogical

genda or through physical comfort and health.^'*

''Ibid.,24.

''lbid., 18.

^"^ Wright and SuIIivan emphasized the pedagogical approach to organic architecture,
hile Aalto and Hãring emphasized a physical approach to organic architecture. For a
tailed discussion see pp., 34-43.
 One of organic architecture's origins was in American Transcendentalism, a

philosophy that began in the nineteenth century.^^ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David

Thoreau, and Walt Whitman were the main fígures in this philosophical movement.^^

They believed that Man had become estranged from Nature, and that the role of the artist

was to unite both into a natural union.^^ The poem, "When the Full Grown Poet Came,"

illustrates this point.

When the full grown poet came,
Out spake pleased Nature (the round impassive globe, with
all its shows of day and night,) saying, He is mine,
But out spake too the soul of man, proud, jealous and
unreconciled, Nay, he is mine alone;
Then theftill-grownpoet stood between the two, and
took each by the hand;
And today and ever so stands, as blender, uniter, tightly
holding hands,
Which he will never release until he reconciles the two,
And wholly and joyously blends them.^*

Art must come from this blending of man and nature, for it is in nature only that tmth and

beauty are found.^^ Man and Nature have powers of creation, and, as suggested in this

^^ Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis H. Sullivan were both heavily influenced by this
philosophy. For a detailed discussion see p. 37.

26
For a detailed discussion see p. 32.

^^ The author is not sure what the phrase "natural union" meant to the transcendentalists
of the nineteenth centur>'. A general reading of Krishan Kumar's book, Utopia and
Anti-Utopia in Modem Times, suggests that in the transcendentalist's view nature needed
man to be complete as a descendant of the biblical Garden of Eden. The author has
included this footnote in order to recognize that the religions of the US. have played a
role in the development of organic architecture. There is enough material for a second
thesis.

^* Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass: The 1892 Edition. (New York; Bantam Books,
1983), 435.

^^This is traceable to Rousseau's attitude toward nature as the source of all tmth and
beauty. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, (ii,59) Quoted by Ronald Gnmsley in The
 10
poem, the poet is a creature of both. One interpretation ís that the poet has undertaken

the task of reconciliation of man and nature through the merging of science and art.

Emerson believed that science and art were both explorations of different aspects of

nature which would one day merge.^°

American Transcendentalism was a mystically based philosophy, with the

assumption that Tmth is found by introspection rather than by cataloguing measurable

data.^' The Transcendentalists believed that it is possible that knowledge is found within

Man through his intuition and confírmed by empirical means. American

Transcendentalist philosophy believes that great men have a generic quality that is

transferred through the teaching process, which causes the ordinary man to achieve

greatness.^^ The Transcendentalist's regarded architecture primanly as a teaching

device, as they did with all of the arts.^^

Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis H. Sullivan considered themselves to be great men.

Wright considered his work to instmct the user and others in a more natural lifestyle.

Narciso Menocal of Sullivan : "The chieffiinctionof architecture would be to express

Philosophv of Rousseau (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973), 122.

^° Gustaf Van Cromphout, Emerson's Modemity And The Example of Goethe

(Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1990), 25.

^' Nathaniel Kaplan and Thomas Katsaros, Origins of American Transcendentalism: In

Philosophv and Mvsticism (New Haven, Connecticut: CoIIege and University Press,
1975), 19.

''Ibid.,334.

" Narciso Menocal, Architecture as Nature: The Transcendentalist Idea of Louis

Sullivan, (Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1981), 16.
 11

philosophical concepts related only to what he [Sullivan] considered to be the highesl

tmths of nature."^'* Both of these architects valued the artistic qualities of a building over

its practical qualities though this does not mean that they ignored practical concems.

SuUivan's theories were almost exclusively centered on the decorative aspects of

architecture, ignoring, in his theoretical discussions, what he consídered to be the craft of

architecture. The craft of architecture refers to the constmction and also to what is known

as programming. Sullivan was quite capable of handling the craft of architecture, as

noted by Dennis Allen Anderson and Jeffrey Karl Ochsner in "Adler and SuIIivan's

Seattle Opera House Project."^^ For Wright and Sullivan, the use of organic forms were

attempts to instmct people in a more natural way of life. In the works of these architects,

the message was benefícial to people through physical manifestations.^^

Deism, an earlier philosophy that heavily influenced the early United States Republic,

was precursor to American Transcendentalism. Although Deism was actually a theology,

it was important because it presented an empirical basis for studying nature. Deism held

34
Ibid., 16.

^^ This does not mean that Sullivan was only a decorator. His work in the Seattle Opera
House indicates a mastery of the craft as well. It was only in Sullivan's expression that
the craft was regulated to framework. Dennis Allen Anderson and Jeffrey Kari Ochsner,
"Adler and Sullivan's Seattle Opera House Project," Societv of Architectural Historians
JoumaU XLVffl, (September 1989): 223-231.

^^For a detailed discussion see p. 37.

 12
the belief that God created the universe according to certain unbreakable laws and does

not physically intertere in this worid through mystical means.^^ This was the essence of

Deism, a theology and philosophy of the Enlightenment.^*

The Deistic metaphor of the clockwork universe represents a particular view of

cosmic order, one held by Sir Isaac Newton, John Bacon and John Locke.^^ They

visualized the universe as running like a perfect machine according to unbreakable laws,

which at that time was embodied in the mechanical clock. These laws could be found

only by a rational study of nature, an imperative study, for that was the only way to know

God.^° Deism in its purest state rejected any knowledge that was divinely inspired or

acquired in any fashion other than through a rational empiricism. The religious makeup

of the colonies in the United States was, at that time, was predominantly Calvinist.

Divine revelation was a comerstone of Calvinism, which placed this Protestant

movement at odds with pure Deism. Certain philosophers tried to reconcile the two

different theologies, notably the Scottish commonsense philosophers"*' who believed that

^^This theology denies the existence of any source of mystical knowledge such as
divine inspiration, messages from angels, and genius. Kerry S. Walters, Rational
Infídels: The American Deists, (Durango, Colorado: Longwood Academic, 1992), 7.

^* Theology and philosophy at this point in time were essentially the same thing. In
fact, the separation of church and state was not widely practiccd until the late cighteenth
century. Ibid., 7.

•'^ This is a metaphor that is commonly attributed to Sir Isaac Newton. Walters, Rational
Infídels: The American Deists, 16.

40
Ibid.
41Kerry S. Walters, The American Deists: Voices of Reason and Dissent in the Eariv
Republic (Lawrence, Kansas: University Pressof Kansas,I992), 14.
 13
the mind possessed certain self evident intuitive facultíes by which knowiedge could be

appraised.^^ They had more impact on Deism in the United States than Locke or Newton

because their work was more acceptable to the colonist's religious sensibilities.^^

Because of these religious sensibilities, the United States was not as heavily influenced

by a materialistic empiricism as Europe.

In Europe, Deism led to a purely materialistic empiricism. The Modemist Movement

of the early 1920s was grounded in this through the teachings of Eugene Emmanuel

ViolIet-le-Duc There was a search for the natural laws that govemed architecture."" Of

course, this is a generalized statement. The Modemist Movement included a wide

spectrum of philosophies; however, "the machine universe" became the dominant

metaphor, which is similar to the clockwork universe. There were only a small number

of modem architects who saw the laws in terms of an organism rather than a machine.

Wright brought the idea of an organic architecture to Europe."^ Aalto and Hãring

used organic forms as an altemative to the vogue for industrialized forms of the

Modemist Movement. Aalto and Háring were empiricists, and both claimed to be

Functionalists. Any appeal to artistic sensibility had to have a quantifíable purpose. This

led to a curious duality in the works of Aalto who would deny any artistic intent in his

42
Ibid., 16.

"^^ The works of Bacon, Newton and Locke challenged the tenets of Calvinism too much
for the majority of the colonists. They were scomed by most of the American clergy.
Ibid., 15.

''^Peter Blundel Jones, "Hugo Håring," Architectural Review, vl71 (June 1982): 40-47.

''ChapterIII,43.
 14
architecture. His work employed iconographic imagery and other references that appeals

to the artistic sensibilities of people. He did not claim any artistic intent; however, Aalto

did not object to people seeing artistic merit in his work. The artistic touch in his work

met the psychological needs of the users of his buildings.

A quantifíable human need drove this version of organic architecture. Both Hugo

Hãring and Alvar Aalto were rationalists who based their organic form on quantifíable

phenomena. For Håring there was nothing as important as the physical requirements of a

building.'*^ Aalto had a humanistic stance, tempered by a concem for the psychological

function of architecture. In both cases the architects took an empirical approach to form.

Psychology allowed Aalto and Hâring to justify historical references, metaphor, and other

artistic elements as quantifiable architectural qualities.

Organic architecture was practiced in Europe during the late 1920s; however, it was

not a major part of the Modemist Movement. Organic architecture was closely related

to Functionalism, and was especially influenced by Moholy-Nagy and Hugo Hâring.'*'

There are three major concepts in the Modemist Movement that were rejected by organic

architecture. The fírst is the machine model of universal order, which is a version of the

^Jones, "HugoHãring."

^' See Chapter III, p. 54.

 15
;nlightenment's clockwork universe. It was rejected in favor of a biological model. The

cond is the emphasis placed on mass society over the individual. The third is the

xclusively physical defínition of function espoused by Hannes Meyers."^^

The universe is visualized as an evolving organism by the organic architect, which

s an effect on how order is viewed. Westem architecture has traditionally associated

uclidean geometry with order, especially demonstrated in the gothic cathedrals of the

liddle Ages. It is tempting to suggest that organic architecture is a total break from the

isociation of order and geometry. Such an assumption would be inaccurate, however.

jllivan and Wright created geometric modules to represent growth tempered by Man's

uch."*^ Hugo Hâring used Euclidean geometry only when constmction costs restrained

m, although he was fully aware of the philosophical implications of Euclidean

anning.^^ Aalto combined orthogonal grids with intuitive organic forms in a deliberate

ssolving of the grid. Pure geometry was not a part of these architects' work, and

atonic volumes were never the ultimate forms of a building. In organic architecture,

ometric forms, such as plan and volume, are associated with human constmction, and

^ f y the relationship of man and nature in a particular work. For example, Wright's

ict control of the geometric module can be interpreted as placing people into the role

* Hannes Meyers proposed that there was no art in architecture and that all
;hitectural problems could be solved by inductive reasoning. He was the polar
posite of Hugo Hãring. Peter Blundel Jones, "Hugo Håring," Architectural Review.
82, V. 171 no. 1022,40-47.

' Wright used a geometric description of crystalline growth. See Appendix A.

^ Jones, "Hugo Hãring."

 16
of caretaker, while Aalto's casual attitude towards geometry can be interpreted as a

comment on how to cooperate with nature.

Organic architects produce a great deal of individualized work. Sullivan, Wright,

Hãring, and Aalto are not connected by the appearance of their buildings, other than

organic imagery. The approaches of these architects toward design are similar Rather

than classiíy their works by a catalogue of building parts, the approaches to organic

architecture need to be classifíed. In this study, the selection is limited to Wright,

Sullivan, Hãring and Aalto, though there is no obvious formal pattem in their works. If

the personal attitudes toward the designs of Sullivan, Wright, Hâring and Aalto are used

to classify organic architects then a pattem emerges.^' There exists in organic

architecture two groups of attitudes, empirical and intuitive.

The empirical attitude came from Goethe and VioUet-Ie-Duc, both of whom

advocated an empirical approach to art. Goethe believed that art and science were one

and the same exploration of nature, making the assumption that Tmth can be found in the

measurable qualities of nature either through science or art. In this version of organic

architecture it is required that there be quantifíable reason for the use of form. For

example, Aalto used psychology as a justifícation for much of his organic form. Håring

used the physical fimction almost exclusively. Aalto and Hâring have replaced the

mysticism of Sullivan and Wright with psychology. According to the empirical attitude,

the primary purpose of the architect's work was its use in everyday life. AII decisions

conceming its design had to be informed by empirical knowledge.

^'Branch, Mark Alden, "Organic Architecture: A Breed Apart," Progressive

Architecture, June 1992, 70.
 17
On the other hand, an intuitive based organic architecture assumes that ceríain ideas

are inherent in all people and the presence of those ideas can be confírmed by empirical

research. The architecture of both Wright and Sullivan was intended to inform society,

and the promotion of architectural ideas of more importance to them than the physical

comfort of their building. Organic form was justifíed on the basis of the pedagogical

ambitions to teach people to live in harmony with nature, as long as nature was subject to

people.

These are the two different approaches to organic architecture. Their difference lies

in the justification that architects use in order to meaningfully employ organic form. In

both cases, the architects conclude organic models for architectural form are more

benefícial for people than Euclidean or machine models. The organic model for form

must not be taken too literally when the underlying principles are used to create

architectural form. Architectural form should never be predetermined. When Aalto tried

to create building types the attempt was highly modifíed by circumstances, such as

program, cost and site. Architectural form is always affected by its environment. This

includes context, though the typical defínition is usually too limiting for the organic

architect. Context, a literary term, often implies that the historical and iconographic

makeup of the area are more important than the actual physical location. As organic

architecture is very site specifíc the use of the word "context" becomes a distraction. The

term "environment" is more correct. In both cases, architectural form affects the soul and

mind. In both cases harmony with nature is the ultimate goal.

 18
Organic design is a romantic approach to architecture. Even in the works of the

rationalists there exists attempts at communicating through the intuition. Aalto referred

to this as meeting the psychological needs of people. Invariably, this attempt is

misunderstood as mere expressionistic tendencies of the architect, though the author is

not sure if this is an entirely incorrect assumption. However, there is a difference

between an expressionistic architect and an organic architect. The organic architect

builds more often because the need of the presence of an actual environment is a vital

part of his work. The expressionist does not build much because the ideas of the

expressionist can exist independently of site.

 CHAPTER III

A SHORT HISTORY OF ORGANIC

ARCHITECTURE

Introduction

Organic architecture was a product of the Industrial Revolution. It was a response to

the conditions found in these industrialized cultures; but, it was not a rejection of

industrialization. Frank Lloyd Wright stated: "The machine is an engine of emancipation

or enslavement, according to the human direction and control given it, for it is unable to

control itself"" Organic architccture is conccmed with the diiection of progress. This

concem is first seen in the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and is not an original

thought of organic architects. This chapter discusses the major influences in the

development of organic architecture and demonstrates its place in the history of twentieth

century architecture.

European Romantic Movement

The European Romantic movement occurred between 1760 and 1820, a time of

major historic changes in the European cultures. The materialistic philosophy of Deism

was beginning to take hold of intellectual circles in Europe. Deism was technically a

theology, but during that penod of history there was very little difference between

philosophy and theology in the Westem Worid. As Adam Smith published The Wealth

^^ A quote from an article by Frank Lloyd Wright. Frederick Gutheim, ed. In the
Cause of Architecture Frank Llovd Wright: Wright's Histonc Essavs for Architcctural
Recofd 1908-1952, (New York; Architectural Record Books, 1987), 131.
19
 20
ofNations, the French revolution began, followed by the American Revolutíon. The

philosopher Goethe was active in Germany, Darwin was beginning to develop his theory

of evolution, the Industrial Revolution was expanding, and the authority of classicism

was being challenged." The latter was not exclusively an architectural phenomenon, but

occurred in literature, in paintings, and in music, which suggests that there was a general

shift in the thinking of the population. The awareness of society as an organism was

beginning to take hold in the eighteenth century.^'* This means that people were no

longer viewing progress as a recapturing of an ideal state but as an evolution toward

perfection or at least a higher existence.

The beginning of this challenge to classical authority began a long time before the

eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It took place in the context of French neoclassicism

approximately a century before the European romantic movement. In the seventeenth

century, Claude Perrault began questioning the traditional view of proportions as laid

down by Vitmvuis.^^ Specifícally, the assumption that musical harmonies applied to

architectural proportions would guarantee beauty was challenged.^^ Joseph Rywert

illustrates the nature of this challenge quoting Descartes writing to Mersenne. Descartes

"The subject of classicism is much more complicated than the author realized at the
beginning of this thesis, and apparently the classical architecture serves as a unifying set
of elements for a large and diverse period of westem history. See Joseph Rywert, The
First Modems: The Architects of the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, Massachusetts:
TheMITPress, 1987).

