desert architecture
Introduction
Taliesin West was architect Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and school in the desert from 1937 until his death in 1959 at the age of 91. Today it is the headquarters of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Open to the public for tours, Taliesin West is located on Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard in Scottsdale "Scottsdale (Arizona)"), in the state of Arizona (United States). The complex took its name from Wright's home, Taliesin, in Spring Green (Wisconsin) in the state of Wisconsin.
History
Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship began "migrating" to Arizona each winter in 1935 to escape the harsh winters of Wisconsin for Wright's health on the advice of his doctor. In 1937, Wright purchased the parcel of desert land that would soon become Taliesin West. He paid $3.50 per acre "Acre (unit of area)") on a southern slope of the McDowell Range") overlooking Paradise Valley in the "Paradise Valley (Arizona)") outside Scottsdale".[1]
Wright believed this was the perfect location for such a building: a place to live, a place to work, and a place to learn. Wright described it this way: "I finally learned of a site twenty-six miles from Phoenix, across the desert of the vast Paradise Valley. We climbed onto a large plateau in the mountains. On the plateau just below McDowell Peak") we stopped, turned, and looked around. The top of the world".[2].
It took an investment of more than $10,000 to dig a well deep enough to provide enough water for the campus.[3] In the initial winters, Wright and his students lived in tents while they built the first structures, primarily by hand using as much local material as possible (rocks, stone, and sand). The buildings' design complemented the site's natural Sonoran Desert landscape.
When Wright and his family arrived, they found Native American petroglyphs among the rocks.
Design
Contenido
Respecto al desierto, Wright dijo:.
Las paredes de la estructura están hechas de rocas locales del desierto, apiladas dentro de formas de madera, rellenas de hormigón, conocido coloquialmente como "mampostería del desierto".[5] Wright siempre favoreció el uso de materiales fácilmente disponibles en lugar de aquellos que deben transportarse al sitio. En las propias palabras de Wright: "Había siluetas características simples para pasar, enormes derivas y montones de rocas del desierto quemadas por el sol estaban cerca para ser utilizadas. Lo juntamos todo con el paisaje... " [6] Las superficies planas de las rocas se colocaron hacia afuera y grandes rocas llenaron el espacio interior para que se pudiera conservar el concreto.