Taliesin West

This weekend my parents visited, and while my dad was sadly under the weather :( Paul, Mom and I took a tour of Taliesin West here in Scottsdale. If you aren't familiar, Taliesin West is the winter home and school of Frank Lloyd Wright. I can't even tell you how cool the place was. During our hour and a half tour we learned a lot not only about the grounds, but about Frank Lloyd Wright as well. He had such radical philosophies about architecture and about the way people live in general. He was ahead of his time in so many inventions and design ideas. Some of my favorite ideas and thoughts were:

He would bring around 20 apprentices down to Taliesin West with him each winter along with his 3rd wife and children. Apprentices would pay about double the tuition it cost to go to Harvard at the time, and much of their education was based on working with their hands and manual labor (as in, they would have to walk 18 miles to fill up their buckets with water, roll the rocks from the mountains to create the walls, and come up with a new invention that they actually built themselves every six months). But FLW's students were so eager to work with him because he was (and is still considered) a creative genius, and also because they knew they would come out of the education experience having actually built their own designs (only about 5% of architects today ever actually see one of their own designs built) and knowing how things actually work.  

"Taliesin" is a Welsh word for "shining brow." Taliesin West is built in the brow of the mountain. Frank Lloyd Wright wouldn't build into the mountain or on top of the mountain because he felt it disrupted the natural beauty.

Below you can see that the campus was built with canvas roofs. Here in the Phoenix area we will only get about 6 inches of rain a year, so canvas was a practical option for the roof. It keeps the rooms really cool, and allows for a completely lit room during daylight without any electricity.

The left photo is of his wife's quarters. You can see they are very small compared to our "master bedrooms" of today, but still so simple and beautiful. Frank believed that the majority of space, money and efforts should be in the living areas where the family and friends spent most of their time.

They said his best works were done from the ages of 81-91, and the man was working up to 5 days before his death. Isn't that inspiring?! Our culture is so focused on when we can stop working, but I think if the Lord allows, why shouldn't we continue using our minds and hands and hearts up to the day we die?

And I think my favorite thing I learned on the tour was his perspective of how our homes should all be unique and fitting for our own individual lives. Today, a complex of 400 builder homes might only incorporate 5 different floor plans. FLW would study people and ask his clients specific questions about  their lifestyle, even living with them for a few days if they would allow, in order to design the best home for their family, their habits, and their life. It makes sense to me that our homes should be a reflection of us as individuals, and that not every home will work for every family because we are all so unique.

There is so much, I could go on and on and on and I only took the hour and a half tour! It was super interesting, and even Paul who was skeptical to go, thought the time flew by. If you're ever out here, you totally have to go. Hope you get as inspired as I am, and if you're interested in the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Archetecture which still lives on today, visit here. How cool would it be to go through that program!? Their sophomore year they get to design and build their own dorm room. Say what?!