Frank Lloyd Wright's Essay 'The Architect And The Machine'
551 Words3 Pages
Frank Lloyd Wright talks a great deal about space in his essay The Architect and the Machine. Specifically he talks about how spaces should be laid out on all floors and what spaces should be included and left out. These ideas are also evident in his other essays and in his own work. In the essay The Architect and the Machine, talks about space in a house. He says spaces should be easy to move around in an easy to live in. Although the statement seems very straight forward, it couldn’t be truer. Wright himself says “It should be simple, containing as few rooms as will meet the conditions under which you live.” He goes on to say that people should further improve their lives by considering “improvement in your former habit of living in the interest of simplicity.”…show more content… He puts special importance on the on planning the second floor by saying “Why should your second floor be less carefully planned than this first floor!” The idea is put into perspective when he asks “Are you to pay more respect than to yourself, then perhaps your underclothing is shabby when your hat and coat are fine.” Many of these points Wright makes are not just about a building itself, but the lifestyle of the people in it. One of the most important points Wright makes is about wasted space. In The Architect and the Machine he says closets are to blame. Wright calls them “breeders of disease and poor housekeeping.” I can personally confirm this. Even if it’s not a space created architecturally, a space like the space underneath a bed can breed “disease and poor housekeeping.” I am guilty of simply shoving things underneath my bed to give the illusion of my room being clean. So I can agree with limiting the number of extra spaces to a minimum. Wright also talks about wasted in space in other essays. He talks about it in What “Styles” Mean to the Architect. In this essay he