MODERN CONCEPTS CONCERNING ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE....

... FROM THE WORK OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

The following is guidelines that were addressed to John Lautner's office highlighting (* indicate Lautner's mark) the key rules for reference:

--* PRINCIPLE IS THE SAFE PRECENDENT.

-- THE WORKING OF A PRINCIPLE IS THE ONLY SAFE TRADITION.

-- HUMAN TRADITIONS LIKE STYLES ARE GARMENTS TO BE PUT ON OR TAKEN OFF.

-- FORM IS ORGANIC ONLY WHEN IT IS NATURAL TO MATERIALS AND NATURAL TO FUNCTION.

--* AN ORGANIC FORM GROWS ITS STRUCTURE OUT OF CONDITIONS AS A PLANT GROWS OUT OF SOIL.. BOTH UNFOLD SIMILARLY FROM WITHIN

-- ALL FORM IS AN ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE RESPONDS AND UNFOLDS TO MAN-LIGHT OR HUMAN IMAGINATION AS THE FORM ENTRUSTED TO THE SEED UNFOLDS AND RESPONDS TO THE SUN-LIGHT.

--* AN INNER-LIFE-PRINCIPLE IS A GIFT TO EVERY SEED. AN INNER-LIFE-PRINCIPLE IS ALSO NECESSARY FOR EVERY IDEA OF A GOOD BUILDING.

-- SIMPLICITY WHEN ORGANIC IS SPONTANEOUS INEVITABLE RESULT.

--* SIMPLICITY AND STYLE BOTH ARE CONSEQUENCES NEVER CAUSES.

-- BUILDINGS ARE LIKE TREES WHEN ALLOWED TO BE THEMSELVES.

-- WHO WOULD SAY THE OAK IS GREATER THAN THE ELM
THE WILLOW SUPERIOR THE BIRCH
THE BEECH MORE NOBLE THAN THE PINE
THE APPLE-TREE SUPERIOR TO THEM ALL
EXCEPT FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES.

-- SPECIFIC PURPOSES IS THE QUALIFYING AIM OF ALL CREATION.

--* NATURE IS NOTHING UNLESS SPECIFIC: THE GENUS IS GENERALIZATION BUT EVERY SPECIMEN BORN IS AN INDIVIDUAL EXPRESSION OF THE GENUS... ALL SIMILAR TO INFINITY BUT NO TWO ALIKE. ORGANIC BUILDING ARE LIKEWISE.

-- MONOTONY IS IMPOSSIBLE TO THE WORKING OF PRINCIPLE BECAUSE ALL THEN LIVES. STANDARDIZATION COULD LIVE SIMILARLY.

--* CORRELATION IS THE FIRST ESSENTIAL OF ALL GROWTH.

-- GROWTH IS A PROCESSOR OF BECOMING--DECAY IS SO NO LESS. ONLY GROWTH NEEDS OR EVER FINDS EXPRESSION.

-- DEATH IS A CRISIS OF GROWTH.

-- FROM THE GROUND UP IS GOOD SENSE FOR BUILDING BEWARE FROM THE TOP DOWN.

-- BUILDINGS LIKE TREES ARE BROTHERS TO THE MAN. BUILDINGS, TREES, AND MAN ALL ARE OUT OF THE GROUND INTO THE LIGHT.

--* GOOD FORM IS GOOD SENSE PUT INTO SOME EFFECTIVE SHAPE APPROPRIATE TO A MATERIAL.

--FORM IS MADE BY FUNCTION BUT QUALIFIED BY USE.
THEREFORE FORM CHANGES WITH CHANGING CONDITIONS.
THE LAST ANALYSIS IS NEVER MADE.
WHAT WE UNDERSTAND AND APPRECIATE WE OWN...
WE MAY BE JANITORS OR POLICEMEN OF MORE--BUT THAT IS ALL.

-- CHEWING-GUM THE ROCKING-CHAIR AND PICTURIZING ARE ALL HABITS EQUALLY VALUABLE TO MODERN ART.

-- A MATTER OF TASTE IS USUALLY A MATTER OF IGNORANCE.

-- GENUINE EXPRESSION OF PRINCIPLE-AT-WORK AS FORM WILL ALWAYS BE VALUABLE ACHIEVEMENTS OF GROWTH. AND SHOULD BE THROWN ALWAY NO MORE THAN BOOKS WHICH EMBODIED TRUTH IN ANY AGE.

-- ALL FORMS STAND PROPHETIC BEAUTIFUL AND FOREVER INSOFAR AS THEY WERE IN THEMSELVES TRUTH EMBODIED. THEY BECOME UGLY AND USELESS ONLY WHEN FORCED TO SEEM AND BE WHAT THEY ARE NOT AND CANNOT BE. LIFE HAS GONE BY SUCCESSION INTO FOLLOWING FORMS.

-- CREATION NEVER IMITATES. CREATION ASSIMILATES..
THE CREATURE IMITATES AND SIMULATES.

-- TRUTH IS PRINCIPLE INVIOLATE...
BUT IN BUILDING FINDS INFINITE VARIETY OF EXPRESSION.

-- THE SENSE OF ROMANCE IN ALL HUMAN SENSE OF RHYTHM...
THE HUMAN SPIRIT IS ATTRACTED BY IT AS THE ANIMAL SENSES OF TASTE OR SMELL ARE ATTRACTED BY SWEETS OR PERFUMES... STYLE.

