Organic architecture is a philosophy of architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

 which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world through design approaches so sympathetic and well integrated with its site that buildings, furnishings, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated composition.

History

The term organic architecture was coined by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959), though never well articulated by his cryptic style of writing:

"So here I stand before you preaching organic architecture: declaring organic architecture to be the modern ideal and the teaching so much needed if we are to see the whole of life, and to now serve the whole of life, holding no traditions essential to the great TRADITION. Nor cherishing any preconceived form fixing upon us either past, present or future, but instead exalting the simple laws of common sense or of super-sense if you prefer determining form by way of the nature of materials..." - Frank Lloyd Wright, written in 1954

Organic architecture is also translated into the all inclusive nature of Frank Lloyd Wright’s design process. Materials, motifs, and basic ordering principles continue to repeat themselves throughout the building as a whole. The idea of organic architecture refers not only to the buildings' literal relationship to the natural surroundings, but how the buildings' design is carefully thought about as if it were a unified organism. Geometries throughout Wright’s buildings build a central mood and theme. Essentially organic architecture is also the literal design of every element of a building: From the windows, to the floors, to the individual chairs intended to fill the space. Everything relates to one another, reflecting the symbiotic ordering systems of nature.

Other modernist architects in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere held complementary and often competing views of how architecture could best emulate nature. Key figures in the U.S. included Louis Sullivan

Louis Sullivan

Louis Henri Sullivan was an American architect, and has been called the "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism" He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago School, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an...

 and Claude Bragdon, while among European modernists Hugo Häring

Hugo Häring

Hugo Häring was a German architect and architectural writer best known for his writings on "organic architecture", and as a figure in architectural debates about functionalism in the 1920s and 1930s, though he had an important role as an expressionist architect.A student of the great Theodor...

 and Hans Scharoun

Hans Scharoun

Bernhard Hans Henry Scharoun was a German architect best known for designing the Berlin Philharmonic concert hall and the in Löbau, Saxony. He was an important exponent of Organic architecture....

 stand out. Following World War II, organic architecture often reflected cybernetic and informatic models of life, as is reflected in the later work of futurist architect Buckminster Fuller

Buckminster Fuller

Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller was an American systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, futurist and second president of Mensa International, the high IQ society....

.

Architect and planner David Pearson proposed a list of rules towards the design of organic architecture. These rules are known as the Gaia Charter for organic architecture and design. It reads:

"Let the design:

• be inspired by nature and be sustainable, healthy, conserving, and diverse.
• unfold, like an organism, from the seed within.
• exist in the "continuous present" and "begin again and again".
• follow the flows and be flexible and adaptable.
• satisfy social, physical, and spiritual needs.
• "grow out of the site" and be unique.
• celebrate the spirit of youth, play and surprise.
• express the rhythm of music and the power of dance."

Eric Corey Freed takes a more seminal approach in making his description:

"Using Nature as our basis for design, a building or design must grow, as Nature grows, from the inside out. Most architects design their buildings as a shell and force their way inside. Nature grows from the idea of a seed and reaches out to its surroundings. A building thus, is akin to an organism and mirrors the beauty and complexity of Nature."

A well known example of organic architecture is Fallingwater

Fallingwater

Fallingwater or Kaufmann Residence is a house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh...

, the residence Frank Lloyd Wright designed for the Kaufman family in rural Pennsylvania. Wright had many choices to locate a home on this large site, but chose to place the home directly over the waterfall and creek creating a close, yet noisy dialog with the rushing water and the steep site. The horizontal striations of stone masonry with daring cantilever

Cantilever

A cantilever is a beam anchored at only one end. The beam carries the load to the support where it is resisted by moment and shear stress. Cantilever construction allows for overhanging structures without external bracing. Cantilevers can also be constructed with trusses or slabs.This is in...

s of colored beige concrete blend with native rock outcroppings and the wooded environment.

Notable organic architects

• Anton Alberts
• Laurie Baker
  Laurie Baker
  Laurence Wilfred "Laurie" Baker was an award-winning British-born Indian architect, renowned for his initiatives in cost-effective energy-efficient architecture and for his unique space utilisation and simple but beautiful aesthetic sensibility...
  
  
• Claude Bragdon
• Nari Gandhi
  Nari Gandhi
  Nari Gandhi was an Indian architect known for his highly innovative works in organic architecture.-Early life and education:Nariman Dossabhai Gandhi was born in 1934 in Surat to a Zoroastrian Parsi family from Bombay, he was one of the six children with three brothers and two sisters.Nari...
  
  
• Antoni Gaudi
  Antoni Gaudí
  Antoni Gaudí i Cornet was a Spanish Catalan architect and figurehead of Catalan Modernism. Gaudí's works reflect his highly individual and distinctive style and are largely concentrated in the Catalan capital of Barcelona, notably his magnum opus, the Sagrada Família.Much of Gaudí's work was...
  
  
• Bruce Goff
  Bruce Goff
  Bruce Alonzo Goff was an American architect distinguished by his organic, eclectic, and often flamboyant designs for houses and other buildings in Oklahoma and elsewhere.-Early years:...
  
