Wright Chat

[SDR]

Congratulations on seeing it through. We haven't had a construction report like this on Wright Chat before, and I hope there will be others.

What this house could teach anyone about Frank Lloyd Wright remains a mystery to me. But I find that floor quite intriguing. Perhaps that's something to import to the next project. . .



SDR

[DRN]

Sad news, Mobius.
Stay in touch, and keep us posted on your next house.

[Mobius]

Thanks for the encouragement. I will be building again, that's for sure. Where and when, I have no idea.

As for the stone carpet. I do not think I will re-use it. It was 4 times the price of decent carpet, and it is not a good floor for lying on, or walking barefoot on. It is incredibly striking to look at, and it will never wear out, but it doesn't provide the luxury or softness I desire. The effect would be toned down a lot with rugs, but I will probably go with cork tiles on the next floor.

Cork is now available in a range of amazing colours - or just plain - which I prefer. I grew up in the first house in my city to have Cork on the floor, and I can't think of a better flooring product on top of a concrete pad. It is soft, warm, clean, easy to clean, natural, things don't break when they hit it, they absorb noise very well, and stop echoes. With UV-proof double glazing, they won't fade with time. Every 10 years or so you sand the surface and re-polyurethane. Simple.

The only reason we chose Stonecarpet was because Emma hates Cork. I fought long and hard for it. And lost.

SDR - you're right - I doubt anyone can learn anything about FLW from my experience - but I sure did. I couldn't even begin to describe how much I've learned, unless I wrote a book - which I am not about to do.

What I can say is that anyone who chooses to create a house based on one of FLWs designs should expect to learn a very great deal, and to spend a great deal of money. They will also discover that it simply is not possible to build a house today as Lloyd Wright would have wanted.

I have learned, I think, that the "L" shape of the typical Usonian is a brilliant and stunning way to build a house, and I will stick with that pattern. having all bedrooms open directly to the outside with double or triple-folding doors is fantastic, and changes the entire way one lives in a house.

I have made a decision that I am going to incorporate a library into the hallway of the next house, so as to actually use the space, as opposed to turning it into "dead" space used only to access rooms. I have even begun initial drawings of exactly how to turn a 1.8 metre wide corridor into a colonade-library with alcove. Windows will line the floor to avoid direct sunlight. It's a concept I'll play with (in SketchUp Pro) for years, I'm sure.
_________________
How many escape pods are there? "NONE, SIR!" You counted them? "TWICE, SIR!"

*Plotting to take over the world since 1965

[SDR]

The dual-use passage sounds like an excellent idea. Wright did sometimes place shelves in his "galleries" -- but the floor-level glass
(augmented by a balancing clerestory strip as well ?) seems like an original and worthy contribution. And I certainly approve of cork flooring
-- something else unknown to Wright as far as I know.

Indeed, there is no need to lean on Wright at all when building one's own home, even when we deeply admire what he built. I guess you must
have visited the Jacobs house, for it to affect you so deeply ? Surely it was more than the floor plan which made the house appealing ? In the
end that's about all that connects your labor of love to his -- from what I can see. And there is so much more to Wright than the shape of the floor
plan: Warm natural material and color palette, rich patterning wrought from those materials, calculated variation of ceiling height giving spacial
variety, the glowing hearth at the center. . .I see none of this in your handsome if cool environment. Maybe you'll try again to achieve these
effects ? Or give up on Wright and use your own very capable imagination (and all you've learned from this house) to come up with yet
another original composition ?

SDR

[Education Professor]

SDR...I seem to vaguely recall that cork floor tiles were used at Fallingwater in the bathroom....I don't know of any other use of cork by FLLW though........

EP
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EP

[SDR]

Yes, I think you're right.

Perhaps he did everything, at least once, that every other modernist also did ? Pipe rails, frosted glass, stack-bond block, perforated screens, see-thru
fireplaces, etc etc -- all the tropes. Why not ? Of course, he would claim to have done them first. . .!

I just read in John Lloyd Wright's "My Father, Frank Lloyd Wright" (originally published as "My Father Who Is on Earth") about Wright's pioneering of the
wall-hung toilet -- at Larkin, wasn't it ? * At least I think that's where I read it. The author (anyway) tells us that Wright never patented any of his innovations. . .

I really do recommend this little book. There is so much of Wright -- not described or quoted elsewhere -- in its pages.

SDR

* p 129

[dkottum]

For the record, in the Hagen House (Kentuck Knob) Mrs. Hagen asked for and got a cork floor in the kitchen, or "workspace" as Wright preferred to call it.

[DavidC]

Usonian Home (Jacobs 1-derived) in Christchurch, NZ (2008) - [14:32]


David

[hypnoraygun]

Mobius, Are you still around? Did you ever get going on house #2? Just curious..