Louis Kahn's Fisher House

Russel Wright is an American industrial designer and architect that lived during the early to mid twentieth century. Many of Wright’s ideas and designs were considered to modern at time, drawing influences from not only ingenious designers like Frank Lloyd Wright but nature as well. Wright’s influences would lead him to create a design style unlike any at the time; a style that would eventually become almost standard in many homes in the United States. The designer Russel Wright and his wife, Mary Wright together published a guidebook known as Guide to Easier Living. In it contains numerous suggestions and thoughts on home architecture, interior design, as well as product design. Many of the thoughts and suggestions conveyed in the book can be seen in present-day design and architecture. Wright’s book also laid the groundwork for his home, Dragon Rock, which of itself possesses elements of design that are seen in today’s homes. Russel Wright’s Guide to Easier Living is clearly a response to interior design at the time; containing numerous design ideas, Wrights guide influences Wright’s own future works.

Walking from downtown Salisbury, one finds him or herself approaching the cathedral from the northeast at an oblique angle. Although there is one sidewalk that approaches the façade straight on, all other paths lead to the building at some sort of oblique angle, giving the building a sense of plasticity or three-dimensionality. This concept of plasticity and approaching the building at and angle dates back to the Greeks, and causes the viewer to think more about the form and scale of the building than if they were to approach the structure from a 90 degree angle. In contrast, if one were to approach the cathedral from the west, he or she will notice the planar west façade and its horizontality, which clearly resembles the screen-type façade seen at Wells Cathedral. In both Salisbury and Wells Cathedrals, the west facades

The building is four stories high made of brick, tile, and concrete. The east façade also has Classical features such as a frieze, dentils, cornice, raking cornice, entablature and an architrave. The front of the façade was adorned with floral coffers, corbels, as well as post and lintels (Photo 2).

A lot has happened in architecture since Louis Kahn death in 1974, some of it are really good, some are dreadful and we have different preferences about which is which. However, Kahn’s work look better than ever on its own terms. Better in its solidity and gravity. He was an architect of beautiful contradictions and one of the few to create architectural elements out of scale with the human figure. His buildings are very elegantly designed but are constructed of basic, often crude materials. Consisting of

homes made of planks from cedar. There were no windows on the house itself, but there is a

Looking back at the main building lies the main east façade with its beautiful porch leading up to the main structure. The size and exquisite decor is what takes the mind of the city view and into the past of a revival architecture. Constructed by Henry C. Trost from Trost & Trost Architects & Engineers, this building serves as a revival evoking memories from Greece and Rome. The façade itself consists of six shafts or columns which indicate the ionic part of the Corinthian style structure. The Corinthian style capitals are a piece of work; they take the viewer back in time. The Corinthian leaves and beautifully carved flowers are clearly visible as if time had no effect on the buff terra cotta. The detail is acute and precise, to the extent that beautiful is a dull word to describe the vision. The bases of the columns are like a perfect structure that hold a grand shaft that leads to beauty on top. Furthermore, each column is big, no, in fact they are huge, they are elegant in their design and seem to fit one another as they stand side by side. Above the six columns lies the architrave. The architrave is a small part of the structure but fine to the last detail, it is astonishing the level of perfection that was achieved down to the last inch of this structure. Above all this is a

The Vogelstein addition is unique in that is combines two dramatically different styles in the same building. The addition respects its predecessor, while borrowing from, and reinterpreting the original. The mass of Vogelstein acts to balance the overwhelming presence of Avery’s façade, as the addition’s layers hint at the building’s depth, while remaining far less distinctive. The windows are highlighted with burnt orange window frames, comparative to the white window frames that dominate the façade. While different colors, the color contrast itself is complementary, as it serves to highlight the windows in both structures. Further, while much simpler in shape, these windows serve to continue the building’s tradition, without dominating focal attention. The glass doors reflect the façade’s windows, while the glass towers reinterpret both elements, acting as a transition. The canopy above the entrance is orange as well, creating a sense of balance between each of the building’s

Neo-classical designs with a touch of Romanesque, hence the pillars and the A-line pitched roof, the dome on top of the roof and Modern design from the use of brick facade. The home also has bay style walls to show somewhat of a roundest to it, but not like the other structures as mentioned above. The columns used on this house seem to be more of Ionic order, slender fluted pillars.

