precedent study

The Guggenheim Museum

Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum in New York serves a communal purpose. Guggenheim's structures are intended for gatherings that could engender a sense of community and shared purpose.

The architectural idea behind the Guggenheim Museum is to provide an ample, light filled space to preside at the core of the structure. It enshrines a central space ideally illuminated with light filtered from above. The museum also has a natural tendency to turn in on itself and embrace a protected, inward looking space that essentially turns its back on its surroundings. In other words, it means that the central space willingly accepts the gathering of people. In contrast, Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright has an extroverted spatial order.

The Guggenheim Museum stands as a monument to Wright's tenacious hold on his architectural principles of organic architecture. Organic architecture remained as the foundation of his art throughout his career. Organic architecture was based both on inspiration from nature and buildings should be simple, individual in character and in harmony with their surroundings. This building brought fluid geometry fully under the control of guiding principles and emulated the seashells.

'A building should appear to grow easily from its site and be shaped

to harmonize with its surroundings.'

Frank Lloyd Wright

Reference:

Paul Laseau and James Tice, Frank Lloyd Wright : Between Principle and Form (Van Nostrand, 1992),117-120.