  
• Neville Gruzman
  Neville Gruzman
  Neville Gruzman, AM was an Australian architect, mayor of Woollahra, writer and architectural activist...
  
  
• Hugo Häring
  Hugo Häring
  Hugo Häring was a German architect and architectural writer best known for his writings on "organic architecture", and as a figure in architectural debates about functionalism in the 1920s and 1930s, though he had an important role as an expressionist architect.A student of the great Theodor...
  
  
• Hundertwasser
• Kendrick Bangs Kellogg
  Kendrick Bangs Kellogg
  Kendrick Bangs Kellogg is an American architect.An innovator of organic architecture, Kellogg built a wide assortment of distinctive buildings. Homes include the Yen House, Wingsweep, the Joshua Tree house, and the Onion House...
  
   (born 1934)
• John Lautner
• Imre Makovecz
  Imre Makovecz
  Imre Makovecz , was a Hungarian architect active in Europe from the late 1950s onward.Makovecz was born and died in Budapest. He attended the Technical University of Budapest. He was founder and "eternal and executive president" of the Hungarian Academy of Arts.Makovecz was one of the most...
  
  

• Hans Scharoun
  Hans Scharoun
  Bernhard Hans Henry Scharoun was a German architect best known for designing the Berlin Philharmonic concert hall and the in Löbau, Saxony. He was an important exponent of Organic architecture....
  
  
• Gustav Stickley
  Gustav Stickley
  Gustav Stickley was a manufacturer of furniture and the leading proselytizer for the American Arts and Crafts movement, an extension of the British Arts and Crafts movement.-Biography:...
  
  
• Louis Sullivan
  Louis Sullivan
  Louis Henri Sullivan was an American architect, and has been called the "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism" He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago School, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an...
  
  
• Rudolf Steiner
  Rudolf Steiner
  Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist. He gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher...
  
  
• Frank Lloyd Wright
  Frank Lloyd Wright
  Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
  
   (1867–1959)
• Bruno Zevi
  Bruno Zevi
  Bruno Zevi was an Italian architect, historian, professor, curator, author and editor. Zevi was a vocal critic of 'classicising' modern architecture and postmodernism.-University years:...
  
  

Further reading

Aldersey-Williams, Hugh (2003). Zoomorphic: New Animal Architecture (London: Laurence King)

Ferre, Albert, et al., eds (2007). Verb Natures: Architectural Boogazine (Barcelona; New York: Actar)

Feuerstein, Günther (2002). Biomorphic Architecture: Human and Animal Forms in Architecture (Stuttgart; London: Axel Menges)

Gans, Deborah, and Zehra Kuz (2003). The Organic Approach to Architecture (New York; Chichester: Wiley)

Kolarevic, Branko (2000). 'Digital Morphogenesis and Computational Architectures', in Proceedigns of the 4th Conference of Congreso Iberoamericano de Grafica Digital, SIGRADI 2000 - Construindo (n)o Espaço Digital (Constructing the Digital Space) [ISBN 85-88027-02-X], Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) 25–28 September 2000, ed. by José Ripper Kós, Andréa Pessoa Borde and Diana Rodriguez Barros, pp. 98–103 (http://cumincad.scix.net/data/works/att/4077.content.pdf)

Leach, Neil (2009). 'Digital Morphogenesis', Architectural Design, 79, 1, pp. 32–37

Menges, Achim (2007). 'Computational Morphogenesis: Integral Form Generation and Materialization Processes', in Proceedigns of Em‘body’ing Virtual Architecture: The Third International Conference of the Arab Society for Computer Aided Architectural Design (ASCAAD 2007), 28–30 November 2007, Alexandria, Egypt, ed. by Ahmad Okeil, Aghlab Al-Attili and Zaki Mallasi, pp. 725–744 (http://www.ascaad.org/conference/2007/057.PDF)

Menges, Achim (2006). 'Polymorphism', Architectural Design, 76, 2, pp. 78–87

O’Reilly, Una-May and Martin Hemberg (2007). 'Integrating Generative Growth and Evolutionary Computation for Form Exploration', Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines, 8, 2, pp. 163–186

Pearson, David (2001). The Breaking Wave: New Organic Architecture (Stroud: Gaia)

Portoghesi, Paolo (2000). Nature and Architecture, trans. by Erika G. Young (London; Milan: Skira Editore; Thames & Hudson)

Roudavski, Stanislav (2009). 'Towards Morphogenesis in Architecture', International Journal of Architectural Computing, 7, 3, pp. 345–374 (http://www.crida.net/stan/Downloads/Roudavski_Towards_Morphogenesis_in_Architecture_09.pdf)

Steadman, Philip (2008). The Evolution of Designs: Biological Analogy in Architecture and the Applied Arts (New York: Routledge)

Senosiain, Javier (2003). Bio-architecture (Oxford, England: Architectural Press)

Tsui, Eugene (1999). Evolutionary Architecture: Nature as a Basis for Design (New York: John Wiley)