Week 7 Video Reviews

Prairie Style


Wright talked about his houses being “organic.” His idea was that his houses should look like it they grew out of nature. It was also evident that these historic builds take every measure during renovations to keep the naturalistic ideas that were originally intended. During the renovations over 10,000 sq. ft. of cedar was replaced. Keeping in line with the green architecture the book touched on. Wright’s layout allowed the rooms to flow together as well as his use of picture windows to act as the joining force between outside and inside.

The Science of Design

I find it to be truly amazing the amount of work required to design a structure in terms of integrity, especially skyscrapers that the video talks about. I was not aware that there was an international regulation based on how far a building can sway in 8 seconds. If the force on the building it too great the inhabitants can be subject to motion sickness, the elevators can shut down, or even structural damage may occur.

Classical Architecture

This video explained that nations use buildings to represent their level of power and success to the rest of the world. The Queen’s house was an example of this idea. Her house was built to be perfectly square. The video also touched on the idea that the human body was the measure of all things. The body’s ratios and symmetries were displayed in Vitruvian Man by da Vinci. His drawing showed how the human body held similarities to design elements of square and circular shape.

Last Call for Planet Earth

I thought that it was an astonishing task for an architect to design a train station that was completely energy free. Only after countless hours of research could he have come up with that type of design. I think it is farfetched to accept this as a reality for every structure but with zero pollution it is a great start to changing the way we treat the environment.

The Prairie Style video was relational to the chapter because the author discussed about taking into consideration what building materials would be best fitting to a project. Each of Wright’s designs demonstrated a use of the nature that surrounded them. He also used a lot of wood flooring which also touches on the green architecture. The Classical Architecture video led us even more in depth than book’s examples. The Romans and Greeks designed the basic model for all construction. Our replications of it, to represent nation capitals and palaces for royalty are built this way because it shows power and domination. During the restoration of the Wright house all cedar was replaced and because it was a renewable resource it followed a green model.

The films were each very good as they added a further level of understanding to what the book talked about. I feel that between the videos and the book we got to see many examples for each of the main points discussed this week. I chose the “Last Call for Planet Earth” video because of the word sustainable. A recent trip to Disney in Florida taught me that we as humans can develop self-sustaining environments with the proper research. This idea will ultimately need to take off if we really want to make drastic change in how architecture is designed.