Frank Lloyd Wright

While reading up on the transition from Victorian graphics to art nouveau I became became very interested in the change from Victorian embelishments to functional minimalism.  This led me to the further look into the works of Frank Lloyd Wright. 

As an architect Frank Lloyd Wright had an interesting idea about "organic architecture" and everything having a purpose.  Meggs History of Graphic Design states Wrights concept as: "He rejected historicism in favor of a philosophy of “organic architecture,” with “the reality of the building” existing not in the design of the facade but in dynamic interior spaces where people lived and worked. Wright defined organic design as having entity, “something in which the part is to the whole as the whole is to the part, and which is all devoted to a purpose."  When I looked up more information on Wright I came across two different styles of acritecture; organic arcitecture and Usonian.  The concept of organic arcitecture was to achive a feeling of getting back to nature and natural surroundings while the concept of Usonian arcitecture was to be smaller and have more open space.  This concept leads to more functionality in the home.  These homes had many built-in amenities including seating and fireplaces.  The idea was to have a space that could be taken care of with ease.  This concept was not unlike that of the Vienna Secession which also favored harmony and funcion with little decoration.  This idea led to the art being focused in geometric design.  Simplicity rather than decoration was the thing to strive for.  Making something function to the best of its abuility rather than cover it with decoration was a way of proving an individual designers abuility over the mass produced, machine built objects. 

Looking back at the Wrights architecture and ideas I see similar ideas in today's society.  There seems to be a continual back and forth in society and art between functional minimalism and decoration.  I see this especially with technology.  The new minimal and functional designed with technological devices along with the "useless decoration" of apps that most people don't use.  Will one of these ideas become dominant or will there always be a odd balance between the two?  Do we need both ideas in order to appreciate the other?  Art is open to so many different interpretations and all of them are equally as important.