--* ROMANCE IS THE POETRY OF THAT JOY WE FEEL. IN LIFE AS DISTINGUISHED FROM MERE PLEASURE.
WE PERCEIVE ROMANCE AS "BEAUTIFUL" THE BEAUTIFUL AS A ROMANCE.

--* IT IS AS NECESSARY TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN JOY AN PLEASURE AS IT IS NECESSARY TO DRAW THE LINE BETWEEN GIVING QUALITY IN ANYTHING; WHATEVER . . . THE MERELY CURIOUS AROUSES SIMILAR INTEREST ONLY AS PLEASURE RESEMBLES JOY.

--* INTELLECT IS THE TOOL OF IMAGINATION-- IT CREATES NOTHING . . . . THE EYE SEES THE EAR HEARS IMAGINATION PERCEIVES CONCEIVES CREATES.

--* COMPOSITION IS DEAD THAT CREATION MAY LIVE INORGANIC GIVES WAY TO ORGANIC.

-- IN ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE DECORATION IS DESECRATION BECAUSE TO DECORATE IS TO APPLY.

-- "OF THE THING ITSELF" . . . . "NEVER ON IT" APPLIES TO EVERY FEATURE OF AN ORGANIC BUILDING. THEREFORE SENSE OF BACKGROUND SHOULD GIVE WAY TO CONTINUITY-- OR PLASTICITY.

-- THE NEW SENSE OF DEPTH THAT CHARACTERIZES ARCHITECTURE IS INTEGRAL INSTEAD OF SCULPTURAL IS A SPIRITUAL SENSE OF THE THIRD DIMENSION.

-- THE HORIZONTAL LINE IS THE LINE OF DOMESTICITY . . . . THE EARTH LINE OF HUMAN LIFE.

-- TO BUILD IS TO CREATE A MEMORIAL TO THE POWER OF HUMAN IMAGINATION-- A GREAT CONSEQUENCE.

-- WE HAVE FIVE SENSES TO FEED IMAGINATION . . . . THAT THE FIVE MAY EMERGE AS A SIXTH TO GIVE BEAUTY TO THEM ALL.

-- SURFACE IS TO ARCHITECTURE THE LIGHT-REFLECTING ELEMENTS OF MASS. MASS IS THE BULK OF CONSTRUCTION. BOTH ARE PRODUCTS OF STRUCTURAL CAUSES. NEITHER ARE MORE THAN SUPERFICIAL. THEY ARE RESULTS.

-- SOLEMNITY SINCERITY SOBRIETY GAIETY-- ALL MAY BE CHARACTERIZE ARCHITECTURE BUT HUMANITY WILL BEST LOVE CREATIVE WORK CHARACTERIZED BY JOY.

--* SHIBUI IS A JAPANESE WORD FOR DEEP QUIET IN ARCHITECTURE. QUIET REQUIRING STUDIOUS ACQUAINTANCE BEFORE REALIZED . . . . A MORE SUBTLE EVIDENCE OF PROFOUND FEELING THAN REPOSE ITSELF THEREIN LIES THE HIGHEST FRUIT OF THE HUMAN SOUL IN ARCHITECTURE BELONGING ESPECIALLY TO ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE.

--* INDIVIDUALITY REALIZED IS THE SUPREME ENTERTAINMENT OF THE HUMAN SOUL THE MASTER OF MASTER'S WORK OF ART. INDIVIDUALITY IS SACRED. LET US DEDICATE THIS REPUBLIC TO MULTIPLY AND ELEVATE THAT QUALITY IN ALL ART AND ARCHITECTURE IN ALL MEN IN ALL LIFE.

-- A GOOD WORD IN ARCHITECTURE IS "CLEAN". ANOTHER IS "INTEGRAL" STILL ANOTHER "PLASTIC"--ONE MORE --"QUIET".

-- ARCHITECTURE IS THE SCIENTIFIC ART OF MAKING STRUCTURE EXPRESS IDEAS.

-- ARCHITECTURE IS THE TRIUMPH OF HUMAN IMAGINATION OVER MATERIALS AND METHODS AND MEN-- MAN IN POSSESSION OF HIS EARTH.

-- ARCHITECTURE IS MAN'S SENSE OF HIMSELF EMBODIED IN A WORLD OF HIS OWN. AS THE MAN IS SO WILL HIS BUILDING BE.

-- THE CHINESE SOUGHT QUALITIES IN COLORS AND MATERIALS WITH GREATER SENSE OF DEPTH THAN ANY OTHER RACE. THEIR GLAZES PRODUCED IN LITTLE ALL GREAT QUALITIES SEEN AT LARGE IN EXTERNAL NATURE.
THEIR GLAZES PRODUCED IN LITTLE ALL GREAT QUALITIES SEEN AT LARGE IN EXTERNAL NATURE.
THEIR TEXTURES WERE AS SOFT SKIN TO THE TOUCH AS FLOWERS IN SUN OR MOSSES IN RAIN FOR COLOR . . . THEIR SENSE OF FORM FOUND JOY IN THE PENDANT . . . . ONLY A VERY OLD CIVILIZATION SUBTLE AND PROFOUND COULD HAVE REACHED THE LAST WORD IN REFINEMENT OF FORM. SUCH ARE THE SENSIBILITIES OF ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE.

-- ALL COLOR AND TEXTURE THE EYE HAS SEEN ALL THE RHYTHMS THE EAR HAS HEARD ALL THE GRACE OF FORM THE MIND MAY GRASP . . . .
. . . . ARE PROPERTIES OF ARCHITECTURE.

--* GREAT ART IS GREAT LIFE.

In honor of a great life, John Lautner born July 16, 1911.