^ Marilyn Butler, Romantics. Rebels and Reactionaries: English Literature and Its
Background 1760-1830 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), 178.

55 Rywert, The First Modems, 33.

^^ Alberto Pérez-Gômez, Architecture and the Crisis of Modem Sciencc (Cambridge,

Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1983), 31.
 21
said that "...were a dog whipped fíve to six times to the sound of a violin, he would no

doubt howl and run away whenever he heard its music"" This questioning lead Perrault

to conduct an empirical study of the proportions of past masters. The results of this

study suggested that this classical assumption lacked basis, and brought into question the

validity of the classical defínition of beauty.^* Perrault redefíned beauty by

distinguishing between two different types of beauty, the positive and arbitrary.^^

"Positive" can be taken to mean beauty that is native to the building and "arbitrary" can

be taken to mean beauty that is subjective, or that which people have trained themselves

to like. This was the beginning of the Enlightenment, at least in architecture. The

European Romantic Movement, which followed the Enlightenment, was a reaction

against the materialistic dogma of the Enlightenment, although empirical exploration was

never abandoned. There were two general trains of thought in the late nineteenth

century. One assumed that only an empirical study of nature could reveal tmth and the

other assumed that an empirical study of nature would veriíy tmth which could be found

within people.

One will invariably discover the name of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a French

philosopher who lived in the eighteenth centtiry, in anything dealing with the European

Romantic Movement. He was primarily a social philosopher, and his theories on

aesthetics were tied to the development of human morals. In Emile, Rousseau described

his opinion conceming the source of beauty. "The good is only the beautiful in action.

"Rywert, The First Modems, 35.

''lbid.

''Ibid.,36.
 22
that the one is intimately connected with the other and that they both have a common

source in well ordered nature."^^ Unlike his contemporaries, Rousseau was not an

empiricist, although he had the background to be one.^' His philosophy was

introspective. Tmth was found in one's own self rather than measured and quantifíed in

the lab of the scientist.^^ This placed Rousseau in a curious position in the eighteenth

century in that he did not believe that science would provide the answers to everything.

"Rousseau, striking deeper still, maintained that the cult of intellectual progress is

incompatible with man's tme nature, and he feared that it would ultimately desfroy what

is specifícally human in our species."^^

Rousseau was not against progress itself, but against the way in which progress was

being implemented, and specifícally in the large city. "Man, Rousseau thought, was

intended by nature to live in sparsely populated rural societies, not in vast aggregations

where the individual is socialized out of existence."^ Rousseau equated the decay of

moral values with the excessive veneration of science and with the overcrowded

"^ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, (ii, 59) Quoted by Ronald Grimsley in Ihe
Philosophv of Rousseau (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973), 122.

^' He was a chemist before becoming a philosopher. Ibid.

^^ The Tmth as is used here is the order found in nature. Rousseau believed that the
empirical methods of people such as Deirdrot left much out of the order of nature. Such
order, as Rousseau saw it, could be found only by introspection. Mark J. Temmer, Art
and the Influence of Jean-Jacgues Rousseau (Chapel HiU, North Carolina: The
University of North Carolina Press, 1973), 93.

63
Ibid., 3.

^F.C. Green, Rousseau and the ídea of Progress (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1950:
reissued 1978.), 17.
 23
industrial cities." He influenced the American movements known as Unitarianism and

American Transcendentalism which had a profound influence on Louis H. Sullivan and

Frank Lloyd Wright. Jean-Jacques Rousseau's work formed a major part of the basis for

the social stmcture of the United States of America and for the romantic movement in

the nineteenth century.

The Gothic Novel

The literary arts were the primary means of communicating ideas before electronic

communication took its place in the twentieth century. The gothic novel is a part of the

European romantic movement and was a major change in English literature. As a genre

it is very diffîcult to defíne, or at least to fínd an agreement among literary critics and

historians as to the exact defínition of the gothic novel. The gothic novel was developed

as a popular literature in the late 1800s and was designed to appeal to a mass audience.

Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelly in 1818, and Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott in 1820,

are two of the more famous works produced by this genre. Some critics include Mobv

Dick, by Herman Melvile, and The Scariet letter, by Nathaniel Hawthom, as examples of

the artist transcending the gothic style. The gothic novel was very popular among

English speaking nations. As it included many descriptions of gothic architecture it

placed such architecture before the public

The gothic novel was one of the fírst instances of a major shift in the artsfroma

private patronage system of support to a commercial system aimed at generating income

for the author and publishers. This entailed selling a large volume of books to the middle

"Ibid., 13.
 24
class, thus the content had to appeal to a common ground among readers. For more

ideological reasons, the eariy part of the Enlightenment attempted to "reach Everyman

[that is every reader] through universally accessible modes."^ It was not until the

European Romantic Movement that this successfully happened. Around 1820, the time

that the burgeoning printing technology made books accessible to the general public,

literary artists were exploring the use of private descriptions to communicate with the

general public Literature became more infroverted in nature, at the time the written

word was becoming more accessible to the public, especially in England.^^

The gothic novel is an exploration of the interior, or soul, of the subject. At its

lowest level, comparable to the current romance novels, soap operas and horror movies,

the gothic novel appealed to a mass audience through its sentiment or its shock value. At

the highest level, the gothic novel was an exploration of a character's emotional response

to fantastic or supematural events.^* Besides developing a public taste for gothic

architecture through its description of gothic buildings, the gothic novel also cultivated

the public taste for expressiveness. The novel thus served as a reflection of and an

influence on public taste. Art had become a way of looking at the wormy state of

mankind as a whole, rather than a discrete reflection of the aristocracy.

^^Butler. Romantics Rebels and Reactionaries, 182.

'' Ibid.

^* Horace Walpole wrote what some consider to be the fírst gothic novel, The Castle
ofOtranto. Horace Walpole also designed "Strawberry HiII," one of the fírst gothic
revival buildings in England. G.R. Thompson, "Romanticism and the Gothic Tradition,"
G.R. Thompson, ed., The Gothic Imagination: Essavs in Dark Romanticism,
(PuIlman,Washington: Washington State University Press, 1974), 4.
 25
Augustus Welby Pugin (1812-1852)

Augustus Welby Pugin was an architect that designed almost exclusively in an

archaeologically correct gothic style. Pugin was one of the major foremnners of the

gothic revival movement and of the Modem Movement. In Tme Principles Pugin

wrote:
All omament should consist of enrichment of the essential constmction of the
building. In pure architecture the smallest details should have a meaning or
serve a purpose. Constmction should vary with the materials employed. The
extemal and intemal appearance of an edifíce should be illustrative of, and in
accordance with, the purpose for which it is destined.^^

These are the tme principles to which the title refers to, and a basis of the twentieth

century Modem movement and organic architecture. Two other points made in Tme

Principles, although neither were stated as a principle concemed local and national

styles, wherettaditionalforms should be respected because of climate and cultural

conditions and quality must include social values. Pugin was an advocate of the

archeological accurate copying of the thirteenth century gothic style, but he ran into the

problem of archeological reconstmction.^" The influence of Augustus Welby Pugin on

the works of John Ruskin and the gothic revival is exceptional.^^

^^Phoebe Stanton, Pugin (New York: The Viking Press, 1971), 81.

^^This is an interesting subject in itself Archeologists, for the most part, piece
together a past without having all of the necessary information available. Insights into
the past often depend on the background, personality, culture and imagination of the
archeologist. The science is not as random as this sounds, and the interpretation of the
available clues is done through arigorousmethodology. The archeologist will interpret
the clues under the influence of his or her, period of time, which, in the author's opinion,
makes archeology very a valuable subject for architect's to study and understand how
forms relate to people across time.

^' This is said with some irony as the author has ran across several substantial
accounts of Ruskin having plagiarized Pugin, but that is a bit involved for this thesis.
 26
Gothic Revival

The fírst building of the gothic revival was Horace Walpole's house, Sttawberry HiII.

Coincidentally, Walpole was also one of the fírst authors of the gothic novel. The gothic

revival was a conscious attempt to fínd a non-classical foundation for a modem

architecture. A multitude of reasons exists for the rejection of classicism in favor of the

gothic revival.^^ Among them are the rise of nationalism, the introduction of iron and

glass that did not fít into the neoclassical use of materials, the introduction of new

technologies, and the destmctive pace of the industrial revolution. The Gothic Revival

had, at least in England, a strong religious and moral tone set by Augustus Welby Pugin

and John Ruskin, Catholic and Protestant respectively. In France, Eugéne Emmanuel

VioUet-le-Duc, an agnostic, emphasized social considerations over the moral. The

comparison of Ruskin and ViolIet-le-Duc reveal two separate directions of this

movement. John Ruskin hated the direction taken by the modem world, and wanted a

retum to the simpler age idealized by the thirteenth century. VioIIet-le-Duc was a

visionary who believed that the implementation of gothic principles would ease life for

people and should even form the basis for a modem architecture.

JohnRuskin (1819-1900)

John Ruskin built very little architecture, which is ironic considering the amount of

influence he has had over architecture. He was a proponent of the Gothic Revival

^^This was by no means a unanimous event and there was quite a battle of styles
between the eclectics, the neoclassicists and the gothic revivalists. The conflict
continued into the modem movement. Two relevant examples cited in section on Hugo
Hâring is his argument with Le Corbusier and Mies van Der Rohe over form. Jones,
"HugoHåring."
 27
movement in England, a preservationist, and an architectural critic; however, Ruskin did

not have a formal education in architecture, but in the areas of literattire and landscape

painttng. As a result of the latter, John Ruskin developed a sensitivity to the qualities of

color and texture that was unusual in Victorian England,^^ and he valued the expressive

and picturesque qualities of architecture over functional and rational qualities. "...Ruskin

consistently discusses a building as something to be seen rather than to be used."^^ The

poetry of Wordsworth, whose work John Ruskin greatly admired, also reinforced

Ruskin's view of architecture as a part of the landscape.^^ According to Michael W.

Brooks,
[John Ruskin's] architectural education proceeded in fíts and starts, but always
in one direction: from a water colorist's interest in architecture as a subordinate
part of a landscape to his eventual advocacy of building that would eventually
capture the qualities of nature in the curve of their arches and the mass of their
walls.''

Kristine Ottesen Garrisen points out in her book, Ruskin on Architecture. that John

Ruskin had a lack of interest in mass, proportion and especially stmcture.^* This may

have resulted in Ruskin's separation of the craft of building from the art of architecture,

by which he meant the omamentation of key points such as walls, capitals and so forth.

^^ He was a watercolorist. Michael W. Brooks, John Ruskin and Victorian

Architecture, (London: Rutgers University Press, 1987), 1.

'^lbid., 1.

''Ibid.,9.

''Ibid.,4.

77
Ibid.

''^Kristine Ottesen Garrigan, Ruskin on Architecture: His Thought and Influence

(Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1973), 67.
 28
Ruskin preferred an architecture of effects over an architecture of form. Ruskin hated

the direction that the nineteenth centtiry was heading and called sttongly for the use of

handicrafts and traditional materials in architecture, excluding modem materials, such as

iron, from consideration in his theories.

The Arts and Craft movement was a development of the Gothic Revival in England

and was heavily influenced by John Ruskin. It emphasized the craft aspect of

architecture, and discouraged the use of omament. The result was a simple well-built

architecture that respected local custom and materials. In the United States, a similar

development occurred in the Shaker traditions, and as a matter of survival on the frontier.

Eugéne Emmanuel Viollet-Ie-Duc (1814-1879)

Eugéne Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc was one of the most influential theoreticians in

architecture. He was a noted authority on gothic architecture and had a particular

interest in the architecture of the 1300s.^^ As a theoretician, he was a rationalist who saw

that the principles of gothic architecture were more applicable to the nineteenth century

than the classical principles of the Ecole-des-Beaux Arts. It was from the gothic

principles that Viollet-le-Duc formulated a new theory of architecture that addressed

materials such as iron and glass and the programmatic requirements of the new

technologies.*^ He was an advocate of rational design.

^^ VioIIet-le-Duc was one of the fírst restorers of French gothic architecture. Martin
Bressani, "Notes on Viollet-le-Duc's Philosophy of History: Dialectics and Technology,"
The Societv of Architectural Historians Joumal, 48, No. 4, 327-350.

*^ VioIIet-Ie-Duc was also the father of the current preservationist movement, along
with Ruskin. Actually Ruskin was a preservationist and VioUet-Ie-Duc was a restorer of
gothic cathedrals. VioIIet-le-Duc's preservation methodologies have become very
 29
According to Violett-Ie-Duc, there were three points that marked a rational design.

They are fiinction determines form,*' sttnctural honesty,^^ and the guiding concept of

honest simplicity.*^ Viollet-le-Duc's theories had an influence on Frank Lloyd Wright

and Louis H. Sullivan, particulariy the point about subordinating all decoration to the

guiding concept.^ VioUet-Ie-Duc's influence over the Functionalist movement is

undeniable.

Violett-le-Duc's view of history is important, but to discuss this one must touch on

his religious views. He stated, "It is asridiculousto pretend that there is a god as it is

impertinent to maintain that there is not."*^ That is a statement of an agnostic, and as one

he was free to accept evolution as a viable theory of organic development. During the

nineteenth century, religion was still a dominant force in intellectual circles. Of

particular importance to this paper is Violett-Ie-Duc's view of history as an evolutionary

process instead of the biblical view,*^ in which humans were advancing toward

conttoversial in the twentieth century. Bressani, "Notes on Viollet-Ie-Duc's Philosophy

of History: Dialectics and Technology."
81
M. F. Heam, ed., The Architectural Theory of VioIett-le-Duc: Readings and
Commentarv, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
1990), 182.

''lbid., 187.

''lbid., 192.

84
Ibid., 209.

^^ Viollet-le-Duc quoted by Nikolaus Pevsner, Some Architectural Writers of the

Nineteenth Century. (Oxford: ClarendonPress, 1972), 209.

^^Bressani, "Notes on Viollet-Ie-Duc's Philosophy of History: Dialectics and

Technology."
 30
perfection, rather than the biblical view of people's fall from perfection.'' As he viewed

technology as an aspect of this evolutionary process, and it was easy for him to accept

new building technologies and materials, such as iron and glass.

Violett-le-Duc espoused a regional approach to architecture, and admired some

vemacular traditions for their development of rational stmcture based on local materials,

and for their harmony with local climate, topography, and culture.*^ M. F. Heam

comments on Violett-le-Ehic's use of techniques from other times and cultures:

When the form or technique of one tradition fíts the cultural and physical
context of another, it can be appropriated to great advantage-as in the case of
the Romans and vaulting. But in a fully rational procedure, if the borrowed
element works better than a local custom then the custom itself could be
dropped and the philosophy of the local tradition could continue unabated
along another line of formal development.*^

Viollet-le-Duc did not restrict the use of vemacular architecture to a local area. This

becomes an important idea in the work of Alvar Aalto, especially after his trips to Italy.

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau was heavily influenced by the writings of Viollet-Le-Duc, especially in

the effbrt to create a national style.^^ This movement, which lasted approximately from

1895 to 1905, was a theoretical offspring of the British Arts and Crafts movement.^' It

^^lbid.

^^Heam The Architectural Theorv of Violett-le-Duc 184.

''Ibid.,201.

^Kenneth Frampton, Modem Architecture a Critical History, (New York: Oxford

University Press, 1980), 64.

^' Tim Benton, "Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau," ed. Frank Russell, Art Nouveau
Architecture (New York: Rizzoli, 1979), 15.
 31
was an attempt in Europe to create a new "style" of architecture that did not rely on

classical form or theory,^^ but relied on nature and materials for its formal expression. Its

treatment of iron as a sinuous material created an organic effect in its decoration, though

the building organization was classical in most cases.^^ The exception to this was

Antonio Gaudi's work in which organic forms were based on Gaudi's own imagination

and his Catalonian culture, and his exploration of Gothic stmcture. His design

methodology used models almost exclusively, and even in his stmctural calculations he

used wire models with weights to determine the resulting force vectors. Gaudi's

columns, for example, follow the tme direction of vectors. Taking into account Gaudi's

symbolism he was as much a sculptor as he was an architect. He is unique in the history

of architecture.

