Frank Lloyd Wright: Natural Design, Organic Architecture: Lessons for Building Green from an American Original

An unsung prophet of these days’s green movement in architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright was once an innovator of eco-sensitive design generations ahead of his time. An architect and designer of far-reaching vision, it isn’t surprising that Frank Lloyd Wright anticipated some of the hallmarks of these days’s green movement. Across his work—which stands upon a philosophy Wright termed “organic”—widespread evidence is seen of a refined sensitivity to environment, to social organization as impacted by buildings, and to sustainable and sensible use of space. The desire to work and live with nature to create livable homes and cities is an ongoing theme of American architecture and planning. This book explores Wright’s lessons on how climate, sustainability, sunlight, brand new technology, local materials, and passive environmental controls can change into the inspiration for very good design, and highlights a choice of Wright’s buildings to turn how he dealt with these issues. The book is organized by the green concepts Wright used—including passive solar design and using thermal massing, passive berm insulation, environmentally sensitive landscaping, passive ventilation systems, passive natural light, and intelligent and artful adaptation of technology—with examples from different houses. It shows how Wright evolved certain ideas that continue to spur discussions of green architecture design these days.