SDG Detail

ARTH 17410 : Frank Lloyd Wright in Chicago and Beyond

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Project description

This course looks at Wright�s work from multiple angles, examining his architecture and urbanism and his relationship to the built environment and socio-cultural context of his lifetime. We�ll take advantage of the celebrated Robie House on campus and of Wright�s other early work in greater Chicago; we�ll also think about his later �Usonian� houses for middle-income clients and the contextual framework he imagined for his work (�Broadacre City�), as well as his Wisconsin headquarters (Taliesin), and spectacular works like the Johnson Wax Factory, Fallingwater, and the Guggenheim Museum. By examining one architect�s work in context, students will gain experience analyzing buildings and their siting, and interpreting them in light of their complex ingredients and circumstances. In so doing, the course introduces students to thinking about architecture and urbanism in broad terms. To this end, the first half of the course is organized around a series of themes important to architecture in general (e.g., �expressing function�) and the second half examines the question of consistency and change in an individual architect�s career, including changes in design technique (e.g., ways of designing sequences of spaces and vistas) and the problem of legacy (e.g., what to do with old buildings, especially famous ones, that no longer work as originally intended).