In Belgium, Victor Horta foUowed the same goal as Gaudi the establishment of a

modem national style. In the Hotel Tâssel, Horta used the iron in a manner that offset the

mass of the stone.^ The iron is stretched in an imitation of plant forms, which

foreshadows the organic practice of "growing" a building. The building itself was

conceived along the rationalist principles of Viollet-Le-Duc, but the lace quality of the

iron is much more than decoration;^^ it anticipates Wright's concept of the nature of

materials by exploiting the tensile nature of steel.

'^lbid.

^^lbid.

^^' The name is misleading to those that speak no Belgium. The English equivalent is
"townhouse." Ibid.

95
Ibid.
 32
Hector Guimard was probably the most outspoken architect of the Art Nouveau

Movement. In his theories, he stressed the need for omament to demonsttate the nature

of the materials used.^ Guimard drew his imageryfromthe fairy tales, and legends of

France. The organic nature of his work was due to his interpretation of the nature of

materials, and not to an imitation of natural forms.^^ This emphasis on the nature of

materials is a part of Art Nouveau theory and it influenced Alvar Aalto through the

teachings of Arimas Lindgren.

American Transcendentalism

In the United States of America, the reaction to Diesm was the American

Transcendentalist Movement. The writers of this movement were extolling the virtues of

nature and reintroducing a legacy of mysticism inheritedfromthe original British

colonists. The divine revelation of Calvinism and the intuitive knowledge of American

Transcendentalism are related approaches to Tmth.

In summary, American transcendentalism is a native philosophy which
borrowed widely from other cultures....At the base of transcendentalism is a
mystical rather than a rational approach to understanding the mysteries of the
universe. As a form of intuitive idealism derived especially from Plato and the
Neo-PIatonists, franscendentalism affîrms an organic growth principle in
opposition to the idea of a world as a perfected mechanism operating through
God's preestablished natural law. Since the source of ultimate knowledge can
be directly known through one's intuition, transcendentalism extoUed ideas
98
over expenence.
^^David Dunster, ed., Architectural Monographs 2, GiIIian Naylor, "Hector
Guimard-Romantic Rationalist?," (New York: Rizzoli Intemational Publications, 1978),
12.
97
Ibid.

^^Nathaniel Kaplan and Thomas Katsaros, Origins of American Transcendentalism: In

Philosophv and Mvsticism (New Haven, Connecticut: CoUege and University Press,
 33
Both Louis H. Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright were influenced heavily by Ralph Waldo

Emerson, David Thoreau and Walt Whitman, the three major fígures in American

Transcendentalism. The American Transcendentalist movement was an offshoot of

European romanticism, but was combined with other philosophies from European,

Hindu, and Buddhist cultures to create a uniquely American philosophy.^ German

philosophies also played a large role in the development of American Transcendentalism,

especially through the mystic philosophers and, most importantly, Johan Wolfgang

Goethe. The American Transcendentalist movement was more heavily grounded in

nature than the European romantic movement, and tried to combine science and poetry

into a single art. While American Transcendentalism was a romantic movement, it did

not look to the historical past as the European romantics looked toward the medieval

period. American Transcendentalism looked at nature, which abounded in the frontier.

As a result, at least among organic architects, technology became neither the savior of the

human race nor the enslaver, but as an extension of Man.

Ralph Waldo Emerson and

Johan Wolfgang Goethe

German philosophy and literature had a heavy influence on the United States from

1820 to 1850.'^ Among the artists and philosophers that Goethe strongly affected, Ralph

Waldo Emerson was the most influential in the development of Transcendentalism and

the artistic development of the nineteenth century. Johan Wolfgang Goethe said that

1975), 19.

^lbid., 19.

'Gustaf
100, Van Cromphout, Emerson's Modemitv and the Examplc of Goethe
(Columbia, Missouri: University ofMissouri Press, 1990), 1.
 34
naUire itself is the "infínite and etemal tmth." Goethe did not view nature as an

absttaction but as a physical reality. He was both a nattiralist and a poet. He sought to

combine both science and poetry.

Emerson was not a naturalist, although he wanted to be one. ^^^ Emerson advocated

a fusion of science and poetry, as Goethe did so before him. Emerson said in his lecture,

"Works and Days,"

We do not listen with the best regard to the verses of a man who is only a poet,
nor to his problems if he is only an algebraist; but, if a man is at once
acquainted with the geometrical foundations of things and with their festal
splendor, his poetry is exact and his arithmetic musical."*"^

Art for Emerson was best if grounded in an empirical reality, the reality of nature. Both

Goethe and Emerson found it impossible to tteat art separately from nature, although

they did not treat art as an imitation of nature in the neoclassical sense.'^^ The artist

should emulate nature by grasping the idea that she was trying to develop, and to

reproduce the formal development of that idea. This was a dynamic process, which was

similar to Darwin's theory of evolution.'^ Goethe was influenced by his years of study in

botany and anatomy, which heavily influenced his aesthetic theories.'^^ Emerson, at least

in his aesthetic theory, followed Goethe's theories.

^°' In 1832, Emerson retired from the ministry and a year later had resolved to become
a naturalist after visiting the Muséum d'Histoire Naturale in Paris. He had experienced a
sttange sympathy with nature. Ibid., 24.

'''Ibid.,25.

'"'lbid., 57-58.

•^The concept of evolution, as laid down by Darwin, is very familiar to the reader, but
very revolutionary at the time it was published in The Origin of Species.

105 Cromphout, Emmerson's Modemitv and the Example of Goethe, 57-58.

 35
Beginning with Sullivan in the United Slates, organic architeclure began ío develop

from the theories of Emerson and the poetry of Walt Whitman. The European continent

was the site of a second line of reasoning which did not have the sfrong influence of

American transcendentalism and its mysticism. European organíc architecture developed

from the empirical philosophies of the Enlightenment.

Organic Architects

Louis H. Sullivan (1856-1924)

The opinion expressed by Narciso G. Menocal in his book, Architecture as Nature,

that Louis H. Sullivan was an omamentalist who favored the adomment of key points in a

building'^^ is worth looking at, if only to clarify the actual nature of SuUivan's work. This

opinion of Menocal has some basis, but the implication that Sullivan was not an

architect, is both unfair and inaccurate.

Common to all his [Louis H. Sullivan] periods was the Ruskinian idea that
architecture consisted exclusively of the articulation of surfaces and the
decoration of key points. Stenciled omamentation; reliefs in plaster, terra
cotta, and cast iron; clusters of organic motifs placed on capitals and other
prominent places, stmctural members attached to facades and becoming
constituents of anthropomorphic programs; and later, tapestry brick and
stained glass-these in his opinion were suffîcient components for achieving his
aesthetic purposes.'^^

This was a common nineteenth-century attitude and was more dependent upon a tradition

of building craft than modem attitudes allow. Menocal devotes most of his book to the

'^NarcisoMenocal, Architecture as Nature: The Transcendentalist Idea of Louis

Sullivan (Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1981), xvii.

107
Ibid., 148.
 36
analysis of the omamentation done by Sullivan, a justifíable approach to understandíng

this architect.

The fírst part of Sullivan's career was as the partner of Dankmar Adler. Adler

was a stmctural, mechanical and acoustical engineer who hired Sullivan because he felt

that his own artistic sensibilities were inadequate to achieve the quality he wanted for his

commissions.''^* SuIIivan was to design facades and omamentation.'^^ The context in

which Sullivan was designing them was in the design of the early skyscrapers, a building

type which still today requires a team of engineers and architects to design. Although

Adler did design much of the technical details, Sullivan was not restricted to facade

design or omamentation.'^^ "Since one of Sullivan's primary interests was to reveal as

transcendentalist as possible a program on the exterior of buildings, his work within the

partnership could not have been better suited to his vocation."'" This is not the attitude

of a mere decorator, but of an architect concemed with the entire building. During the

second part of his career, Sullivan "designed"''^ on his own, which indicates that he was

capable of "designing" as the term is interpreted by Menocal. The actions of Sullivan in

••^'Ibid.,43.

•«^Ibid.

"^Dennis Alan Anderson and Jeffrey Kari Ochsner, "Adler and Sullivan's Seattle
Opera House Project," Joumal of The Societv of Architectural Historians 48 (September
1989)223-231.

111
Ibid.

'^^Designed is used in the modem sense to distinguish his activity from that of the
work he did in the off ce of Dankmar Adler. It is unfair assume that twentieth century
attitudes toward design apply to a nineteenth century practice or that SuUivan was any
less than an architect.
 37
the design of the Seattle Opera House as documented in the Joumal of The Socictv of

Architectural Historians"' indicate that he had a larger role in the design process and

included responsibility for the technical aspects of the design.^"*

David S. Andrew, in his book, Louis Sullivan and the Polemics of Modem

Architecture, recognizes that SuIIivan was an architect, but downplays the role of organic

conceptions in his work preferring, to point out how Sullivan's theories were weak, rather

than how they applied to his works. This in is a disservice to the architect.''^ It raises the

question of what Louis Sullivan actually meant when he said that form follows function.

It is obvious that he did not intend the meaning given later by the Functionalist

movement, more accurately stated thatfimctionand environment determines form.

SuIIivan's interpretation of "form follows function" would be that the needs of the people

involved must be met before the architecture can be involved.^'^

For SuIIivan, architecture was a high art that demonstrated truth or, as Menocal

states, "The chief function of architecture would be to express philosophical concepts

related only to what he considered to be the highestttiithsof nature ""^ Sullivan's work

is organic, but not in the sense that the entire building uses organic stmcture, form or

''^ Anderson and Ochsner, "Adler and SuIIivan's Seattle Opera House Project,"
223-231.
114
Ibid.

•'^David S. Andrew, Louis SuIIivan and the Polemics of Modem Architecture: The
Present Against the Past, (Chicago, Illinois: University of IUinois Press, 1985), 58-74.

''Mbid.

H7 Menocal, Architecture as Nature: The Transcendentalist Idea of Louis SuIIivan .

16.
 38
rhythms. His work does employ an interpretation of Man's relationship to Nature in the

omamentation. (1) Sullivan used a principle of design,-for his omamental elements, in

which he would make organic forms, usually plant like, issue from a system of straight or

curved Iines or any other geometric combination thereof Sullivan considered the

correlation of geometry and the organic to be the basis of nature's way of composition

and thus has a transcendental quality."* Sullivan considered architecture to be a

teaching device from which people could leam how to commune with nature and thus

achieve perfection. To quote Sullivan, "The vital purpose and signifícance of art is that of

attuning its rhythmic song ... to the rhythms of nature as these are interpreted by the

sympathetic soul."" '^

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)

The education of Frank Lloyd Wright as an architect was largely informal. His

experiences with nature on his uncle's farm, Wright's apprenticeship to Lyman Silsbee

and later to Louis Sullivan formed the majority of his architectural education, with a brief

two year tenure in college.'^^ SuUivan's influence on Wright was considerable, as

acknowledged by Wright. Perhaps the most important contribution of SuIIivan to

Wright's architecture is Sullivan's organic theory which Wright applied to his entire

oeuvre. Lyman Silsbee, while not outstandingly brilliant, did introduce Wright to a

"Mbid.,31.

"'lbid., 14.

'^^ Wright spent less than two years at the University of Wisconsin. Peter Blake, The
Master Builders: Le Corbusier. Mics van Der Rohe. Frank Llovd Wright (New York: W.
W. Norton and Company, 1976), 290-294.
 39
picturesque architecture instead of the classical style which dominated in the United

States at the tum of the century. Silsbee practiced in the Shingle Style, which used an

open plan, surfacetteattnent,and the massing and features of the Queen Anne Style.'^'

Wright's eariy education in the Froebel Kindergarten system, however, played an

important role in Wright's work and in his way of visualizing space (Appendix B).

The following is Vincent Scully Jr.'s interpretation of what Frank Lloyd Wright

meant by Organic architecture.

He [Wright] dearly believed that, when a building built by men to serve a
specifícally human purpose not only celebrated that purpose in its visible forms
but became an integrated stmcture as well, it then took on the character of an
organism which existed according to its own complete and balanced
laws....This is what Wright meant by "Organic."'^^

In Frank Lloyd Wright, Scully had discusses how Wright could not accept the separation

of man from nature that is implied in classical architecture.'^^ For Wright nature was the

great teacher whose lessons could only be approached by the architect while the classicist

regarded nature as something to be perfected or tamed.

Wright was heavily influenced by the American Transcendentalist Movement, and

believed that people have a need to harmonize with nature.'^"^ He attempted to

accomplish this through his architecture by the emulation of the natural stmcture of the

site. This resulted in an architecture in which the boundary between the natural site and

'2' Spiro Kostof, A Historv of Architecture: Settings and Rituals, (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1985), 652.

'^' Vincent Scully Jr., Frank Llovd Wright, (New York: George Braziller, Inc, 1960),
13.

''Mbid., 12.

'^''For further discussion, see Appendix B.

 40
the building are conceptually and physically ambiguous. The building becomes a part of

a specifíc site. The attitude of harmonizing with nature is also present in neoclassical

theory, but that expression of architecture has a clear distinction between the natural site

and the building. The neoclassical architect sought to employ universal principles, such

as proportions based on harmonic laws, that would allow architecture to harmonize with

nature on any site. This leads one to assume that perhaps organic architecture differs

from other movements in approach rather than in the goals.

The distinction between organic architecture and the neoclassical architecture of the

nineteenth century is rather involved. The obvious difference is that Wright believed that

architecture was site specifíc and that the building should be a physical part of the site.

This included using proportions, rhythms, locally obtained materials, forms and spatial

composition. Examples include Taliesin East, Taliesin West, and Falling Water. The

neoclassical architect, hypothetically as talented as Wright, would not ignore the site, but

the relationship of the project to the natural site would be very different. A natural

harmony would be achieved through a proportioning system based on harmonics, the

golden section, or some system regarded as universally in harmony with nature and a

variation on Euclidean geometry. The building would be sited according to views,

winds, and would generally respond to the site in a physical manner, but aesthetically the

building would not depend on the site, at least in theory.

Donald Leslie Johnson states the approach of Wright in his book, Frank Lloyd

Wright versus America: the 1930's.

Wright had said that an "organic form grows its own stmcture out of
conditions as a plant grows out of the soil: both unfold similarly." Histonan
and contemporary observer Walter Curt Behrendt elaborated the analogy m
 41
support of Wright's cause: "In this sense the laws of organic planning fínd
their continuation and completion in the extemal stmcture; and the manifold
arraignment of parts, the lively grouping of building masses, are to be viewed
as a result of the inner logic of design, and not as á brilliant showpiece of a
deliberately picturesque building." As for Wright's building, one should "avoid
speaking of'composition' at all, since no less a man as Goethe has condemned
this expression, in nature as well as in art, as degrading."...Goethe had said that
"organs do not compose themselves as already previouslyfínished,they
develop themselves together and out of one another, to an existence which
necessarily takes part in the whole."'^^

In Wright's conception of organic architecture, a building and its site were to be a part of

each other reflecting in the man made stmcture. While Scully's interpretation of Wright

is valid, it does not acknowledge that the integration of a building with nature was one of

the prime objectives of Wright's architecture. Behrendt described the Gale house which

Wright declared was the "progenitor for Falling Water."'^^ "The horizontal slabs boldly

projected, that new motive which has been most imitated in modem buildings: in these

widely overhanging eaves, spreading themselves canopy-Iike over terraces and balconies,

there seems to be plant-like existence translated into architectural form."'^^ The allusions

to natural forms in Wright's buildings are not accidents nor are they imposed by the

observer. Wright integrated the site and building through a geometric emulation of the

rhythms and pattems of surrounding environment,'^^ but Wright's conception of the

geometry was derived from crystallography instead of Euclidean abstraction.'^^

'"Donald Leslie Johnson, Frank Llovd WHfrht versus Amenca: the 1930's (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: the MIT Press, 1990), 67.

•'Mbid.,81,

'^^lbid.
128 .<;riilly, Frank Llovd Wright, 12.

'^^For a detailed discussion, see Appendix B.

 42
Wright was not able to do this successfully in urban settings. Buildings, such as the

Moms Gift Shop, or the Guggenheim, became introverted or amounted to a protest of the

city. Wright shared Jean-Jacques Rousseau's belief that people were not meant to live in

metropolitan areas but in a more mral setting. Broadacre City is a good example of

Wright's view of the ideal situation for living, which is strikingly similar to the modem

suburb. The performance of Wright in the city and his vision of man's social

arrangement has other major influences than Rousseau, Thoreau and the

Transcendentalist Movement.

