Wright Chat

Today we formally introduce architect Hugo Avila to Wright Chat readers. Let Mr Avila tell you about himself:

"I'm 42 years old. I am Ecuadorian, I live in Cuenca, Ecuador. I am an architect graduated from the University of Cuenca. I am dedicated to the design and construction of houses. I have always been interested in the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright and I really enjoy modeling in 3d and for many years I have modeled several of his projects."

Hugo Avila's work is already known to members of the very popular Wright Attitude group at facebook. Wright Chatter Jay has graciously forwarded a little of the work of Mr Avila to me for my enjoyment, and I have been invited to share his work here.


The newest digital model from the board and screen of Hugo Avila is a rendering of Wright's second house for Alma Goetsch and Katherine Winckler, for whom he had designed one of the better-known early Usonian houses, in Okemos, Michigan, in 1939. Ten years later, desiring a larger residence, the women returned to Wright for a new house, which remained unbuilt---until now ?

(Readers are reminded that images posted on this site can be enlarged to their full native size by reopening them in a new tab; right-click on an image for this option. The tab URL will appear at the top of your screen.)






















Illustrations © copyright 2020 by Hugo Avila

Mr Avila has made use of some of the material posted below, in the realization of Goetsch-Winckler II. A standard reference for the Goetsch-Winckler opus is "Affordable Dreams," published in 1991 as a special issue of the Kresge Art Museum Bulletin, in conjunction with an exhibit of the same name on the house(s), mounted by the museum in 1990.

The last two illustrations in the publication, Plates 29 and 30, show the unbuilt second Goetsch-Winckler house.

Here are those drawings, and the descriptive material in the Bulletin that accompanies them. View drawing T.5006.012 is published in monotone in "Affordable Dreams" and in color in Taschen III; here is the colored version. The drawings in the Bulletin depict the first of two iterations of this house.

T.5006.012




T.5006.014

In contrast to this first plan, the second and final version of the work reduced the footprint and substituted standard concrete block for the brick of the first version---as described in Bruce Pfeiffer's text in Monograph 8, below. I will show the monotone version of this second plan, as published in the Monograph.

T.5006.017




And finally, the elevation sheet, also from the Monograph. It is this second version of Goetsch-Winckler which Hugo has recreated.

T.5006.018

Drawings © The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)

Such a pleasure to see these unbuilt Usonians come to life....!

Amazing work!

We're going to see more. Avila has done several models in the past year, and we'll look at some of those. The views really reward the effort to enlarge them. Such nice textures; such rich landscapes. Wait til you see the next one . . .

S

SDR wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 29, 2020 4:50 pm

Today we formally introduce architect Hugo Avila to Wright Chat readers. Let Mr Avila tell you about himself:

"I'm 42 years old. I am Ecuadorian, I live in Cuenca, Ecuador. I am an architect graduated from the University of Cuenca. I am dedicated to the design and construction of houses. I have always been interested in the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright and I really enjoy modeling in 3d and for many years I have modeled several of his projects."

Hugo Avila's work is already known to members of the very popular Wright Attitude group at facebook. Wright Chatter Jay has graciously forwarded a little of the work of Mr Avila to me for my enjoyment, and I have been invited to share his work here.


The newest digital model from the board and screen of Hugo Avila is a rendering of Wright's second house for Alma Goetsch and Katherine Winckler, for whom he had designed one of the better-known early Usonian houses, in Okemos, Michigan, in 1939. Ten years later, desiring a larger residence, the women returned to Wright for a new house, which remained unbuilt---until now ?

(Readers are reminded that images posted on this site can be enlarged to their full native size by reopening them in a new tab; right-click on an image for this option. The tab URL will appear at the top of your screen.)



Illustrations © copyright 2020 by Hugo Avila

Mr Avila has made use of some of the material posted below, in the realization of Goetsch-Winckler II. A standard reference for the Goetsch-Winckler opus is "Affordable Dreams," published in 1991 as a special issue of the Kresge Art Museum Bulletin, in conjunction with an exhibit of the same name on the house(s), mounted by the museum in 1990.

