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HARVESTER WORLD UGUST 1950 ,i^^ In: ' :;c^.'ij '•fi,. VOL. 41 NO. 8 "There is a beauty of living on the land."—FKANK LLOYD WRIGHT TALIESIN... rural workshop for master builders By JEANNE LAMOREAUX Photos by ALBERT G. WESTELIN IN THE GREEN HILLS roUing up the mighty Fujiyama. There is the magnificent S. C. Johnson and away from the sandy-shored Company's administration building and research tower in Racine, FRANK Wisconsin river, there where Wiscon Wisconsin . and the remarkable Larkin building of Buffalo, the sin is the most beautiful, lies Tahesin. first "modern" office building. They prove the truth of Mr. LLOYD The name of a druid poet who sang Wright's theory that architecture must be organic, inspired by to Wales the glory of fine art, its the countiy itself and tiue to its native way of life. WRIGHT literal translation is "shining brow" "We ate not by natute manufactuieis," Mi. Wright explains. and as such it crowns the hilltop, the "We, of all the peoples in the world, have been given the gieatest home and workshop of Frank Lloyd gifts of land and natural resources. This is our birthtight, our Wright, architect. heritage, and the land is the only true basis of any culture we might Here lives the man who has been called the greatest aitistic call our own. genius of his place and time. Schools of modem architecture all "There is a beauty of living on the land; the countryside is a over the woild have felt the influence of his woik. His levolu- precious thing in anybody's life," he conrinues. "The farm has tionaiy buildings were at fiist rejected by his fellow Americans, beauty and a richness of experience that would be enough if although accepted eagerly across Europe and Asia. Now, however, people could only see the goodness in what they are doing. But in at the age of 81, he is recognized at last, a prophet with honor in too many cases they don't belong to the way they live. Their his own country. houses fight the landscape. They see nothing in their life as being His buildings stand in almost every state, in many foreign desirable and do nothing to give themselves character. The whole countries. There are homes he has built for people to five in, stores, thing is wrong end to." churches, theaters, colleges, hotels, offices, museums. His famous An architect with vision is needed to lead us out of our cultural Imperial hotel in Tokyo is the building which survived the eaith- abyss, Mr. Wright emphasizes. And he is trying to piepaie this quake of 1923 because the aichitect conceived a way to outwit new type of mastei buildei, equal to the challenge, at Taliesin. FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, the titan of modern architecture, sits before a wood THE JOHNSON WAX administtation building in Racine, Wisconsin, was built in 1936. fire in the drafting room at Taliesin, his rural-Wisconsin home and workshop. Wright strove to express in this building the romance he sees in modern industry. 2 THE HILLSIDE SCHOOL BUILDINGS, designed by Mr. Wright for his teacher- aunts in 1903, still look "modern" almost 50 years later. Wright was the first atchitect to make use of the extended eaves in building. USING THE GROUND for his inspiration, Wright designed the school buildings to follow the contour of the land. Built of native materials, wood and stone, the same buildings now house the Taliesin fellowship. THIS IS A MODEL of the famous St. Mark's THE WINDMILL, Romeo and Juliet, was Tower, a multiple-family building designed built befote the turn of the century. for St. Mark's in the Bowery, though nevet Neighbors and relatives were sure it built. The abstract pattern of the structure would blow over with the first windstorm. represents a fusing of Form and Idea. Romeo and Juliet has outlived the scoffers. THE BEAUTY OF LIVING on the land is the only true basis for an American cultute, Mr. Wright believes. This is teality. TALIESIN ARCHITECTS Q^mJI^^^ TALIESIN. Not a school, but a fellowship. The young people are • ti»-»<Mti.EC^^M not students, but apprentices. There ate no couises, no classrooms, no professors, no lectures. Taliesin is a APPRENTICES DO ALL THE WORK of maintaining themselves at Taliesin. This work, and the young appientices youth keeps the entrances clean and arranges attractive decorations for them. leain by doing. Fiom all over the world these young men and women come to Taliesin to find their way in architecture through working with Mr. Wright. Almost the only thing he asks of them is that they be in love with architecture and possess a sincerity of character and purpose. Mr. Wright himself