The United States is historically anti-urban. The reasons for this are numerous, but

the following are among the major ones'^^ The majority of European settlers on the east

coast of the United States of America consisted of people escaping intolerable conditions

or were sent to American penal colonies. Religious fanatics, such as the Puritans,

suffering persecution in Europe, associated the city with the powers that were

responsible for their persecution. The colonial representatives of the monarchy and the

merchants, those that would benefít the most from continued British mle, were located in

the colonial cities thusfiirtherassociating the city with the monarchy. The main

industries, aside from ship building, were agricultural. During the civil war, the Union

Army introduced the concept of the city, and its civilian population, as a military target

during Sherman's march. Southem cities were torched in a line from the Vicksburg,

Louisiana to Atlanta, Georgia. During W. W.II, the atomic bomb demonsttated how

vulnerable cities were in twentieth century warfare. Wright's antithapy toward the city

'"'^Krishan Kumar, IJtopia and Anti-Utopia in Modem Times, (Oxford, U.K.. Basil
Blackwell, Ltd. 1987), 316.
 43
was a result of Rousseau's influence on Transcendentalism, and it was defínitely

reinforced by history and current events. That does not necessarily exclude organic

architecture from being relevant to the urban environment.

An interpretation of Wright's architecture suggests that his defínition of organic

architecture concems the integration of a building, in which form is derived from

function, with the natural environment of the site. If the transcendentalist interpretation

is applied to Wright's architecture, then his architecture, like Louis H. Sullivan's,

assumes a teaching role in the lives of people. Through a building's total harmony with

nature, Wright hoped to transcend the limitations of his art and enlighten people in the

ways of a healthy natural life.

HugoHâring (1882-1958)

Hugo Håring began his architectural education in 1898 at the Technical University in

Stuttgart. Peter Blundell Jones suggests that Theodor Fischer was the major influence on

Håring's education and notes that Fischer was a talented and sensitive historicist architect

who was comfortable in both neogothic and neoclassical styles.'^' According to Jones,

there was a lively discussion at this school among the staff about the battle of the styles,

between Gothic Revival and Neoclassicism. This polarity became a comerstone in

Hãring's theory of architecttire which he later redefíned as geometry versus organic.'^^

Hånng had a strong sympathy towards the gothic revival position'^^ which would

''^' Peter Blundel Jones, "Hugo Hãring," The Architectural Review, v 171, no. 1022,
June 1982, 40-47.

^2 Peter Blundel Jones, "Hugo Hâring," 40-47.

 44
normally suggest that his view of art would be introspective and "romantic," such as was

Sullivan's and Wright's work. Hâring admitted a debt to Wright,'^ but he used an

empirical approach to design as opposed to Wright's pedagogical approach to design.

Håring began his practice in Beriin in 1921. By 1923, he was sharing an office with

Mies van Der Rohe. Both architects were active in the avant-garde though they had an

obvious fundamental difference in each other's approach to architectural design. To

quote Peter Blundel Jones:

Mies later recalled arguments with Hãring aboutflexibility:Håring had
insisted on designing a special place for each activity while he, Mies, believed
in providing generous rooms which people could use as they liked.'^^

Hãring is usually found in books on expressionists, although Jones points out that he had

nothing to do with such events in Berlin before 1921.'^^ He was to be an important fígure

in the formation of the Intemational Congress of Architects, otherwise known as

CIAM.'^^ DuringthereignofHitler, HâringstayedinGermany. After W.W.II Hãring

was branded a collaborator and never regained his position as a leader of architecture.'^^

Hâring considered architecture to be in the same class as industrial art. The utilitarian

aspect of it was his primary concem, and the role of the architect was to find the proper

133
Ibid.

'^Donald Leslie Johnson, Frank Llovd Wright versus America: the 930's (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: the MIT Press, 1990), 241.

'^^lbid.

"'lbid.

'^^Hugo Håring's name appears on the La Sarraz Declaration of 1928.

'^^Peter Blundel Jones, "Hugo Hâring."

 45
form for the object which in the architect's case was a specifíc building. As Hãring

stated:

In nature there is no independent problem of appearance; hence there is

nothing in opposition to the forms dictated by fítness of purpose. This occurs
only among mankind. The essential problem of applied art is cleariy that of
appearance.'^^

He was in complete agreement with Le Corbusier and the Functionalists of the 1920s

about the importance of the programming of a building.'^^ It was in the way that an

appropriate image was given to the building that Håring differed from Le Corbusier. For

Håring, architecture was divided into two parts. The word "organwerk" is used by Håring

to describe "the task of developing the architectural organism.""" The word

"gestaltwork" is used by him to describe thefíndingof an adequate architectural

expression or image.''*^ Håring asserts that there are specific, elemental forms for

different functions, which are best expressed in objects that are derived from purely

utilitarian considerations.'"*^ His comparisons of architecture to nature implies a

relationship to the environment in which the form is developed by the architect in a

manner reminiscent of evolution.

'^^Hugo Håring "Formulations Towards A Reorientation Of The Applied Arts," Ulrich

Conrads, ed., Programs and Manifestos on Twentieth Century Architecture, (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: TheMITPress, 1970), 103.

"*^ Jurgen Joedicke," Haering at Garkau," The Architectural Review, May 1960,
313-318.

'^' Ibid.

"^^lbid.

143 Hâring, "Formulations Towards A Reorientation of the Applied Arts."

 46
According to Håring, forms created purely for the purposes of expression are subject

to human cognition and change with the intellectual positions of people. Forms that are

created purely for utilitarian purposes achieve their tme nature and do not change at the

whims of human intellect.'^ This is very similar to Perrault's division of beauty into the

positive and the arbittary."'^ It would not be unreasonable to assume that Hãring's goals

are very similar to Perrault's, that is the establishment of the tme appearance of

architecture. Håring's late houses, whose organic conception is regulated by a geometric

system due to constmction limitations, demonsttate the dialogue between Hâring's ideas

and their execution.

While this architect is relatively obscure today, Haring was important enough in the

formative days of CIAM to debate Le Corbusier over the direction that architecture

should take. "*^ Hâring was opposed to the use of geometric forms such as Le Corbusier

was applying in 1928. There was also one fiindamental difference in his attitude toward

ftmction. Háring saw the relationships of a building's functions as a system of

movements instead of a collection of activities. Although each function had its own

shape, which Hãring believed was ideally organic, they were never considered

separately."*^ As for integrating the building with nature, this needs to be seen in the

"*^ Joedicke," Haering at Garkau."

145
Joseph Rywert, The First Modems: The Architects of the Eighteenth Centurv.
(Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1987), 36.
146
Ibid.

"'''Hugo Hâring "Formulations Towards A Reorientation Of The Applied Arts," Ulnch

Conrads, ed., Programs and Manifestoes on Twentieth Century Architecture,
(Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1970), 103.
 47
framework of functions. Háring was not afraid to use traditional materials or methods in

his building, which gave him a regionalist appearance; but, Hâring would not have

hesitated to use another more suitable form if it functioned better. The reasoning behind

Hâring's acceptance of traditional forms and materials is that the evolution of building

had produced particular forms in response to the local conditions."** As Haring said,

"...functional forms arise naturally and, so to speak, anonymously..."'^^ Håring was never

as concemed as Wright about the integration of a building into its site. Perhaps this was

due to the type of anthropomorphism found in his theory, not as representative of the

human body but as an extension of it.'^°

Haring advocated the idea that the function should generate form. This is seen in the

farm at Garkau, which Haring designed in 1923-24. At Garkau, he achieved what most

Functionalists were falling short of, he combined expression with a building that actually

functioned well (Figure 3.2).'^' The farm at Garkau atfracted attention from dairy

farmers and architects around the world as late as the 1960's and stands as a testimony to

the talent of this architect.'^^ He resurfaces every few years as new architects discover

his work and theory.

"*^This is a conclusion drawnfromthe Garkau project which usedttaditionalbrick,

painted wood and a lamella roof, a type of form that had been used in Germany since the
nineteenth century. It is supported by the quote referenced in footnote 42. Jurgen
Joedicke, "Haering at Garkau," The Architectural Review, May 1960, 313-318. Jones,
"HugoHãring."

'^^ Joedicke, "Haering at Garkau."

'^^Hugo Håring, "The House as an Organic Stmcture," Programs and Manifestoes on

20th-Centurv architecture, 126.

151
Jones, "Hâring."
 48
Håring approached architecture as an applied art in which the building became an

extension of the human body, a type of architectural organ. The movement of people that

was generated by the specifíc tasks in a building drove his creation of form. This

movement of people was the event that united separate functions into a single entity and

determined the tme form of a building. Any form not determined by the building, that is

any form determined by any reason not related to the building, was considered to be alien

to the project and to human life. Traditional materials, customs, and history of the site

were considered to be an organic part of the site since they had evolved there. Håring

viewed architecture as a craft that approached tme form through a process of evolution.

It was the role of the artist to fínd this form, allowing for variations due to circumstances

such as climate, changes in materials, or technology.

AIvarAalto (1898-1976)

Alvar Aalto was educated in the Department of Architecture at the Helsinki Institute

of Technology, which he attended from 1916 to 1921. During the early-twentieth

century, under the École des Beaux Arts education paradigm, Neoclassicism was the

accepted style to every student of architecture in Europe. Aalto received this training, but

was also introduced to the current developments of Art Nouveau and the Finnish

movement for a culturally distinctive architecture, National Romanticism'" The head of

152
Ibid.

'"National Romanticism was a movement in Finland that sought to establish a

national style of architecture using traditional Finnish building techniques and materials
as a basis for modem design. Hvittrask is one of the better examples of this st> le. Vib
Udsen, ed., "Hvitttrâsk," Living Architecture, 1986, No. 5, 62-67.
 49
the school was Gustaf Nystrôm, a respected Neoclassicist who guided the department in

that direction. His influence on Aalto was second hand, because he died before Aalto

could take a course from him.'^'*

Aalto's introduction to architecture was received from Usko Nystrôm (1861-1925),

who trained at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. He was an idiosyncratic person with

drawing skills that bordered on the supematural. He traveled through France measuring

the floors of the cathedrals with his feet, the dimensions of which he knew to a small

fraction of an inch. He believed that gothic cathedrals held mathematical tmths hidden

in their dimensions. A more signifícant eccentricity was his mania for unique design

solutions. For example, he designed a flue for his hat so that the smoke from his pipe

would not collect under the brim. When Aalto began his education, Usko Nystrôm was

in charge of the younger students. His teaching responsibilities included architectural

history from antiquity to medieval; basic design; and beginning drafting. His history

courses rarely got past the Greek and Roman architecture because of a passion for

Egyptian architecture. It would be more correct to say a passion for the archaeologist's

interpretation of Egyptian Architecture because he never went there. Usko Nystrôm

introduced Aalto to Art Nouveau, the style that Nystrôm used in his own practice. Gôran

Schildt suggests that the influence of this man was more in his attitude than in any

particular teaching.'^^

Aramas Lindgren, Aalto's next teacher, is much more interesting in terms of

connections. Considering the small size of Finland, it is not too surprising that he taught

•^^rxnran S^rhilHt Alvar Aalto: The Eariv Years, (New York: Rizzoli, 1984), 79.

'^' Schildt. Alvar Aalto: The Eariv Years, 69.

 50
Aalto in his fínal years of education. Lindgren was an important Finnish architect. He,

Eliel Saarinen and Herman Gesellius, were business partners. The most famous works of

that trio were The Finnish Pavilion for the Worid's Fair in Paris, the National Museum in

Helsinki, and Hvittrask.'^^ The latter was their office and the jointly owned home of all

three. Their partnership had broken up before Lindgren took the job at the Helsinki

Institute of Technology. The breakup was over differences that had developed in their

design interests, but they remained cordial. While Saarinen had moved into the

Intemational Style, Lindgren's interest lay in the Finnish vemacular and Finnish

Romantic Nationalism.'^^ Lindgren was in charge of the older students. He covered the

Renaissance to Modem periods. He introduced Aalto to Bmnelleschi, Alberti, Palladio,

and traditional Finnish architecture. It was through Aramas Lindgren that Aalto

developed a passion for the works of the Italian Renaissance which showed up in his

mature works in various forms. This background is necessary to understand the historical

sources of Aalto's work, but not his organic forms. Lindgren furthered Aalto's

understanding of the ideas behind Art Nouveau which appealed to him. 158

Aalto liked to speak of these two professors in his old age.'^^ One of the stories that

He told about Nystrôm was an accounts of Usko Nystrôm measuring the gothic

cathedrals of France with his galoshes.'^^ Gôran Schildt makes the comment that when

'^^Their home and studio.

'^^ "Hvittrask," Per Nagel ed., Living Architecture, No. 5, 1986, pg. 62.

'^' Schildt, Alvar Aalto: The Eariv Years, 160.

"'Ibid.,79.

'^^lbid.
 51
Aalto really got into this stoiy, he would Iiave Nystiôm measuring tlie facades, "like a fly

promenading on the wall."'"' 1 his type of exaggeration was a part of Aalto's personality

that needs an explanation. Aalto was exceptionally extroverted, at home in any situation

except when he was aîone '^^ According to Aalto's son-in-Iaw, Yrjô Alanen, this

exttoversion was a result of the death of Aalto's biological mother during the eariy part

of his life. Aalto's relationship with his mother had been unusually ciose. The

extroversion was a way of avoiding the pain of Aalto's loss. Both stayed with him.'^^ It

was very important for Aalto to always be at the center of attention and his stories were

one of the ways that Aalto achieved this. They were almost always based on his

memories, which does not mean they reflected an accurate porttait of past events. Aalto

reworked his memories to fít the social situation, much like he did with the forms of the

Italian Renaissance in his architecture.

Aalto's began his professional career as a neoclassical architect Scandinavian

Neoclassical archiíecíure v/as not manifesíed in the same vvay as the movement was in

Germany and France.'^ It was an innovative and vital movement that drew on the Italian

Renaissance for inspiration, but not formulas.'^^ The leading architect then in

Scandinavia was Gunnar Asplund, and he had a profound effect on Alvar Aalto.

Asplund was not íotally bound by the mles of neoclassicism., and would carefully

'^' îbid.

'^^ Schildt, The Eariy Years, 71.

'"Mbid.

'^CIaus Caldenby and Olaf Huttin, Asplund, (New York: Rizzoli, 1985), 19.

"'lbid.
 52
consider each decision before committing himself to a design. This absence of rigidness

lead more than once to the modifícation of Classical forms and mles to fít Swedish

culture and climate, an approach often seen in Aalto's work. Asplund considered the

essence of architecture to consist of three relationships: space and man, object and man,

and nature and man.'^ These themes are found in all of his work.'^^ Such innovation is

seen in his handling of the main stairs in his extension of the Law Courts in Gôtebor,

Sweden. Tread height andriserdepth is usually determined by the classic formula:

2(riser) + mn =25 inches.'^^ Manipulated correctly this formula will provide a

comfortable proportion for walking up and down stairs. Asplund varied the proportions

in a manner which reduced comfort. In doing so, he let the user know that only a

dignifíed pace was appropriate on the main stairs, thus calming any agitated spirits

through that pace.'^^ This type of psychological manipulation would not have gone

unnoticed by Aalto, and is seen in his own works. Asplund converted to the Intemational

Style at the same time as Aalto. However, the building that marks this was completed

before Aalto's own decided conversion with the Viipuri Library. The Stockholm library

was originally designed in Asplund's neoclassical style and the building retained the

massing of that style. It had a rectilinear shape with a cylindrical reading room (Figure

3.3). The detailing was entirely Functionalist inspired, although his use of omament

'^lbid.

'^^lbid.

'^«Two other formulas can be used: riser (mn) = 72" to 75" andriser+ run = 17" to
17.5". Frîmris P ^ rhin^ Rnilding Constmction Illustrated, (New York: Van Nostrand
Reinhold Company, 1975), 9-4.

'^^Caldenby and Huttin, Asplund, 19.

 53
always carried some memory of neoclassicism. In a way, Gunnar Asplund was ready to

receive the ideas of Functionalism, and his conversion was only a confírmation of what

he already practiced. Asplund's attitude toward function was similar to that of the

Functionalist Movement in that he believed in the careful consideration of functions and

their rational ordering. This came more from Scandinavian culture than from an

architectural concem for the relationship of form andftmction.'^^As a fiiend and

colleague, Asplund provided Aalto with an example of classical architecture. This did

not, however, give Aalto a design philosophy that would justify his organic architecture.

