Main entry:

Johnson, Donald Leslie.

Title & Author:

On Frank Lloyd Wright's concrete adobe : Irving Gill, Rudolph Schindler and the American Southwest / Donald Leslie Johnson, University of South Australia, Adelaide.

Publication:

Farnham, Surrey ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, [2013]

Description:

xxviii, 230 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm.

Series:

Studies in architecture

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-215) and index.
Frank Lloyd Wright biography -- Questions, events ... and precast concrete -- The buildings -- The Taylors and the Griffins -- Wright's fiction -- Historians' fiction -- Irving Gill, regionalism and concrete adobe -- Closure ... Schindler and resurgence -- Appendix 1. Irving Gill on architecture ; "Outdoor life in California houses, as expressed in the new architecture of Irving J. Gill / Eloise Roorbach ; Radical western architecture ; Celebrating simplicity in architecture / Eloise Roorbach -- Appendix 2. Introduction ; Frank Lloyd [Wright's] textile-block slab construction / A.N. Rebori.

Summary:

During the period of 1919-1925, Frank Lloyd Wright worked on five houses and a kindergarten in the metropolitan Los Angeles area using concrete blocks as the main building material. These have variously been described as being 'uniquely molded', 'woven like textile fabric' and it was perceived as a groundbreaking, modern or unprecedented construction process. There were moments when Frank Lloyd Wright himself claimed to have invented this system. Many have attempted to uphold his claim, while others said he borrowed from ancient buildings. For the first time, this book brings together Wright's declarations, the assertive support by others and the accuracy of inferences in order to determine the correctness of these claims. It tests their veracity including the possibility of feigned, imagined or made-up stories presented as proof. It examines technical developments for concrete blocks, both by Wright and others, before his experiences in Los Angeles began in 1919. It also analyses the manner of Wright's design process, as well as relevant pictorial and textual documents and a study of those extant buildings. The book provides a unique, in-depth and critical analysis of Wright's concrete block houses, set within their historical, biographical and theoretical contexts. In particular, it shows the full impact upon Wright of his contemporaries, architects Irving Gill and Rudolph Schindler. In doing so, it allows a full appreciation of Wright's, Gill's and Schindler's buildings beyond their architectonic and experiential qualities.

ISBN:

9781409428176 (hardback ; alk. paper)
1409428176 (hardback ; alk. paper)

Subject:

Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959 Criticism and interpretation.
Gill, Irving, 1870-1936 Criticism and interpretation.
Schindler, R. M. (Rudolph M.), 1887-1953 Criticism and interpretation.
Gill, Irving, 1870-1936
Schindler, R. M. (Rudolph M.), 1887-1953
Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959
Concrete houses California Los Angeles Metropolitan Area.
Concrete masonry.
Concrete blocks.
Maçonnerie de béton.
Blocs en béton.
Concrete houses
California Los Angeles Metropolitan Area
Australian.

Form/genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Case studies.
Études de cas.

Added entries:

Ashgate studies in architecture series.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 283417
Call No.: BIB 221615
Status: Available