Frank Lloyd Wright was first introduced to and became interested in Japanese culture, art and architecture when he visited the Colombian Fair in 1873.
The 1873 event featured a Japanese Pavilion and Wright's visit to the site was a profoundly influential moment for him, since for the first time, he was able to explore Asia and Asian culture without physically having to travel there. After this transformative experience, Wright, who is also known for being an avid collector of Japanese prints and textiles, decided to take a trip to Japan in February 1905.
Frank Lloyd Wright's Trip
A photographic album of this trip has been preserved and provides a sense of his architectural visions and inspirations. From the album, viewers are able to catch a glimpse of how he framed reality and memories he felt were worthy to preserve through photography. These photographs are evidence that Wright was interested in the ways in which the composition of space in Japanese buildings was influenced by the compositions of Japanese prints, such as in the Higashi-Honganji temple in Nagoya.
Furthermore, Wright was interested in and inspired by Japan’s smaller and lesser-known buildings and temples as opposed to the larger, more popular, commercially-oriented ones. Wright was intrigued by the horizontal layouts of Japanese buildings, for in them he saw the culmination of his own architectural ambitions – simplicity, monumentality, and horizontality. Even after his return home from Japan, these main principles continued to guide and inspire him.
Japanese versus Western Attitude Towards Architecture
As Lucy Birmingham writes, Wright was interested in the conceptual framework within which Japanese buildings were designed and constructed. For the Japanese, buildings were not seen as frozen in a specific time or place. This was a sharp contrast to the Western mentality towards conservation and reconstruction.
For Westerners, a building seemed to be defined by the specific historical moment from which it was produced, thus emphasis was placed on conservation. The Japanese, Wright perceived, did not have the same sense of attachment to the material building, for it was seen as in a constant, almost cyclical, state of transformation. A building could be reconstructed hundreds and thousands of times over but would still be considered the same building, albeit in a different phase.
Wright's Legacy from his Trip to Japan
Wright was highly influenced by type of nature he saw in Japan. He was attracted to the low trees and forests, as well as the very organized nature of Japanese garden design. Wright then extended this concept of nature to his own architectural designs in which he sought to establish a continuity between interior and exterior, home and garden. The idea was that nature — like architecture itself — could be reduced to its basic geometric elements of line and shape.
Riccardo Cardilli - I live in Montreal's west end, where I spend my time writing, reading, cooking and playing sports. I hold a Master's degree in Media ...
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