At the Stockholm Exhibition of 1930, Gunnar Asplund shocked the neoclassical

circles by effectively rejecting the neoclassical style in the intemational spotlight and

using the Functionalist style at the exhibit. Aalto visited this Exhibition and praised its

devotion to the furthering of Functionalist ideology.'^' In addition to the triumph of the

Functionalists, this exhibition was one of the highlights of the Soviet architectural

movement known as Constmctivism. The news of Stalin's purges had not left Russia at

that time and the Communist Republic was still the hope of those who were sick of

capitalist excesses. Aalto was sympathetic to socialism and communism, although later
172
developments in the United Soviet Socialist Republic distanced him from communism.

One of the marks of the architectural movements of the Twentieth Century was their

close association with social and political theories. The connection between

170 Caldenby and Huttin, Asplund, 20.

'^' Alvar Aalto, Sketches, Gôran Schildt ed., trans. by Stuarte Wrede, (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1978), 15-18.

'^' Schildt, The Earlv Years, 88.

 54
Functionalist architecture and socialism or communism is well documented.'^^ Aalto

was all in favor of the theory of Socialism, but was politically ambivalent. Schildt points

out that there is evidence that Aalto leaned more towards anarchism than socialism.

Aalto showed no other interest in anarchy than a well wom copy of Prince Peter

Kropotkin's Memoirs of a Revolutionist.'^^ It is likely that he picked up the philosophy

from the general atmosphere of socialism, which was deeply infused with anarchist

thought. This philosophy was predicated upon the organic nature of society. Anarchists

believed that if people followed natural law then there would be order without the need

for a leader. Individualism and freedom were valued above everything else. The most

important point is the anarchistic belief that in order for society to grow, the established

systems had to be broken and rearranged to fit new needs.'^^ Aalto's combination of

functions and his breaking of the established grid of neoclassical and Functionalist

systems with organic form seem to reflect this attitude.

Aalto's alignment with the Functionalist movement is of major significance in his

use of natural forms. Aalto regarded himself as a Functionalist for the rest of his life.

There was something in his mindset that caused him to avoid any appearance of artistic

intent in the presentation of his work. The Functionalist denial of historical forms is a

rejection of the academic straightjacket rather than a rejection of history.'''^ This gave

"'lbid., 87.

''"' Schildt, The Eariv Years, 242.

'^^Herbert Read, Anarchv and Order, (London: Faber & Faber. Ltd., 1954), 4

'^^As is seen in the sketch books of Le Corbusier, the denial is not one of historv but
rather of inappropriate solutions to modem problems. However, some of the more
radical architects such as Hanens Meyer, have tried to deny all but the empincal
 55
Aalto the opportunity to abandon classical vocabulary, as he did in his second version of

the Viipuri library, without abandoning everything in the classical movement. At some

point during the design of Viipuri, Aalto began using organic form. The fínal version

contains the fírst use of such form. The lecttire hall ceiling is the most famous example

(Figure 3.4).

Lázlô Moholy-Nagy provided Aalto with the necessary encouragement to begin

using organic forms.'^^ Aalto encountered him at a meeting of CL\M around 1928. They

became good friends as well as colleagues. Moholy- Nagy was not an architect, but an

artist. He is remembered more for his contributions to photography than his role in the

Bauhaus. He produced a general philosophy of design which sounds like a manifesto for

both Alvar Aalto and Hugo Hâring. Clearly laid out at the beginning is the statement that

in any design the ultimate goal is the good of humans was to be achieved byfíndingthe

biological basis of culture and making design sttengthen this basis.'^*^ This was not only

a challenge to fínd organic expression, but for better technical solutions also this was a

call for an understanding of the principles of nature. Architecture was specifícally

addressed by Moholy-Nagy. He considered the experience of space as a psychological

need, which has considerable implications for understanding Aalto's work.'^^

Moholy-Nagy called for architects to remove the conflict between the organic and the

measurements of function as a basis for architecture in and attempt to reduce it to a series

of formulas. William J.R. Curtis, Modem Architecture: Since :1900, (Englewood Cliffs,
New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc), 118-131, 174-185.

"' Schildt, "Alvar Aalto: The Decisive Years," 221.

'^Mbid.

'^^Quantrill, The Environmental Memory, 60.

 56
artifícial.'***' He believed that a kinetic manifestation of architectural space was necessary

as opposed to the static, hierarchic spaces of the past.'^'

Aalto understood the cultural value of representation found in classicism, as did

most of the Functionalists. They all had similar education and opportunities to

experience classical architecture fírst hand. Aalto's was inexperienced in the Finish

ttadition Industrial Revolution. He leamed the psychological importance of space from

Asplund and Moholy-Nagy by example and by statement. He did reinterpret certain

types of spaces, such as the Greco-Roman amphitheater form that serves as a courtyard in

his office (Figure 3.5).'*^ He intended to use the courtyard as a lecture hall during warm

weather for his apprentices. Aalto often used, what Malcolm Quantrill, calls urban

fragments in his design work. These fragments are Aalto's memories of spaces that he

found pleasant; however, these are not copies but emulations."*^

'^SchiIdt, Alvar Aalto: The Decisive Years, 218.

"'Ibid.,219.

"'lbid., 198.

"Mbid.,227.
 57

Figure 3.1 Art Nouveau's Use of fron

 58

Figure 3.2 Merchants National Bank by Louis H. Sullivan

 59

Figure3.3 FallingWater
 60

GROUNO FLOOK PIAN

Figure 3.4 Plans by Mies van der Rohe and Hugo Håring
Figure 3.5 Farm at Garkau by Hugo Håring
 62

-J Íj
126. Plan. 1:400.

Figure 3.6 Stockolm Library by Gunnar Asplund

 63

Figure 3.7 Lecture Hall in the Viipuri Library

 64

Figure3.8 Aalto's Office

 CHAPTERFV

ORGANIC ARCHITECTUREIN AN

URBAN ENVIRONMENT

In the history of the United States there have been fíve major population migrations.

The fírst occurred during the colonial period when the population migratedfromthe

northem colonies to the southem colonies. The second occurred in the eighteenth

century when the population moved to the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys. The third was

the westem migration of the nineteenth century. The fourth was the movefromthe cities

to suburbia. Today, the population of the United States is in the middle of itsfífthmajor

migration.^^ The suburbs are being abandoned for less hostile environments,

unfortunately leaving behind those who are too poor to escape the crime and decay of the

suburbs that are driving the move to penturbia.'*^ Those who fled the cities during the

fourth migration brought the urban problems of crime, crowding, and poverty with them

into the suburbs. This is part of a general socio-economic view of society, which has an

important implication for organic architecture in the United States.

Penturbia is characterized by a planning effort involved at the community level, not

the planning of developers that occurred during the fourth migration. What is

emphasized in penturbia is the community's opportunity to conttol its own quality of life.

The public now has more say in the use of private land than has been traditional in the

'*^ Jack Lessinger, Ph.D., Penttirbia, (Seattle, Washington: SocioEconomics, Inc,

1990), 85.

'*^ Penttirbia is also the name of the fífth major American migration. It is ironic that
crime and decay is what the fourth major migration was fleeing. Ibid., 15.
65
 66

United States."' Physically, however, buildings are still buildings, and when densely

packed in areas form the urban environment. People migrating to penttirbia are

expecting the amenities of thettaditionalurban environment, especially the culttiral

amenities.'*^ This is a reaction to the generally culturally barren suburbs. Penttu-bia is

expected to be a small scale urban environment. Organic architecture has ttaditionally

looked upon the urban environment with a certain amount of disdain. This attitude has

resulted in most of the organic architecture having been designed for the mral

environment.'** The organic architect cannot affbrd to retain this attitude toward

penturbia because this is where the cultural attitudes of the twenty-fírst century are

forecast.'*^ The organic architect must adapt to the new urban environment or be denied

work and influence.

There are reasons that organic architecture might not seem to be appropriate for

urban environments. The three major objections are: the urban environment is not

conducive to organic form;^^ building codes dampen the individuality of freer

expression;'^' and, fínally, there are too many constraints, such as crowding, limited

'*^ For the architect, the major change that Penttirbia will bring is a greater degree of
planning in communities as opposed to suburban sprawl. Unstated, but definitely
insinuated, is community control over aesthetic considerations which will affect organic
architecture. Ibid., 239-243.

'*'lbid., 15.

'**For a discussion, see chapter II, p., 40.

'^^Lessenger, Penturbia, 48-54.

'^MarkAldenBranch, "Organic Architecture: A Breed Apart," Progressive

Architecture, June 1992, 68 -72.

191
Ibid.
 67

space, and the developer whose sole interest is in "the bottom line": a quick rettun on his

investment.'^^ These objections were identifíed by a group of architects who are carrying

on the architectural explorations of Frank Lloyd Wright and Bmce GofF.*^^

Wright's antithapy toward the city was cultural and was reflected in his approach to

design. He approached the organization of the plan with a homotopic design sensibility.

Demetri Porphyrios explains the senses of order known homotopia:

The necessity for homogeneity, a necessity the character of which is both
constmctional and ethical, defíned the ordering sensibility par excellence of
Modemism: homotopia. This is the kingdom of sameness; the region where the
landscape is similar; the site where differences are put aside and expansive unities
are established. Homotopias afiFord consolation; they favor continuity,
familiarity and recurrence, becoming the unttoubled regions where the mind can
stroll freely, always discovering little hidden clues alluding to the sameness of the
104

universe.
One of the major themes of Wright was the re-establishment of the continuity of Man

with Nature. Wright brought everything into a unifíed whole by the use of a single

geometric module as a regulating device. This was applied to everythingfromthe spatial

experiences down to the dinnerware. This geometric module was as small as possible

and based on the material he was using. It was analogous to the biological cell. A

Wright building is a single organism evolving to meet the complex pattems and

stimulation found in the environment. This istt^eboth concepttially and physically. The

'^lbid.

'^^Branch, "Organic Architecttire: A Breed Apart," 68 -72.

'^^ Demetti Porphyrios, Heterotopia: A Studv in the Ordering Sensibility of Alvar

Aalto, ArchitecturalMonographs4,AIvarAalto,ed.DavidDunster,(>IewYork: Samt
Martin's Press, 1988), 4.
 68

author of this thesis believes that Wright's approach to architecttire did not address the

issues of the urban environment in any signifícant way.'^^

There is evidence that Wright influenced the development of organic architecttu-e in

northem Europe.'^ Certainly Alvar Aalto was indirectly influenced by Wright through

the Functionalist movement. Organic architecture continued to grow under the influence

of architects such as Hugo Håring and Alvar Aalto. Both of these architects called

themselves Functionalists, were active in CIAM, and having denied artistic pretentions.

Organic architecture took on a philosophical materialism under these two architects.

This is not in reference to the use of building materials, although that is important. This

materialism is a rejection of any knowledge or ideas that cannot be measured and

quantifíed in some manner. Design could not be purely intuitive.'^^ For example, Aalto

would approach a design by defíning all the social, economic, human, and technical

demands before defíning the appropriate psychological questions. After this complex

mix of information had been absorbed into his subconscious, he would forget the

problem for a while. Hisfírstdrawings were by instinct. They were very abstract and

'^^His two most successftil urban buildings, the Guggenheim Museum in New York
and the Morris Gift Shop in San Francisco succeed by ignoring the city. In the Morris
Gift Shop, Wright efFectively hidesfromthe urban environment. In the Guggenheim,
Wright ignores any question of context, unless he was intentionally contrasting his
building. The word assumption is appropriate because this is based on one magazine
article and not a review of Wright's work, which time and space did not permit. Branch,
"Organic Architecture," 68-72.

'^Hugo Hãring admitted a debt to Wright, however his work was markedly different
from Wright's. Donald Leslie Johnson, Frank Llovd Wright versus America: the 1930's,
(Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MTT Press, 1990), 241.

'^'Malcolm Quantrill, Alvar Aalto: A Critical Studv, (New York: Schocken Books,
1983), 5.
 69

childlike in which the main idea took shape, which the contt^dictory demands into

harmony.'^* Inttiition had gone from a source of knowledge in the work of Wright, for

example, to an organizer of knowledge in the work of Aalto.

Aalto is of particular importance to this thesis because he specifícally addressed

urban issues in his work.'^ He did not share Wright's antithapy toward the city. The city

is regarded very favorably in Finland, probably because there are not that many of them,

and the Industrial Revolution has not negatively transformed them. In addition to his

cultural background, Aalto's education included leaming about the architecture of the

Italian Renaissance which was specifícally urban in nature.

The urban projects of Aalto fall into two categories, forest towns and urban design.

An example of the fírst would be Såynåtsålo which was closer to the present conditions

of penturbia than his urban work in Helsinki. Såynåtsålo (1949-1952) was a planned

town; however, it was also a company town dependent on the timber industry. This

separates it from penturbia.^^ Essentially, Såynåtsålo was an insertion of an urban center

into a forest.^*^' Helsinki was a metropolis, the only one at that point in time, in which

Aalto was following the planning scheme established by Carl Ludwig Engle thus the

urban design projects, such as the Enso-Gutzeit headquarters, were insertions into an

'^^ This description is quoted by Quanttill from a magazine interview with Alvar
Aalto in Domus. The title of the article is "Architettura e arte concreta" (The Trout and
the Stream). It is found in issue Nos. 223-225, 1947, on pages 103-15. Ibid.

'^Malcolm Quantrill, Alvar Aalto: A Critical Studv, (New York: Schocken Books,
1983), 99.

^^Quanttill, AlyarAalto, 129.

2«' Ibid.
 70

established "built mileux."'^' In both cases Aalto's approach to design employed a

heterotopical design sensibility. Porphyrios defínes heteropia as "that ordering sensibility

with the curious privilege of discriminating independent coherences, while sustaining a

cohesion between the parts only by default and through spatial adjacency."^^^ Alvar

Aalto did not employ a strict geomettic ordering in his architecture. He had no apparent

overriding geometry (in fact he used several different geometric organizations in the

same plan or will place a free form space next to a geometrically ordered space). His

volumetric and sensual compositions exhibit the same anarchistic quality.^^ His

buildings were unifíed by a common skin, but order was not always represented by

geometric means. The program did not provide any representation of functional utility in

the Functionalist sense.^^^ He was concemed with expressing the differences between

conflicting fimctions and the resulting boundaries.^^ Order was achieved by the path that

connected these conflicting spaces. This organization was aframeworkfor Aalto's

appeal to the primal Finnish memory. Malcolm QuanttiII states that an Aalto building

was a mapping out "of the terrain that connects man not only with accessible nature but

202
Quantrill quoting a phrase used by Aalto. Ibid., 241

^"^Demetti Porphyrios, Heterotopia: A Studv in the Ordering Sensibilitv of Alvar

Aalto. Architecttiral Monographs 4 Alvar Aalto, ed. David Dunster, (New York: Saint
Martin'sPress, 1988), 15.

^^ Anarchistic is used in the political sense that there is order with no mling power.

^"^This is also a concem of the Italian Renaissancefromwhich Aalto drew much of

his inspiration Raija-Liisa Heinonen, "Some Aspects of 1920's Classicism and the
Emergence of Functionalism in Finland," Architectural Monographs 4 Alvar Aalto, ed.
David Dunster, (New York: Saint Martin's Press, 1988), 22.

^^Demetti Porphyrios, "Heterotopia: A Sttidy in the Ordenng Sensibility of the

WorkofAlvarAalto," 10.
 71

also with the primeval mysteries of his environmental memories."^^' This was achieved

in part through an iconographic representation of nattire such as the forest rhythms in

Finlandia Hall or the Lappland Museum roof, which was evocative of snow covered hills.

