{"product_id":"the-wright-space-pattern-and-meaning-in-frank-lloyd-wrights-houses","title":"The Wright Space: Pattern and Meaning in Frank Lloyd Wright's Houses","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"In both early and late life \" write Grant Hildebrand  Wright had an enormous number of domestic clients. ... They came to his drawing board in droves  and  having seen through to completion their adventure with him  they were  by and large  ecstatic about what they got. ...Many of these clients subsequently returned to Write for another house  and sometimes more than one....  \"Yet few houses of equal fame have embodied more conspicuous faults. Many of Wrights plans defy reasonable furniture arrangements  many frustrate even the storage of reasonable and treasured possessions. In many cases sever problems afflict the architectural fabric: leaking roofs  unserviceable detailing  even structural inadequacies. ...There were problems of personality as well. ...Many of Wrights clients found him arrogant  careless  slow  and misleading  and were not by any means always amused by his temperament. And there are more vague and subjective difficulties  for the sheer power of these house as dramatic exercises in space and form can intimidate the...acts of ordinary daily life: how does on have a casual conversation in the Robie house dining room  or hang a cherished delicate picture in a Usonian?\"  If  then  these houses lacked so many of the usual aspects of satisfaction  why were they built with such profusion  and valued so highly?  In this book thirty-three of Wrights domestic buildings  including all of the major houses on which his significance depends  are analyzed in detail in terms of their spatial characteristics. Fireplaces  seating  ceiling form  glazing  terraces  and roof overhangs are seen to follow a repetitive organization or pattern characterized by complementary juxtapositions of what the English geographer Jay Appleton calls \"prospect\" (a condition in which one can see over a considerable distance) and \"refuge\" (a place where one can hide). According to Appletons theory of landscape aesthetics  this juxtaposition offers the ability to see without being seen (or to hunt successfully without being  in turn  successfully hunted) and thus  eons ago  had survival value. But such a condition must have been sought  originally  because it was intrinsically pleasurable to our species. Hildebrand finds a striking correlation in Wrights houses. Wrights pattern of prospect and refuge  to which are added similarly derived qualities of complexity and order  is show to be unique in domestic architecture to the degree to which it provides these preferred characteristics  suggesting why  in spite of serious drawbacks  his house were built and valued by so many clients.  The text of the book is enhanced by photographs  plans  and by nine exquisitely drawn diagrams of key dwellings specially prepared by William Hook. Addressed to architects  landscape architects  architectural historians  environmental psychologist  anthropologists  philosophers of aesthetics  and the lay public with an interest in these subjects  The Wright Space  is essential reading for anyone who has ever lived in  looked at  or studied Frank Lloyd Wrights remarkable houses.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44964551524405,"sku":"ByrdShop_0295971088","price":43.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780295971087.jpg?v=1770465861","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-wright-space-pattern-and-meaning-in-frank-lloyd-wrights-houses","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}