It is a 12-foot-high and 72 x 72 foot piece, it is relatively large in size, one can observe it by looking at the piece from different angles. This piece is made of grass, concrete, composite steel, granite, plaster, paint and programmed LED lights. The installed LED lights are programmed to change just before sunrise and sunset. The symmetrical balance of the piece conveys a sense of stability. The diagonal lines of the stairs suggest a feeling of movement, also the thin vertical line of the pole makes the roof look like it is floating. Turrell took this image from a low angle and we as viewers are drawn to look upwards and forward through the doors and into the

Many of those buildings were being developed in his mind while he was growing up and spending summers on his uncle’s farm. It was during this time that he developed his love for Nature, to be a part of it. His love for Nature is dominant in his earlier works dubbed the “Prairie Houses”, but can also been seen in his later works such as Johnson Wax and the Guggenheim Museum. When Frank Lloyd Wright was just sixty-eight years old, he was commissioned to design a house for Edgar Kaufmann. Wright and Kaufmann went to the property to survey the location for the house. Kaufmann liked to spend time at the water falls on his land so that is where Wright decided to build it. Wright figured if Nature could place the boulders over a waterfall, than he could build a house over one. It took Wright only three hours to draw the plans for the house. The house consists basically of concrete slabs balanced on the boulders above the stream, and the walls are slabs of the natural rock surrounding the house. The house includes a pool that is built under the house and is fed by the passing stream. Every aspect of the house embraces the Nature that it co-exists with, and the house appears to fade into its surroundings.

In 1887, Wright worked with Louis Sullivan in Chicago, a well-known architect of the time who also wanted to separate from European style, until 1893. After Wright had stopped working with Sullivan’s firm, he made what is considered his first masterpiece, his home in Oak Park, Illinois known as the Frank Lloyd Wright home and studio. This structure was also his first work designed with his “Prairie” style. This style involved single-story homes with many horizontal lines, spacious living areas, and many casement windows. They were built with nearby materials and the wood used was not painted, expressing natural beauty. Wright later designed many more of his works in this styles, such as the Robie House and Unity Temple. In later years, he designed more well-known buildings, such as Taliesin, his home in Wisconsin, and Fallingwater, a building built on a waterfall in Pennsylvania. Later, he built public buildings, for instance, the Monona Terrace Civic Center, the SC Johnson Wax Administration, and the Guggenheim Museum. Wright also designed Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel in 1915, which he stated was “earthquake-proof” and, later, ended up being the only building involved in the 1923 Japanese earthquake to remain unscathed. Wright had also designed Usonian houses, which were the predecessors of today’s ranch-style homes. These homes had natural heating and cooling, and included carports, which were invented by Wright. All in all, Wright designed more than 1,100 structures. Frank Lloyd Wright died on April 9th, 1959, at age 91.

The entryways of the building come from four different sides and meet in the middle. The overall shape of the building creates different views and facades. The building was not created just on the looks of it; it is made up of a three dimensional, stimulating, tactile human thing.

The façade of the building has three levels and it is divided by two entablatures. Each level is emphasized by a central element, the portal below, rose window, and royal coat of arms.

Centered in the house is a ramp that takes you on a journey from the underbelly of the house on the ground floor to the main body on the first floor and then on to a roof garden. Throughout the house views of the surrounding nature are framed, your mind is free marvel, as the forms evoke a sense of exploration and delight. Villa Savoye is better experienced than viewed through an image, only then can you understand the greater meaning and purpose that informs its beauty. One might argue that this is not beautiful architecture and a poor example, however upon visiting this house you cannot deny that the house is beautiful in its own right, evoking a response from the occupant. Le Corbusier’s masterpiece is moving; therefore achieving what he believed architecture to be about. This experience and the emotion that is felt can only be described in words. Shapes play a big role in the architecture but clearly the meanings behind are more important.

Capdeivila-Werning (2011) writes that buildings, including the Kampung house, can open our understanding of the unique capabilities of modelling construction materials in specific environments. These houses are not built by commercial architects or designers but by experienced village master builders, through the soul, the hands and labourers of the community. This allows each house to take on a unique personality and character reflecting its inhabitants. “The beauty of this architecture has long been dismissed as accidental, but today we should be able to recognize it as the result of rare good sense in the handling of practical problems. The shape of the houses, sometimes transmitted through a hundred generations, seem eternally valid, like those of their tools” (Rudofsky,1964, p4). A popular design detail introduced in the traditional Kampung house is wood carving which responds to the culture and community. Wood carving is an extremely difficult and precious talent passed down through generations. However, it is a dying practice and has become an expensive business only unique to those interested in the preservation of the Kampung house style and those who appreciate the art. Wood carvings are not only ornamentally aesthetic but have a lot of sacred meanings as well as being visually attractive in the internal living environment as shown in Figure 11. The wood carvings along the walls, windows and door frames often represents stories, depicting different tales