Quantrill's interpretation indicates that Aalto was concemed with something unique to

architecture, environmental memory, a way in which people remember space by using

sight, sound, smell, and touch. Environment, meaning that which surrounds, is applied

equally to natural and buih spaces. Aalto used the urban architectural approach of the

Italian Renaissance in this manner, translating specific spaces into his organic style.^^*

The author believes that Aalto's version of organic architecture is one of the most

appropriate for designing in the urban environment for the foUowing reasons. While the

urban environment is not arichsource of organic form, Aalto's approach circumvents this

in several ways. There is no seeking of a continuity between Nature and the built

environment and, in fact, Aalto explores the difference in much the same way that he

does the differences betweenfimctions.^^Form is drawn from the environmental

memory not from the site.^'^ This includes nattire and "urbanfragments."The latter are

the classical and Renaissance examples that Aalto leamed at the Technical University

and on sketch trips.^"

'^Malcolm Quantrill, Alvar Aalto: A Critical Studv, (New York: Schocken Books,
1983), 239.

'^^Quantrill, Alvar Aalto, 239.

^^Groak, "Notes on Interpreting Aalto," 99.

2'«Ibid.

2"Ibid.
 72

Building codes often dampen the individuality of expression, especially in cities

attempting to achieve a certain atmosphere through their control of the architectural

design process. Public influence on form is expected to increase in intensity, especially

in penturbia, although this will affect most areas. However, Aalto and Hâring have

demonsttated that organic architecture is capable of absorbingttaditionaltechniques and

forms. AIso, given the empirical background of Aalto's organic architecture, he

demonstrates that building codes ensure a standard for a minimum level of human care

and so are necessary. While the built environment has many outside influences on form

for homotopical ordering, Aalto's heterotopical sensibility thrives on the existance of

many conflicting ideas and ordersfromwhich excellent architecture can ensue.

 CHAPTERV

PROJECT DOCUMENTATION

A Central Librarv for Ellis Countv Texas

The photographs in this chapter demonstrate an organic design for a library in an

urban setting. Figure 4.7 indicates that this interpretation is occurring within an urban

environment. The floor plans (Figures 4.1 and 4.2) indicate a resistance to the rectilinear

boundaries of an urban site. This tension creates a boundary, which is marked by the

large concrete columns. This boundary serves as a transitionfromthe rectilinear order of

the surrounding buildings into the organic ordering of the library. ^'^

212 For further discussion, see Chapter VI, pp.88-93.

73
 74

\
r-

\ ?

1
>,

u >"- /"
^

2P
'Z
 75

c
o

T3
C
CJ

1»
W-
(73
c
P3

3
 76

'-j

^ j
 77

ca
>

-T

u.
3
 78

i»-Vl

ri
 79

y.
 80

r3
'j

r-

3
^iJ
 8

X
 CHAPTERVI
THE PROJECT

Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the building program and to show how the

fíndings elucidated in Chapters I-IV of the thesis apply to the project.213

Project Statement

A hypothetical situation has been set up in which the Ellis County Commissioner's

Court has commissioned a public library building for downtown Waxahachie, Texas.

The building will eventually serve as the main library for a county wide system as well as

Waxahachie. The proximity of the project to the county courthouse indicates that this

new building will be a civic monument in keeping with the public nature of its

surroundings.

The Design Approach

From this defínition arrived at in Chapter I, organic architecture is a process of design

that develops a unique building from its initial character and its location using organic

forms to create a positive effect on the user of the building.^"* In order for a building to

qualify as organic the following questions must be answered afTirmatively. Does the site

play an important role in the building's form?^'^ Are all of the parts of a building working

213 See Appendix C for the programmatic requirements.

^"*For further discussion see pp. 1-12.

82
 83

rationally as a whole?^^' Is the formal expression obviously based on nattiral form.^'^

This building design analysis is presented in three parts: The Site, The Program, and The

Formal Expression.

The Site

The site is dense enough to qualify the new building as an infíll project. The city has

determined that the height of any new building in the immediate area of the County

Courthouse must be lower in order to keep the courthouse as the visual landmark

buildíng for the city.^'^ This defínes a rough rectilinear volume in which the building

may be built. Brick, concrete, copper, and wood are the four materials chosen for the

exterior composition. Red brick was chosen because of its human scale, because it is a

common material, and because the color matches the red sandstone of the County

Courthouse. The entry of the building is to be placed so that it relates visually and

physically to the County Courthouse to the north. By placing the entry of directly ofiFthe

215
Forftirtherdiscussion see Chapter I, pp. 5-13.

^*^ The Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth is the standard the author has in mind for the
fírst question. This is drawnfromthe woric of Professor Antoniadies of the University of
Texas at Arlington. He would not consider the formal appearance of organic architecture
important in defíning organic architecture; however, the research indicated that
appearance was an important consideration to all four of the architects reviewed.
Anthony C. Antoniadies, Architecture and Allied Design: An Environmental Design
Pcrspective, 2nd ed., (Dubuque, lowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1986), 44.

^'^ The term natural is used instead of biological or organic because it limits by
implication the range of formal expression to interpretations of living organisms. Aalto
and Wright both used geological forms in their work, and although the design project
does not depend totally on geological expression, it cannot be excluded from this thesis.

218
See Chapter IV, p. 93.
 84

city square the library recognizes the importance of the County Courthouse. The

proximity of the library's entry to the EIIis County museum is appropriate given the

cultural signifícance of the two building, both preserving history. However, nothing

more should be read into the relationship between the museum and the library.

The Program

In this design, two approaches to order have been considered, homotopia and

heterotopia.^*^ Heterotopia is explored in this thesis project. This ordering approach is in

conflict with the use of geometry, or grid, as the overall formal regulating devise, but it is

not in conflict with the basic principles of the rational plan as laid down by

Viollet-le-Duc. Those principles, familiar to most architects, are: (1) ftmction

determines form,^^^ (2) structural honesty,^^' and (3) aguidingconceptof honest

simplicity.^^^ It is not reasonable to associate organic architecture with an irrational

expressionism. The approach to progranmiing is the same as that found in the

Functionalist movement of the early Twentieth Century.^^^ Theftmctionsare arraigned

in a reasonable manner; however, the relationships between them are based on the

interaction of the differences in the ftmctions. In the work of Aalto a solid wall indicates

^^^Forftulherdiscussion, see Chapter III pp., 47.

^^^M. F. Heam. ed.. The Architectural Theorv of Violett-le-Duc: Readings and

Commentarv, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1990), 182.

'^'lbid., 187.

^^^lbid., 192.

^^^ Jurgen Joedicke," Haering at Garkau," The Architectural Review, May 1960,
313-318.
 85

that the function contained requires a separationfromlight or sound, the sttiicture being a

separate entity.^^^ Where such separation is not desirable the wall is dissolved by wood

screens or fenesttation. The elevation of an Aalto building can be read by this tteattnent

of materials. The interaction of anyftmctionv^th the adjacentftmction,or exterior, will

determine thetteatmentof the wall and the area next to the wall. The project is ordered

by the sensual attributes of architecture. This is applied to the thesis project.

There is a point to be made about this approach to the conception of organic

architecture that is very different that of Wright.^^^ Wright conceived his buildings as a

single organism, even to the point of comparing the materials with biological cells.^^

Aalto conceived his buildings as a community of functions. Thus each area of an Aalto

plan has its own character.

The Entry

The placement of the entry is a gesture toward the County Courthouse . From this

point one must arrive at the circulation desk and then arrive at the bibliography and

reference area. The desired effect is to cause inttospection in the user. This is an attempt

to fínd the innate truths within all people. This is achieved by guiding the user through a

cave-like space which ends at the circulation desk, thus creating a sense of arrival. The

^"^^ Structure is expressed when it does not need to be hidden.

^^^ Wright is the most familiar organic architect to the architects of the United States of
America, and the differentiation needs to be made.

226 See Chapter II, pp. 35-40.

 86

cave image is a reference to both the primal past and to the birth experience and thus to

the memory of leaming and growth epitomized in the knowledge contained in books.

The Rare Book Room

The rare book room is a separate entityfromthe rest of the library because of the

necessity for security and maintenance concems. It also creates (if designed well) a

visible sense of value. It isfreatedas a solid object in the plan with the wall dissolving at

the point of entry. This treatment reflects the emphasis on the function of preservation

and signals the unique nature of the books contained within.

The Stacks

The stacks are placed on a separate structiu"al systemfromthe building envelope in

order to minimize vibrations. The opportunity to celebrate the stacksftmctionwithin the

building naturally occurred as a result of this decision. They will need fíre protection,

artifícial and difflised natural lighting and humidity conttol. This separation of the stacks

from the otherftmctionssuggests the warehouse as the appropriate building type on

which to model the library. The similarity extends to the use of the shelving arrangement

as a mnemonic device for retrieving a particular object. The main difference between the

function of a library and theftmctionof a warehouse is in the volume of people who will

be served.
 87

The Music Room and Periodicals

The music room and periodicals are combined in area to present an image of the

library as a place for more than books. It also provides a centtal location for attendants

on the lower levels. Music and periodical back issues use a CD-ROM storage system and

can use the same room. The shelving requirements the periodicals call for a lower shelf

height than the stacks. This is the area with the most potential for use. It will also house

the video collection. This area should be positioned in a prominent area of the plan.

Art Gallery

Art gallery areas are not well defíned in the library profession. Art can be stored as

slide libraries, racks of prints, actual display areas, or CD ROM use areas. Exhibits by

local artists are among the type of civic gestures that the EUis County Commissioners

could use to sell bonds for the project. Combined with a slide library or CD ROM

display, this area would be an efflcient way in which to bring art into public life, and a

focal point for local educational opportunities.

Book Processing

Book processing is the technical area of the library. It functions like a factory which

should be reflected in the layout. This is a physically critical area because of the

increasing reliance on interiibrary loans and theftittireneeds of a countywide system.

 88

The Administtation

There are two parts to the administration, the Library stafFand the County stafF. The

county stafFwill probably move out as the county system grows, thus providing space for

the library stafFas it grows.

The Auditorium

The auditorium will need to function separatelyfromthe library at need, thus

secondary entrances away from the courtyard. Uses envisioned would be graduations,

lectures, concerts, plays, townhall meetings, and any other civic meeting. The

auditorium terminates the path through the library, becoming a symbolic voice for the

memories of the library.

Bathrooms

For a total number of 716 occupants the minimum U.B.C.. requirements.

A. Men:

6 lavatories,

5 urinals,

4 waterclosets;

B. Women:

9 waterclosets,

6 lavatories.

Primary design factors are ventilation and sound isolation. Their importance is

directly related to their ftmctions.

 89

The Formal Expression

This building is a collection of images related to each other. The acttial relationship

is unimportant except that they need to be classifíed in order to make sense.^^^ The

images are cave forms, a bridge, water, a theater, certain anthropomorphic associations, a

warehouse, and urban images. They are meant to be linked into a story by people

experiencing the building. What the stoiy is should be a personal matter. The order in

which the images are seen is as follows:

1. The cave image is seen at the entry to the library. Along this part of the path

images of the human body are present. Some are seen as bones in the cave

openings for light, and others are only seen in plan view.

2. The bridge is seen after emerging from the cave. The arching of the bridge

suggests water.

3. The stacks are seen almost at the same time as the bridge.

4. The cave image is repeated in the library entry into the theater.

5. The water is seen in the theater cave.

6. The theater is the destination of the user, although the stacks and reading

areas are altemate choices.

^^' In this case it is a model of how the human mind works. The cave is embedded in the
primal memories of human ancestors and the subconscious memory of birth. The bridge
carries the traveler over water, whose sound represents the subconscious which never
sleeps. The theater represents dreams. The anthropomorphic associations represent the
role the body plays in thought. The warehouse represents thettamedmemory. The
urban imagery represents the connection to the people that influence us. This is not the
only explanation for the images; however, it is the way that the author of the thesis chose
to organize these images. If this was not a master's thesis, then the need to disclose the
acttial relationships of the images would not exist. Such ignorance on the part of the
pattons would allow people to think about the images in their own way, which is much
more stimulating than actually knowing what the author had in mind.
 90

While this project is based on the work of Alvar Aalto, there is one strong influence from

the works of Wright and Sullivan. The building is designed to teach its users through a

collection of images arranged in such a way to several narratives conceming the organic

pattems of life. The joumey into the library will parallel the joumey through life.

Stmcture

The type of stmcture chosen was presttessed concrete which is capable of the long

spans preferred in libraries. The large articulated columns show an inclination towards

classical form and serve as a boundary between the library and its environment in a

manner similar to the use of columns in the Parthenon. In the ground floor plan the only

place in which the library spills beyond the large columns is at the entry and receiving

dock.^^* The library is reaches out to invite people in.

The sttategy for placing interior columns that support thefloorsdepends on how each

space needs to be articulated. The building is unifíed by large articulated columns and

the roof A regular grid would suppress the identities of eachfimction,but to no purpose

in that unity has already been achieved. Following the approach of Alvar Aalto, the

differences of the functions are explored.

228 See Chapter IV.

 91

The Overall View of the Design Factors

The major concems of the librarian are the conttol of resources, such as books, and

the atttaction of the public into the library. A square floor plan has been designated by

librarians as the optimum shape for a library because of its influence on the legibility of

the stacks, but many authors acknowledge that pattons usually fínd this shape boring.^^^

Attempts to organize the stacks using anything but a grid have,fromthe librarians point

of view, failed for two reasons; the diffîculty of organizing a large volume of books, and

because the square shape generally has less non-usable space. The large amount of

volumes involved in this project is suffîcient to eliminate any radial or fan shaped

organization of the stacks. The use of split levels or anything that blocks the site lines of

the library employees will increase the amount of people needed to ensure security for

both books and patrons. These concems are balanced with the benefits gained by such

design decisions. The librarians influencing the arrangement of the library are analytical,

well researched and can be perceived to intmde upon thettaditionalrole of the architect.

Their emphasis is on effîciency from the librarian's point of view, which is

understandable. Such concems are mitigated by several factors, the most powerftil of

which is the site. It is not square and there is not enough room for a single level building.

The presence of people and businesses around the site is a more subtle influence, but is

infínitely more important. Retail ttade, the county govemment, banking, entertainment,

and tourism atttact people to the town square of Waxahachie, which makes it an ideal

location for a public institution such as this library. In order to become a part of the

^^^Godfrey Thompson, Planning and Design of Librarv Buildings. (New York: Nichols
Publishing, 1978), 5.
 92

square, this must emphasize the effect on the public's experience rather than the

administrator's ease.

The architect has a moral obligation to provide a space that is healthy and pleasant."^

This involves the careful considerations of lighting, acoustics and ventilation as well as

aesthetic explorations. The craft of building has to be mastered as well as the art of

building. Miscellaneous information about the requirements of a library are listed in

Figure 6.1.

The site has a great deal of influence. Zoning requires that no building may be higher

than the County Courthouse to ensure the dominance of the courthouse a symbol of

govemmental authority. On the site four existing buildings will remain. They are

signifícant, but only because they are a part of the historical urban environment. They

covering three quarters of the north side of the site and face the County Courthouse.

2^^ Antoniadies, Architectttfc «TIH Allied Design.

 93

General Lighting Requirements

1. Either diffused natural or artifícial light
2. Task lighting will be needed on shelving
3. Natural light extends approximately twenty-fíve feet into the average open
plan
4. See Table C..3 for the illumination requirements.

General FTVAC System Requirements

1. Floor registers everywhere where possible.
2. Vertical distribution used at stacks has potential for expression

Stacks
1. Shelving at height- 6'-6" maximum
2. Shelving grid -any range from 4 ' to 8' on center 6'-8", depending on desired
aisle width.
3. The standard shelf width is 2'-0".
4. The column size must not exceed the shelf width.
5. Computer terminals distributed at various points.
6. The fíre suppression system uses CO^ or equivalent gas, instead of water.
7. The children's coUection consists of approximately 20% of the total
collection, approximately 8,000 square feet. The preferred location would be
in the reading room, so that parents can watch their childrenfroma distance.
Seating measurements
1. The seating is estimated at one seat per 500 population served for the entire
library. That equals 200 total seats for the library
2. One person at a table will require approximately 25 square feet
3. One person at a carrel will require 40 square feet
4. One person at a lounge chair will require 50 square feet.
5. At least 4' of width is required between tables and stacks.^^'

Figure 6.1 General Design Information

^^' Aaron Cohen and Elaine Cohen, Designing and Space Planning for Libraries. (New
York: R. R. Bowker Co., 1979), in reference to the entire book.
 94

Description Of EIlis Countv

Waxahachie, Texas

Waxahachie is a small town about 35 miles outside of the Dallas/Fort Worth

metropolitan area. It is the seat of Ellis County. While a number of its residents do

commute to the D/FW area to work, the majority of the population live and work in the

town. The population consists of a mix of actively retired people, college students and

families. A major economic blow was delivered by the federal govemment when the

Super Conducting Super Collider project was abandoned. This is not a fatal blow. The

area is poised to receive the migration of people and industry as the information

revolution decenttalizes the corporate stmcture in the US. It is also a great place for

medium sized businesses and to live. There is still present a fairly large number of farms

surrounding the town. It is located in a belt of fertile black soil.

