Anyway, the place was near the Hotel, and we decided to give it a try. When we approached the area, I could identify the house easily. It was executed in the distinct prairie style of FLW in an otherwise calm & serene neighbourhood of Buffalo. But I was in for a disappointment when I was told that all the tickets for the conducted tour were sold out for the day. Having come all the way, I would be denied the opportunity of a lifetime.
It was Amruta (my daughter-in-law) who suggested that I declare myself as a tourist from India, and a professor in architecture at that and request the organisers to accommodate me as a special favour. I was skeptical of the result but it worked and I was admitted as a special gesture for the next tour.
This was the Martin House, FLW's early works, published in the Wasmuth Volume. Built in 1903-5, the Martin House is considered one of the most important projects by FLW's prairie school era, and is now taken over by the University of Buffalo for renovation. The Buffalo University has now built a pavillion on the side of the existing house, which works as a reception area, and includes a museum. They have preserved all the original drawings of FLW, including his correspondence with Mr. Martin.
The tour started with a small film on FLW & his work, and also the bio-graphy of Mr. Martin, and his interaction with FLW as a young architect. An umble clerk in the Larkin Soap Co., Mr. Martin had risen to a senior partner and had became a millionaire. The story was interesting and here I could see a pattern in all the early clients of FLW-all the practical down-to-earth people who had started quite low & made it to the top by intellect & hard work. Only these kind of people would appreciate the functional quality of the work of the young architect like FLW and would not bother about the style of the house.
In the group on the tour, there was only one other architect besides myself, and we got acquainted easily. He was from Mexico, and had chanced upon the place just like me. The guide, though not an architect himself, was well versed with the process of design & execution, and gave us an insight into its making.
As it happens, the layout of the neighbourhood was done by a landscape architect, who chose a deviation from the strict grid iron plan and provided curved streets all over the place resulting in varied shapes of plots. In the first letter written by FLW to the Owner, he mentions the fact that the house can be aligned to any one of the sides only, and it was Wright's intention to align it to the neighbouring house. FLW goes on to provide a sketch plan of the site in the letter, clarifying this, which must have been approved, as the final outcome matches the sketch plan done by FLW.
The house has a chequered history. The house was built by Martin when he became a partner in the Larkins, and contains 4/5 independant buildings joined together. One is a house for his sister on the edge of the plot, Martin's own House in front consisting of two separate parts joined together by a covered walkway, a stable and a caretaker's house. It was some kind of a challenge for FLW, as he was asked to design & build the house of the sister first, based on which he was to be given further job. The rest his history-FLW was given not only the remaining part of the house to design but also the Larkin Office Building in Chicago.
Unfortunately, Mr. Martin lost all his money in the stock market crash of 1929, and had to sell of the rear portion of the plot to a developer. The developer built apartments in the rear portion, demolishing part of the house. The front portion was saved as some FLW enthusiast bought it & lived in it himself. It was however declared later as a national monument, and both these portions were purchased by the University of Buffalo, for renovation. Thus the front portion of the house is now the only original portion of the house, but the University has rebuilt the rear portion based on the original drawings-a thing strict conservationists may not like but FLW is a national celebrity in USA and this may be pardonable in a nation which has not much history to start with.
Going through the house, following the detailing of FLW, and seeing for the first time a house which I had only seen in photographs and sketches in the Wasmuth volume, was a unique experience for me. It was almost like a pilgrimage for me. I could imagine FLW with his flamboyant style of functioning moving through the place, giving instructions, supervising the work, and there I was, catapulted into history from a distance of roughly 20,000 miles to witness the result in person.
The discussion in the tour, however, centred on simple everyday matters, like the cross-shaped (pin-wheel) plan giving light & ventilation for most rooms from as many as three sides, the special study room that Martin wanted as an extension to the Living room, the placement of library at the edge with its windows on all three sides to help the nearsighted Mrs. martin, the partially hidden staircase signifying the seperation of the living room from the rest of the house, the connection to conservatory with its mechanical equipment to open & close windows which were inaccessible, and hiding of the services in the cluster of brick pillars. At one level, the house was all about functional utility, at other, it talked about the personality of FLW and the insistence of continuity of space with no intervening walls between spaces, and ceilings dramatically lowered in places to indicate division of space. The house flowed into the exterior as easily without a break in detailing and the continuity of finishes made it all the more subtle.
And then there was the masterful organisation of the form and the detailing-the specially chosen roman bricks with horizontal inset mortar joints to accentuate the horizontal lines, the sweeping roof projecting out and joining the entire composition, the full length windows replacing walls as a complete element of design, the urns & many other small detailing reminding one of a chinese house with strict rectangular/square patterns.
The house stands apart in the neighbourhood of borrowed-style duplex bungalows all over, and I could not help wondering why there were no followers. But then, FLW is a difficult man to follow. It was heartening to find out that the University of Buffalo is using sustainable systems (earth-tunnels) to air-condition the house now-which fits in exactly with the philosophy of organic architecture by FLW. I had once remarked that FLW was not understood in the land of plenty when he talked of organic architecture-but things seem to have come a full circle-what with Al Gore (of all the people) making a movie on global warming (The Inconvenient Truth) and the Buffalo University actually installing a sustainable system in an FLW house. If it can happen here-sustainable architecture has a future.
No comments:
Post a Comment