accepts or rejects applicants. (There are so many young people knocking on his door these days that, because the fellowship must be limited to 50 or 60, he is forced to reject someone almost every day.) The "term" is one year, although most apprentices stay at least three. Some have been with Mr. Wright since the fellowship began in 1932. As soon as the apprentice arrives at Taliesin he is put to work, for actual experience in building, from the ground up and the inside out, is the way he will learn about architecture. "What a man does, that he has" is carved in wood over the entrance to the drafting room. There is always building going on at Tahesin. Ah of the work ANOTHER BOY CARES fot the grounds around Taliesin. Mr. Wright directs is done by the apprentices, usually with one or two skilled work all work, rotates assignments to give apprentices broader experience. men as tutors. All work is directed by Mi. Wright, assisted by several "seniois," appientices who have been with him foi a numbei of yeais and who direct the woik of the youngei people. "Eveiyone's hands are in the mud from which the bricks are made. And they are made from eariy rising bell unril all tumble into bed, not quite worn out. The inexperienced gradually get the sense of design and the feeling of materials into theii hands aftei woiking on plans and details to be executed in the nature of those materials, aware of the puipose of the building planned. They find new uses to be made of new materials; get coiielation of hand and brain where any plan or any necessity for planning is con cerned. Meanwhile they are developing mastery over self through hard work and clear thinking along center lines Principle lays down. Those laid down by Tradition (with a capital T) ate pieseived here only in the spirit in which they were made. Traditions with a small t are lying around here almost entirely out of use ..." PART OF everyone's work is in the gardens and on the farm. The fellowship But building isn't the only kind of woik done at Taliesin. The produces about half of its own food, including fruit, vegetables, meat, eggs. day staits there with the rising of the sun. Immediately aftei breakfast all woik in the gaiden foi an houi oi two. Then some go to woiking in the fields, on the buildings, on the grounds, in the kitchens. All the work of maintaining themselves is done, willingly, by the apprentices at Taliesin. APPRENTICES LEARN TO HANDLE stone by building walls, laying floors, putting up piers. Usually a skilled workman, in this case a stone mason, directs work. IN THE LARGE DRAFTING ROOM at Taliesin, apprentices wotk on details of plans designed by Mr. Wright. They also design plans for the interiors of their own quartets which they submit to their master fot his approval. "Everyone's hands are in the muc/ from which the bricks are made . $^mm.m * **<«gHH^ Hfc^^^ei 1^ TALIESIN ... ARCHITECTS IN THE MAKING CONDUCTING A SYMPHONY of destruction, Mr. Wright, in the left foreground, TEARING DOWN one building, putting up another. Wotk . work directs the apprentices as they teat down the old to make way for the new. work . , . That's how Taliesin apprentices learn about architecture. ALL WORK AT TALIESIN is voluntary. No one "has" to do anything, yet BETWEEN 50 AND 60 young apprentices are now at work at Taliesin. They all work willingly, enjoy the richness of the experience they are having. come from all ovet the world; about half of them are from other countries. FOOD AND BEAUTY THE FARM, in the summer, is one of the most impoitant phases of woik. Without the farm, Mi. Wright says, there could be no Taliesin fellowship. In the Taliesin Foundation there ate 1800 acres; 700 of these are now being faimed. Besides helping to feed the fellowship (Mi. Wright hopes to grow about half of theit food this yeai), the faim also selves to express the beauty of tillage. While the apprenrices depend on International Haivester ma- chineiy to help with ground preparation, planting and cultivating, the combine has been eliminated, designedly, and coin is haivested by hand. At Taliesin they enjoy seeing the cornstalks standing in the field, punctuated by the bright orange of the pumpkin. They want to keep the things that are picturesque in the life of the farmer, using machinery to improve and not detract from the beauties of an agrarian landscape. Mr. Wright aims to milk 40 Guernsey cows at the Tahesin farm, and care for 1000 New Hampshire ted chickens, 125 led pigs and 500 sheep. As much food as is possible is "put up" in the fall and tiucked to Taliesin West, the wintei headquaiteis of the fellowship, deep in the Arizona deseit.