Historical Description
The earliest known inhabitants of what is now Ellis County were the Indians. The

area was a hunting ground for many Indian tribes because of the large number of buffalo

that grazed here. Kickapoo, Bidai, Anadarko and Waco were other tribes that hunted

here. Waxahachie is the Tonkawa word for buffalo or cow. Under Mexican mle, the

area known as Ellis County was divided into four land grants to Steriing C. Robertson,

Thomas J. Chambers, Raphael Pena, and Alejandro de la Garza. The Anglo grantees

were probably a part of the Mexican program to populate Tejas, which is now know as

Texas. The Texas Republic issued land a land grant in 1841 for Peters Colony in the

Northem half of the area and in 1843 C.F. Mercer was issued the southem part of the
 95

area. Ellis County was created on December 20, 1849,fromRobertson and Navarro

counties. In August of 1850, Waxahachie was established as the county seat. The fírst

Court House, a long cabin, was buih in 1850. Two other Courthouses were erected in

1853 and 1874. The present Courthouse was built in 1894 and still is the political center

of the county. It was designed by J. Riely Gordon.^^^ Before the discovery of oil the area

was a center of cotton ttade and railroad freight. Until the 1930s it was one of the more

affluent cities in the region.

Surrounding Areas

The surrounding residential architecture contains many examples of tum of the

century Victorian gingerbread houses. There are a few neoclassical examples present,

but the town is regionally famous for its gingerbread homes. The majority of the public

buildings are designed in the many variations of the neoclassical style.

Physical Characteristics

See Appendix A, Table A.2 for details. The winters are mild in this part of the state.

In the summer, the temperature, which rangesfrom80^ F to lOO^F, and the humidity are

the primary concems of those living in this region. Sunlight during the summer can be

exttemely bright from late moming until sunset which makes glare an important

architectural concem. The area is highly used for govemment and private business. The

soil is exttemely fertile in the area, and farming is still an important industry.

^^^Taken from " A Brief History of EIIis County" provided in a packetfromthe

Waxahachie Chamber of Commerce.
 96

The Movie Industry

More than a dozen major productions have been fílmed here since "Bonnie & Clyde"

in 1967. Three of these movies, "Tender Mercies," "Places In The Heart," and "The Trip

to Bountiftil," have been recipients of academy awards. The movie industry often uses

this town in motion pictures set in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The

atmosphere in the town square and in the older neighborhoods is what has been cited

most. The actual movie sets on the site eliminate the "modem" images by covering the

buildings in false fronts, and by successfiilly editing the fílm.

Historic District

The County Courthouse is a Texas historic landmark and the urban area is a historic

district. The buildings in this area were mostly built in the late 1800s up to the 1950s.

There is a considerable amount of public support for the preservation of the historical

atmosphere of this area. This town center is a group of actively used historic buildings.

There is a mixture of commercial and govemmental agencies occupying the buildings;

therefore, there is signifícant remodeling activity which necessitates bringing the area up

to code. Reconstmction is confíned to the Courthouse itself

 REFERENCES

Books
AaIto,AIvar. Sketches Alvar Aaitn Edited by Goran Schildt. Translatedby
Stuarte Wrede. Cambridge, Massachusetts: TheMITPress. 1978

Abercrombie, Stanley. Architecture as Art: An Esthetic Analvsis. New York: Van

Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1984.

Adams, Douglas. Dirk Gentlv's Holistic Detective Agencv. NewYork:

PocketBooks, 1988.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Gaiaxv. New York: PocketBooks,

1981,

Life. The Universe and Evervthing. New York: PocketBooks,

1983.

The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul. New York: Pocket

Books,1990.

The Restaurant at the End of The Universe. New York: Pocket

Books,1982.

. So Long and Thanks for All The Fish. New York: Pocket Books,
1985.

Altman, Irwin and Chemers, Martin. Culture and The Environment. Monterey,
Califomia: Brook/Cole Publishing Co.,1983.

Antoniadies, Anthony C. Architecture and Allied Design: An Environmental

Design Perspectíve, 2nd ed. Dubuque, lowa: Kendal/Hunt Publishing
Company, 1986.

Bacon, Edmund N. DesignofCities. NewYork: PenguinBooks 1967, revised

ed., 1976.

Bames, Jonathon (ed.). The Complete Works of Aristotle Vol. I & II Thc
Revised Oxford Transiation. Princeton, New Jersy: Princeton University
Press, 1984.

Baum, /Vndrew and Bell, Paul A. and Fisher, Jeffery D. Environmentai Psychoiogy
2nd ed. New York.: Holt, Rmehart, and Winston, 1984.

97
 98
Benton, Tim. "Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau," ed. Frank Russell. Art Nouveau
Architecture New York: Rizzoli, 1979.

BIake,Peter. The Master Builders: Le Corbusier. Mies van der Rohe. Frank
Lloyd Wright. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc. 1976.

Brooks, Michael W. John Ruskin and Victonan Architecture. London: Rutgers

University Press, 1987.

Butler, Marilyn. Romantics. Rebels and Reactionaries: Engiish Literattire and Its
Background 1760-1830. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.

Capra, Fritjof The Tuming Point: Science, Societv, and the Rising Culture.
New York: Bantam Books, Inc, 1982.

Ching, Francis D. K. Building Constmction Iliustrated. New York: Van Nosttand

Reinhold Company, 1975.

Conrads, Ulrich, (ed.). Programs and Manifestoes on Twentieth Century Architecture.

Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1970.

Cromphout, Gustaf Van. Emmerson's Modemitv And The Example of Goethe.

Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1990.

Curtis, Wiiliam J.R. Modem Architecture: Since :1900. Engiewood Cliffs, New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall, Inc, 198?.

Doxiadis, Constantinos A.. Ekistics: An Introduction to the Science of Human

Settlements. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968.

Evan Terry Associates, PC. Americans with Disabilities Act Facilities Compliance:
A Practical Guide. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 1993.

Frampton, Kenneth. Modem Architecttire a Critical History. New York: Oxford

University Press, 1980.

Garrigan, Kristine Ottesen. Ruskin on Architecture: His Thought and Influence.

Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1973.

Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Viking Press, 198

Green, F.C. Rousseau and the ídea of Progress. Oxford: The Ciarendon PressJ950:
reissued 1978.

Grimsley, Ronald. The Philosophvof Rousseau. Oxford: Oxford University Press,

1973.
 99
Janson, H.W. Historvof Art 3rd ed Revised and expanded by Anthony F.
Janson. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc 1986.

Joedicke, Jurgen and Lauterbach, Heinrich. Dokumente der Modemen Architektur.

Sttittgart, Germany: Kari Kramer Veriag, 1965, 132.

Johnson, Donald Lesiie. Frank Llovd Wright versus America: the 1930's. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: the MIT Press, 1990.

Kaplan, Nathaniel and Katsaros, Thomas. Origins of American Transcendentalism: In

Philosophv and Mvsticism. New Haven, Connecticut: College and University
Press, 1975.

Koji, Miyazaki. An Adventure in Multidimensional Space: The Art And Geometrv

Of Polvgons, Poivhedra, And Polvtopes. New York: John Wiley & Sons,
Inc, 1983.

Kostof, Spiro. A Historv of Architecture: Settings and Rituais. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1985.

Kumar, Krishan. Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Modem Times. Oxford, U.K.: Basii
Blackwell, Ltd. 1987.

Loftus, Elizabeth F. and Wortman, Camiile B. Psvchologv, New York: Alfred A.

Knopf, Inc, 1981.

Martin, George R.R., ed. Wiid Cards Voiume I. New York: Bantam Books, i986.

McHarg, íanL. Design with Nature. Garden City, New York; Doubieday, i971.

Menocai, Narciso. Architecture as Namre: The Transcendentalist Idea of Louis

Sullivan. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsm Press, 1981.

Pevsner, Nikolaus. Some Architecttirai Writers of the Nineteenth Century.

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972.

PoIIio, Marcus Vitmvius. Vitmvius: The Ten Books on Architecture. Translated

' by Morris Hicky Morgan. New York: Dover Pubiications, i914, repnnt,
Harvard University Press, 1960.

Price, Wiiliam H. The Civil War HandBook. Fairfax, Virginia: Pnnce Lithographic
Co.,Inc 1961.

Quanttili, Malcom. Riema Pietiiã: Architecture. Context, and Modemism.

NewYork: Rizzoli, 1985.
 100
Alvar Aalto: A Critical Study New York: New Amsterdam Books, 1989.

Read, Herbert. Anarchv and Order London: Faber & Faber. Ltd. 1954.

Ruskin, John. The Seven Lamps of Architecture. NewYork: Dover

Publications, Inc, 1989.

Rywert, Joseph. The First Modems: The Architects of the Eighteenth Centurv.
Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1987.

Schildt, Gôran. Alvar Aalto: The Eariv Years. New York: Rizzoli, 1984.

Alvar Aalto: The Decisive Years. New York: Rizzoli, 1986.

Scully ., Vincent, Jr. Frank Llovd Wright. New York: George Braziller, Inc, 1960.

Sert, Josep Lluis Sert and Sweeney, James Johnson. Antoni Gaudi. New York:
Fredrick A. Praeger, 1960

Simmons, Dan. Hvperion. New York: Bantam Books,1990.

Stanton, Phoebe. Pugin. New York: The Viking Press, 1971.

Sullivan, Louis H. Kindergarten Chats. NewYork: George Wittenbom Inc 1947.

Temmer, Mark J. Art and the Influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Chapei Hiil, North
Carolina: The University of North CarolinaPress, 1973.

Thompson, G.R. "Romanticism and the Gothic Tradition," Thompson, G.R. ed., The
Gothic Imagination: Essavs in Dark Romanticism. Puliman, Washington:
Washington State University Press.
 101
Magazine Articles

/Njiderson, Dennis AUen and Ochsner, Jeffrey Kari. "Adler and Sullivan's Seattle Opera
House Project." Societv of Architectural Histonans Joumal XLVIII (September
1989):223-231.

Branch, Mark Alden. " Literal Abstraction: A Synthesis of Sometimes

Contradictory Ways of Thinking Creates A New House by Morphosis."
Progressive Architecture. November 1991, 54.

. "Organic Architecture: A Breed Apart." June 1992,68.

Bressani, Martin. "Notes on ViolIet-le-Duc's Philosophy of History: Dialectics and

Technology." The Societv of Architectural Historians. Joumal., 48, No. 4,
327-350.

Broner, Kaisa. "The Finnish Embassy in New Delhi." Living Architecture. 1987 No.6,
69-83.

. "The Architecture of Raili and Reima Pietilã." Living Architecture. i 987

No. 6, 84-89.

"TheTampereMainLibrary." Living Architecttu-e. 1987 No. 6, 90-99.

Cartwright, T.J.. "Planningand Chaos Theory." Joumal of the Amencan

Planning Association. Winter 1991, VoI57, No. i.

Corcoran, Eiizabeth. "Ordering Chaos: Researchers Are Begmning To Hamess

Non-Iinear Systems." Scientific American, August 1991, 96 .

Fisher, Thomas. "TWA Terminal, New York/Eero Saarinen & Associates."

Progressive Architecture. May 1992, 96.

Joedicke, Jergen. "HânngatGarku." Architectural Review. May 1960, 313-318.

Jones, Peter Blundel. "Hugo Hâring." The Architectural Review. vi71, no. 1022, June
1982,40-47.

Kauffman, Stewart A. "Antichaos and Adaptation: Biologicai Evoiution

May Have Been Shaped By More Than Just Naturai Seiection. Computer
Models Suggest that Certam Complex Systems Tend Toward Seif
Organization." Sr.ientific Amencan, August 1991, 78.

Murphy,Jim. "Romeoand Juiiet Windmill Reconstmction." Progressive

Architecture, May 1992, 119.
 102
Rubin, Jeanne S.. "The Froebei-Wright Kindergarten Connection: A New Perspective."
Societv of Architectural Historians Joumal. vol.38, March 1989, 24-37.

Stewart, lan. "What m Heaven is a Digital Sundial?" Scientific American.

September 1991, 104.

Udsen, Vib, ed. "Hvitttrâsk." Living Architecture. 1986, No. 5, 62-67.

 APPENDIX A

PROGRAMMING

Table A. l Summary of the Net Square Feet

Areas Square Feet
Gross Area 60,974.00

15% Mechanical, walls and 9,146.1

Circulation

NetArea 9,146.1

103
 104

</-
r«^ ^ m o o <u ri •r. 'r. oc
QD
c m
rj-
m
vO T3 vO
ri
3 rn
o oo oo •—>
U r I
C
3
O
UJ
U

oo
O
e«
C
oo
B
X
ed
(j
c
3
O
u
c
3
O
U
(/)
(/)
fS
(/)
1)
< u Ê
eo 3 C3
c/>
o C
(/»
(/) > 3
tu c "5
o c = >. SO
3
13 j= - (i2
CQ
<
o E (/> (/)
-j
3 3 c 2 r3 -~
(/> u c ^ ^
1
03
cd — tC
- frt k.
ca
c > ,o y 'J
O.
e«
3 3
CL C C
(/3 3 > C
'C O. o
C
C C
c 5 o. 00 E E eQ t_ 73
t^ •_) *_» •-»
< .^ (/) o «>
Sû
'-> '-)
::£)
k. O i> u ;3 rs r3
,52 w CQ
eo k_ k.

3 3 E E E w. k>
a>
•->
>
•j
•J
5 o
a.
3
OU
3 3
H
>.
<
> 1>
>
<
>
<
<
>
< < L- C _
z z
 105

O
W5 O
(U
o (U
c t-l
c3
O
o
eti 00
< < < < < ^ b ^ b
<
:z:
_c
Z z z z c c
<
Z c c
<
C/3
O (U (U (U
<u Z
o o
o

U
o
o

o
o. m o o o
o
(U o
(N OJ <N O
ir: o
cx

c
o
.—
••-»
eQ
3
U
cJ5
f
< ÛQ CQ PQ
CQ
00
CQ
<
CQ
CQ CQ
< < < u u u
c
•4—<

00

c
O
E c
(U
•4—•
c c c c
(U
4.^
(U
•4—>
H)
•(—>
<U
•4—> <u
•*—>
(U
•*->

C3 C3 C3 03 c3
C3
(U
o
(U
o.
(U
Q.
(U
o-
(U
Q- 5
<U o (/3 o o o o oC/5 oC/5 oC/3 o(/3 oco oC/3
C/3
• —H
(U
o O
C3

C/D
73 C8
(L)
v-> (U

"3 <
'O o
00 o o o o o »r> «n
Ê m rs) o«/^ vO
(U
3
•sO o>r> oo o• r j o
'—1 o
om r^ *s

^ rsj r^ <N ^
(U ro m
• * - •

c«
s c
00
E _o c
3 Ê .—- (U
C/3
C/3 O
so C/3
•4->
C(J Ê C/3 C/3 o
o co
>-
(U
E c
m o 3 O
o c«
00 o o o
•4->
C/3 o o c
; - l
o 73 .o • —. o C/3

(U (U c C/3
o l-l
c c«
o 'O o _o (U
c -o o •«-rf

lo e«
a ed o '55 l-l 'C Ui
3
o
C/3

<u 5 O
(U c ea
t: (U £ CQ h-
c« 00 •*-> <
C/3 < <
 106

00
_c
c
•*-»
(U _o O O C/3
(U
C/3
o C/1
O
00 >% •*-»
O. c c >^ >. >. >%
cd O
û

73
C > <l>
3 ^ ^ ^ ^
O O O
K/l g. ^ ^ .2 J

ei3
(U m o o ^ o ro
«n vo
<
Ui
m S Pi o
o
o
«n
o
o
,^
^
-— r\i rn

c
o O
rn '—I so o ^ S 2 o
r^4

etf
00
<^ o o o o rrí

o
o
aí
00
c
-3
ca
<u
D^ >.
(U Æ
<<-> a<
e(S
o ^
(U C/3
C (U _o
VMd^
«j 3
s Æ
O
00
.2
Æ
JD
s3 c3
Ê 13 o t3 c«
•4-* VH
C/3 ec e«
00 C
C« >^ o ^ c3
rr (U D. O (U -C
T3 O <U •4-»
O C/3 o o
ren

•4—>
< •

<u 3 >. C/)

C/3 <u
> C o O. (U <U IJ 00 C/3

c
roll

E 1 fc
• 1—^

••-> <4-( -4->

3
f2 o
<
I 0.4
o
U H
(U
CiÍ
H
e(3
U
o
J
o
H
 107

00
BJ c« c(3
,c v-
<u <u <U
00 c(U c(U c
00 00 (U
00

•o
c t3
3
T3 O
3 3
'5
o O O
C/5

o
<U o m
«o
(N
ON
«A3
r-4
-H rsj —

c
2
•4->
VO vo
CO
O.

ee m
•4-> m
00

c
W
(U
Æ
•4-»
<4-i
O
C(J C/3

s ^
00
o
s C/3
<u
^^^
c3
3 ^3
C/3 "S
O
C
<o ^
.o
ipute
ance

...
•4—>
< •
C/l
(U > "3
£) •4-> 1-1 O
E 'S
o c >.4
o •4.J

f2 < W U o
 108

00
C3 C3
_c C/3
(U <u
"•î2 ea
H
c
(U c
o
00 00 00

T3
C o T3 (U
•4—>
.•4-> 3
3
O
.-.
3 O "5
ar"

o
e(S o rn m oo
(U o m «r)
«A3 m r«^ «0
m

C/)
c
o t^
w.
m vo (3N
rr)
«3

o.

