Beautiful and appropriate FLW DESERT design concepts

[pharding]

Pat of the beauty of FLW is the way that his buildings responded to their environment and local climate. What are examples of design concepts and design details for the desert climate?

[DRN]

First and foremost, shade and filtering of wanted daylight; then, capture of breeze, but shelter from dusty wind; oasis: an element of water to counter the dryness of the desert; thermal mass: the desert can have wide daily temperature swings capture heat in the day and release it at night.

[pharding]

Desert stone in concrete walls.

[SDR]

What is the real reason for Wright's invention/use of large stones in cast-in-place concrete ? Purely an aesthetic choice -- desert contextualism ? A way to make a given amount of concrete go further ? Both ?

This matter would seem beside the point of the practical problems mentioned by DRN, and their solutions . . .

SDR

[Rood]

What is the real reason for Wright's invention/use of large stones in cast-in-place concrete ? Purely an aesthetic choice -- desert contextualism ? A way to make a given amount of concrete go further ? Both ?

This matter would seem beside the point of the practical problems mentioned by DRN, and their solutions . . .SDR

As large, flat-faced stones were scattered over the desert floor, it must have seemed perfectly natural, appropriate, and eminently practical to use them, along with sand and gravel taken directly from desert washes, to construct the walls and piers at Taliesin West, particularly as most all construction was done not by professional builders, but by student apprentices.

However, the basic concept of pouring concrete into temporary walls of wood, lined with stones, was a system popularized not by FLLWright, but by Architect Ernest Flagg, as outlined in his book: Flagg's Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction, 1922 (a work republished by Dover Publications, Inc. in 2006). A copy of Flagg's book was in Mr. Wright's library.

[SDR]

All well and good. But couldn't it be said that an even simpler and less labor-intensive concrete wall would have no decorative stones in it ?

Have you read Flagg ? Do you recall his motivation for including the stones ?

SDR

[clydethecat]

Wright didn't invent brick, stucco, or board-and-batten either...

[Roderick Grant]

Flagg's houses were stone with mortar, perfectly vertical walls of consistent thickness, not all that different from standard construction in appearance. They were also built in New York, which has somewhat different weather conditions from Arizona. Flagg's structure was stone; FLW's Desert Stone was structurally concrete, the stones playing no part in the integrity of the structure.

Flagg's real contribution was the interior non-structural walls comprised of hemp netting stretched between wood structure and covered with layers of plaster, applied in tandem by plasterers on either side of the wall, built up to less than 3" thickness. The weight of the wet plaster ensured that the walls would hang true. As of an issue of Fine Homebuilding in the 80s, his houses had survived in wonderful condition, with not even hairline cracks in the plaster walls. (He was also a very good architect.)

[DRN]

Wright's desert masonry has seemed to me to be concrete: walls, pylons, and slabs, with some outsized aggregate placed with intention. The effect it renders is a more naturalistic and visually rich surface than standard concrete even with local sand and/or exposed local aggregate.

The idea of using the stone as filler to reduce concrete content may have been in play considering the frugal times in which the method arose, but my theory is the aesthetics drove the decision making.

[Roderick Grant]

According to Geiger, there was some "junk" thrown into the inner volumes to save on concrete costs without compromising structural integrity.

[Rood]

According to Geiger, there was some "junk" thrown into the inner volumes to save on concrete costs without compromising structural integrity.

The heavy, seemingly three-foot "thick" stone wall and fireplace located between the draughting room and the kitchen at Taliesin West ... is completely hollow. The cantilevered portion jutting into the kitchen is supported by an old steel car frame, set on end inside that hollow space. It was there in plain sight, when another apprentice and I were repairing the back wall of the fireplace, which had deteriorated to such an extent that smoke was pouring into the kitchen, through both walls.

And, yeah, everything from bottles to tin cans were often thrown into the center of walls in an effort to save on the cost of cement, which must have been the first major expense when building the complex. Only much later, when finances were more stable, were some walls built solid. Eventually a few walls even incorporated steel reinforcing rods.

[SDR]

Architecture as scenography ? Or, "Don't build what you can afford, build what you can dream . . ."

I like that better; I think Howard Roark said that.

SDR

[pharding]

What are other FLW strategies for a design in a desert climate?

[DRN]

-shade and filtering of wanted daylight

-capture of breeze, but shelter from dusty wind

-oasis: an element of water to counter the dryness of the desert

[peterm]

Sparse use of wood, due to damage caused by hot and dry weather, and resulting rot or fire damage. (Think Pawson, and note that in later designs, Wright used wood more sparingly...)

Broad overhangs with the exception of north facing rooflines.

Flat or shed roofs with relatively low pitch.

Native landscaping and sparse use of lawns.

A feeling of antiquity and referencing the "primitive", often hinting at Native American architecture and design.

Colors echoing nearby stone and plants.

Forms echoing nearby geographical formations.

Use of canvas tent like screens.

South facing glass (northern hemisphere)