The last two illustrations in the publication, Plates 29 and 30, show the unbuilt second Goetsch-Winckler house.

Here are those drawings, and the descriptive material in the Bulletin that accompanies them. View drawing T.5006.012 is published in monotone in "Affordable Dreams" and in color in Taschen III; here is the colored version. The drawings in the Bulletin depict the first of two iterations of this house.

In contrast to this first plan, the second and final version of the work reduced the footprint and substituted standard concrete block for the brick of the first version---as described in Bruce Pfeiffer's text in Monograph 8, below. I will show the monotone version of this second plan, as published in the Monograph.


And finally, the elevation sheet, also from the Monograph. It is this second version of Goetsch-Winckler which Hugo has recreated.


Drawings © The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)

Amazing.! I have seen his renders in Wright Attitude. He is from my country, I'm from Ecuador as well. As you can see, Wright's legacy is beyond USA. It's a pain that we don't have several books, monographs or any kind of info that you have there. Anyway the devotion is intact..!!

Total 3d envy! Stephen, would you mind asking if he'd be interested in giving (what else) Taliesin I its proper due?

I will pass that along. And I will invite Mr Avila to join us here, if he wishes. He writes "The rendering process is very complex and time consuming, but I enjoy [it] every time."

S

There is an inconsistency in the main façade: The large gable over the living room windows is repeated below by a second gable flush with the upper roof, creating a deep recess with clerestory windows in the living room, a sort of massive pigeon roost. This seems to be consistent with the elevation on T.5006.018 that is posted here. However, in Taschen, page 200, a perspective of that face shows the upper gable and flanking horizontal elements as Avila has represented it, while what is drawn as the lower gable is actually part of the fenestration of the inner glass wall. The elevation argues in favor of Avila's assumption, but the perspective seems to me much more logical. The elevation may have been a misreading by the apprentice that drew it. The same goes for the detail on the opposite side of the house, with that partial gable.

Study of the materials and the texts reveals that there were two versions of this house. The first and larger iteration is represented in the black-and-white plan and the colored lakeside view; the elevations and the colored plan represent the final design. Mr Avila has modeled the later version.

S

It would be wonderful if we could have a book of life-like renderings of all of the 500+ unbuilt projects.

Wouldn't it ! Well, little by little, we are getting there; we have three or four professional digital modelers working their way through the canon, project by project, with the great majority of these being unrealized designs. We may get to your proposed goal yet . . . ?

S

Great work. Saw it on a Facebook group. That double gable over the living room is odd, as is the double half-gable by that section of perforated block....another bird or squirrel nest invitation. What's the software used to create such images?

As noted above, we've been fortunate enough to enjoy Hugo's work at the Wright Attitude - along with several other outstanding renderers - for some time. To me, nothing is as thrilling as "walking through" an unbuilt design. To those who would advocate investing in rebuilding lost or unbuilt Wrights, I would humbly submit the experience of quality virtual work such as this - and it can be done at a fraction of the cost.

That said, what we repeatedly hear is the problem of finding projects with drawing sets sufficiently developed to allow such complete models to be created, and the challenge of acquiring the drawing sets. Most of you know the catalog far better than I; any recommendations for future projects that meet the above requirements will be passed along giddily ...

Let us then proceed. The Frank Wheeler project of 1946 has its own thread at Wright Chat, but I'll repost (at larger size) Mr Avila's 12 images, and the supporting material, all of which (other than a short text in Taschen III) came from Taliesin drawings sold at auction.

























Illustrations © copyright 2020 by Hugo Avila


















Unusual details of the Wheeler project include, on the plan, a long and narrow workshop space within the bedroom wing; the tapered rafter tails to the roof framing, and the tapered planks cladding their soffits; a novel method of glazing the fixed and the operating perf panels; and the fascia trim. The perf pattern is a variant on that for the Carleton Wall residence.

On the site plan, the workshop space is connected to the adjacent terrace via a series of openings, which do not appear on the floor plan drawing.

S

There are a host of unbuilt block houses worthy of study. The advantage is that they are all contained within a three dimensional grid that could make the task much easier: Just count and multiply.