C4-I

<t3 m
e«
r^
•*->
00

C/3

E
o
o
t-l C/3
•4-*
C/3
(U
(U T3
o C/3

3 •4-J
3 CT o
C
OH H
 109

00
.c eO
w.
c3
•4-> V.
(U <U
00
c c
<u
(U 00
00

c o o
•4—>
•4->
3
O
00 '5 "5
O" O"

e(J o
(U
o o o
«r^
«/^

c
o o o
••->
C3 rsi rsj
CU

H
cO
•4-J — o

S
o
o C
Ûí o
H
«4-1
c«
BJ
3 ••->

C/D
(U •»

x: 3
•4-> O
O
o
C3 (U
S T3
O O
S c/3 -o (U
3
3 c <iá
O e« 00
C/3 (U <u
X 00
CíJ
_c 1-.
c3
t^ C/1 Ui
(U (U 3
< •
O
•4-> C/3 cr
C/3
C/3 (U
"^
BJ
Hl <
O 1 •4->
o
H
H
 110

00
00 c
•C C3
c .^
C/3
>-i
<U
• 4 - *

.xi
— 00 C3
00
• ^N
^—1 •4—>
c
>% (U
H e« 00
-o

T3 (U (U
C o •4—>
3 "5
O '5 '3
O"

o o o
o o o
o o
>-l o o
«r^ o
< rs)

C
o o o
V. rsj
•4->
«J <N

H
e(J
•4-.

00

o
O
t:
<
(U
JC
•4->

3 C/3

c/3 o
c/i
00 (U >-l

>% 00
< • c/3
JJ
CU •4—>
•4->
15 C/1 «J
o
Hl < o (U
00 H
 111

00
c c3
00
ca
00
C3
>_
>-i u.
•4->
(U (U o
00 c ">% C '>, C
ed o
(U •73 o ^3 00
00 00

T3 <U O !> O O
c • »—<
3 '3 "5 "3 3 "3
O CT <y O" (3"
O"
cn

C3 «r^ o o
(U t^ O «r^ o o o
00
rv
«r^ rsi «r3 o
rsi »— rsi
m

C/)
c
o
•o «/^ ^ o o
C3 04
cu

<;H
OJ
•+-» o --
00

so
o

«J
o
-3
o
• —.
u. C/3

<U
ÛH c
(U c/)
•4^
<4.. O
O O
(U
b
«j (/3 (U
•4—>
S -o 3
o O.
S (U
C/1 -o E
3 3 _o o 00
00 O
"C c
. —-
0< X (U 1 •4—>
c3
C/)
<U a 00 2
O
<U
C/3 (U
00 c«
tora;
able

•4->
c _c p::
•4—» •4->
(U cS û o
^l < fc (U
cn u H C/3
H
3
u
 112

C "c c c
00 o o o
c
•4-» o .'2 .'2
0 "o 'o
H 'o
•-£ ••E
< < < <

•o (U (U (U (U
c •4-» -4—> •*-> •4->
3 "3
o "3 '5 O"
"3
00 O"

e3 o
(U §
«r^
go o o
«r)
o
«n •T) rsi

(/)
c
o O o
•4..
ed r^i rsi
CL

e(j O —
•4->
C/3

S
o
o

o
o
CQ
2í
c3

<U
Æ
(+H

o
b
C3

3
CT) o
'S.
o
C/l O
<U 00 00
c 00
c C/3
_c c
(U •4-* C/3 c ••->
cd o -C c3 (U e« o
Hl < C/^ (U
C/3 û O
C/2 H
 113

J3
00 lU
<u (U (U (U <u (U (U
C c(U cd) co c(U c cu c
o00 00 00 00 00 o <00 (U
oo 00

(U (U
•o (U (U •4—> •4—>

c •4^
••-> <u (U •4—>
eC
k.
<L)
-^
«J
u. T3
lou
3 <u (U
o 3 '3 "3 '3
O" O" O" T3
'3
lO"
C/3 or O o
E E

ed O o o o o o o o o
(U o
o
'^
o o o o o
<N «o T f
o o o
r^ cn «r^ «rí

C/)
C

2
•4->
o o o o
e<J
PH

e«
•4-» rsi — — — o o o o «r)
00

c
o
•—
•4-»
c<J
i-i
•4->
C«

'S
«J
•4-*

<
(U o o
-c <u e«
c/3
•»->

(4H e« C
C
o
_o
C3
T3 c« -o C c E
S (U
>-i
•4-J e<J
s c«
3
C/1 •2
'C
e<J
O. o E
3 O
C
3
C
c(3 c3 X o o
00
F X) <u o
X S o O
^3 (U
W3 T3
03 — E C O

o C
C3
o
e«
1>
c
—
•4-> O 00 ,53
<U C/3
(U C _2 73 C/3
• —.
>-l
c3 c«
c e<J H
2 tt
o 5 '^ ^ C/)
C/3
<U o
•4-^
o
«s H
HI< O c/3 (U < CQ C/3 U c>5
U < K
 114

00
^ A ^
c >-. V. >-.
o
" • ^
c(U Ooc <(Ucu
00 00 CiO 00

"O
c 3
•O
3
T3
3
3
o O O O
CZ5

c« o «/-)
<u o o «o «ri
04 r-j

C/3
C
o o o
o
OH
o o o

«3 rsi ^ r^
• ^

C/5

so
o
c
_o
•4-í
o
<u
'ô*
>-
QH

-o
c
cS
o
O
•*->
o
• f—
X3
73
3 c
3
< O
C/3
Csi
(U
< 00
c/)
.c
e<J ed P •4->
O •4-> U. o
00 c/3 d. H
 115

00
^ ^ ^ c3
c k.
<U k- >-
<u VH
(U (U
x: C
(U
c
<u
c
o
c
<u
00 00 00 00 00

-o t3 -O T3 B
c 3 3 3 - -
3
o O O O 3
C/5

ctí
o rsj rsi r^j o m
—
«r)
'—
•/•^
^— o
«A) Tj-
<

C
o
>-.
•4->
C3
o o o o
CU

H
<4-.
c« r<^ m m ^
•4->

00

_c
«3
C/3
(U
O
o
>-
ÛH
o
o
CQ
(+H
o
b
CJ
S
S
3
C/2

(^
'"' 00
C« 00
.O
c c 00
< •
••-> 00 'OÛ _c
•—. "C
v^M
(U >
• fim^ c (U
o C3 (U
Tab
Act

'E (U
cS
•4->
T3
•4-J

o
o ttí U
c/í O
H
 116

e3 C3 ed ed etí ed
xi >-i k. k- ^ V-i k.
00 (U (U (U (U (U (U
C c c(U
c<u c(U (U c<u (U
00 00 00 00 00 oi:

"O
c "O "O T3 "O T3 T3
3 3 3 3 3 3 3
o O O O O O O
C/5

e(J «r)
<U O o «r^
•T) «n o r-j
r\i
^ "^
< «r^

cn
C
O rsi
•4-»
ON ON ''l- o o o <N
c«
cu

c3
•4-> o o o — ^ — r^
00

C/)

s
o
o
>-
••->
c«
<U
ûí
<u
•C
•4-.

<+H

o
(U
t\
s-Public

ori s- Priva
Private

c<J
le- ublic

s
ivate
blic

S
3
3 <u >-. <u
00 a.
IJO

1 o. ^ C/3
(U cS •4—>
ale

03
lo
o E > E > ••->

c«
H < 2 o e^
H 2 <U
tlH
H
cS o
H
H
 117

00
e<J c3
c >-. >-i
.— <u (U
•4->
00 c c
(U
00 <D
00

c < <
3
o Z Z
C/3

c3
o «n «r^ o
(N 04 «o

c«
•4->
00

c
2
•4->
C3
C/3
•4-»
cu
_c
'5
(U
o
c
c<J
c
(U
•4->
•S
'S
<u
JC
•4—
<4-4

o
C3

3
00 (U (U
C/1 C/3

_o ^
O o
C/l C/3
">.. "v- C/3
(U > O O
••->
4-^
"^
C 'S O
<I^ ec
 118

'5
3 <u
E
<u
k-
* CC
c3 * * g
O
O"
CA
(U * •»
o
* eo
D. "^
C/3 o^

O.
o
T3
OO
I
^O

(U * 00
N *
'c^
'53

E
o
o
o
3

s C/3
o
o
00 o C/D
(U
•->
c "O C/)

C3
O
-5
C3 _o
"C O
O (U (U C3 C
••->
H Q^ cu 00

C
(U C/3
S WJ
•2" C
'3 • ^M

E
w VH
00
_c
>-
<u
'5 '> H
c -C
(U
V-
(U
(U o Æ ••->
< • E <u co 3
. a C/) 00
c o O-
'5 3 E
C<J o^ e« o etí
o
H W H
•4—>
H C/3 U
 119

T)
C
<u e3
-C C
H
00 00 00 00 c« O O
c _c c c _o U >H
•Í2 '-^
•—>
C
•*-»
Æ Æ -C "C c
00 00 c3 o <u
00 00 >-l
>-
-D
cS Z
cS cS <
H C/3
(U <u I-.
c c
<U (U t2 <u C3
o o c c
cJ 3
O
o «2
o o (U
o o ûx)
cs
cS
o . cc
(N '-
«rí u^ 00
-o (U c C3
c 03 <u
c3 o
OJJ O C3
Ql
c c GO

1 o
C/3
TJ
C/3
T3
C
cJ
(U (U 04
s ^ c
«4^H O S2:
<3N

C •*-' c/)
<U
a3 o O
15
*- ^ ûU
-o
C/3 (U
•- 73
— C
C/)
>-. — (U
o (U
00 «^3 E
(u S^ T3
CO o S
O 73 fc
o
I 2
Dí cs H 2^
U c^
CQ U û W
 120

c3

CS

•Q
c
_o
••->
cJ
3
o
t—

'G

(U
>-l
3
00
 121

in
C
O
^^
o
<u
^ • i ^
c
^^ o
o
U •4->
cS
„— 00 N
e« c
* ^"
"c^
'c
o
(U C/3 c3
Cu (U 00
c/^ o
*N
u-
o
c/> o. cd
ica

O
o t;
T3 o (U
_o OQ
"iZ »> >
(U c
CU o r4
r\

-^ C3 < •

C/3
O w-
•4—> C/3 (U
C/3 .^ 3
Q 'c o 00
c C3
•4->

o 'Ê 00
•p T3
,5 < S
o 3 rv
o
o
irc

E >-l o
OOj

3
C o >
0—0
T3 U O c/) c
C #N
ti.
3
•4—>
<u -^
O -5 o. O D. cS
c
•4—>
3 o. O o
o W < B H pd,
00
 122

X
(U
•4->
c
o
U
<u
•4->

'c^
m
< •

(U
>-
3
00
 APPENDIX B

WRIGHT'S' FROBELIAN

EDUCATION

Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) was an eminent educator and a major influence on the

work of Wright. Wright repeatedly acknowledged the influence of this man's

educational system in his works which has made Friedrich Froebel the object of many

scholar's cunosity. The Joumal of the Socictv of Architectural Historians contains an

article by Jeanne S. Rubin on the subject, written from an educator's point of view, titled,

"The Froebel-Wright Kindergarten Connection: A New Perspective." Rubin asserts in the

conclusion of the article that the kindergarten trained Wright "to see beyond appearances

and to think beyond the known."^^^ The word kindergarten has a very different meaning

from the current usage of the word. Originally, kindergartens provided training through

all age levels from seven and a half years of age to the university level.^^^ Wright began

his education m this system at nine years of age which is within the range of starting ages

for most of the versions of this system. Froebel's system relied on the student discovering

what needed to be leamed instead of leading the student through rote memory.

Froebel was not originally an educator. His previous career was that of a

ciystallographer and assistant to the distinguished scientist, Christian Samuel Weis, who

made some historic contributions to crystallography dunng Froebel's employment. This

^^^Jeami^S. Rubin, "The Froebel-Wnght Kindergarten Connection^ A New^ ^^

Perspective," Societv of Architectural Histonans. Joumal vol. 38, marcn iv , -

- T h e Froebel kindergartens often differed in actual ages of the students. Ib.d., 25.

123
 124
association becomes important because "...Froebel's didactic materials, their prescnbed

usage, and his educational philosophy derive largely from the science of

crystallography."''' Froebel had observed that the developmental processes of

everything, organic or inorganic, followed the same principle: the processes tend to

develop from within, maintaining a balance of the inner and outer forces.^^^ This is very

similar to one of the main themes of the European romantic movement, that a person's

ideas form the person as much as experience. The main thmst of the Froebelean system

was the stimulation of self motivation in the leaming process through lessons disguised

as play. It was assumed that as the student leamed how to see and think, the student

would discover natural laws on his own which would allow the student to apply them in

whatever fíeld that they chose to pursue.^^^ This suggests that the natural laws were

considered universal. Froebel stated that his kindergarten concept was based on the

following four natural laws, which he did not claim to have discovered:

... (1) Law of Unity, uniting all entities -functioning as

wholes unto themselves-in their role as parts of larger and
larger wholes extending toward the ultimate whole; (2)
Law of Opposites, contrasting each entity with a
complementary polarity; (3) Law of Development,
developing each entity through a series of
transformations-no matter how infínitesimal-from ongin
onward; (4) Law of Connections, connecting all
developmental transformations along a continuum of time,
all paired polarities along a continuum of contrast, and
binding all parts to their respective wholes as well as to the

235
Ibid.

-ThisRubin
Germany. .s from the the
notes fírstsim.larity
edit.on oftothe Education^fNM,
Wrighfs P"''''*«f'"'^f^^,;''
formula for orgamc arch.tecture. ,bid

237
Ibid.
 125
ultimate whole. Froebel turther ventured that these laws
govemed the development of all matter, from the smallest
particle to the cosmos, a theory then tentatively projected
and now generally accepted."*

Rubin claims that these laws contain Wright's defínition of organic architecture, but it is

more likely that these "laws" are only one of the sources of Wright's organic architecture.

238
Ibid., 30
126
 PERMISSION TO COPY

In presenting this thesis in partial fulfiHment of the

requirei ients for a master's degree at Texas Tech University or

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, I agree that the Library

and my major department shall make i t freely available for research

purposes. Permission to copy this thesis for scholarly purposes may

be granted by the Director of the Library or my major professor. It

is understood that any copying or publication of this thesis for

financial gain shall not be allowed without my further written

permission and that any user may be liable for copyright infringement.

Agree (Permission is granted.)

Student's Signature Date

Disagree (Permission is not granted.)

Student's Signature ^^^^