Organic Design

Organic Design 

All throughout the centuries humans have been inspired by nature. During this movement artist wanted to design and create products and architecture using the delicate forms, smooth lines and powerful curves. The aim was to achieve a natural impression from nature into their designs. I myself was inspired from nature in these past years. I had designed a lampshade inspired from the delicate form and shape of a jellyfish.

Organic Design started in the 1930s till 1960s and again in the 1990s and still continues to inspire many designers and artists today. 

Frank Lloyd Wright

Organic Design was first introduced by Frank Lloyd Wright. He was born in Wisconsin in 1867 and became a famous architect. Wright believed that what he created should embellish the landscape or site that he built in without creating an eyesore. He wanted his designs to integrate with natures surroundings and the structure should become one with the surrounding elements like a marriage. You can see a great example in one of his famous architecture works. The ‘’Fallingwater’’ house. The idea was to build a house in a forested environment without destroying the environment and make the building fit in with the surroundings. The ‘’Fallingwater’’ had very few walls with a lot of apertures, so natural light could go in and reduce the use of artificial lighting, another reason was so there could be more exposure to the outdoors. It was built in a Japanese style architecture; which Wright was heavily influenced by.

Frank Lloyd Wright

The ‘’Fallingwater’’ is considered to be Frank Lloyd Wright’s most famous work. It was a ground-breaking creation, because Wright managed to build the house around a waterfall without destroying it and it was very successful both aesthetically and functionally.

Fallingwater House 

Fallingwater interior

Alvar Aalto

Alvar Aalto was a Finnish architecture and designer. His work included architecture, furniture, textiles, glassware and also paintings. He was inspired by the Mediterranean culture, owner of Artek Company accompanied by his wife Aino Aalto. His designs were influenced by nature and organic materials. Aalto is known to be the ‘’father’’ of bentwood furniture. In the 1930’s he invented new methods to bending wood which helped him achieve organic forms with a function.

Some famous works of Alvar Aalto includes the Paimio chair [1931]. This chair is known to be influenced by the curved contours of the Finnish Lakes. It has an elegant form made out of laminated birch wood, bent into a closed curve supported with solid birch. Another innovative design is the ‘’stacking stool 60’’. This stool was made up of four wooden parts, including of 3 legs and a round seat. These stools were very easy to assemble and it take minimum storage space.

Alvar Aalto

Paimio Chair

Stool 60 by Avar Aalto

Hoke House by Jeff Kovel 

Interior 

This house was designed by architect  Jeff Kovel. It looks very similar to Frank Lloyd’s house ‘’Fallingwater’’ house. You can see the similarity’s of the houses, both houses are surrounded with nature, have a lot of apertures so light could pass through and include natural materials. This house was used in the movie ''Twighlight'' Trilogy.

Reference -

Bibliography: WordPress (2009) ORGANIC DESIGN (1930-60, 1990-…). Available at: http://bizidesign.pl/en/know-how/historia-designu/organic-design-1930-1960-1990-%E2%80%A6/ (Accessed: 15 May 2016). 

Bibliography: Fallingwater (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallingwater (Accessed: 15 May 2016).

Bibliography: (No Date) Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lloyd_Wright (Accessed: 15 May 2016). 

Bibliography: Fallingwater (2016) Available at: http://www.fallingwater.org/ (Accessed: 15 May 2016).

Bibliography: Organic architecture (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_architecture (Accessed: 15 May 2016).

Bibliography: States of design 05: Organic design (2011) Available at: http://www.domusweb.it/en/design/2011/10/03/states-of-design-05-organic-design.html (Accessed: 15 May 2016).

Bibliography: Artek Alvar Aalto stool 60 - Three-Legged - birch veneer - the making of Aalto stool 60 (2014) Available at: http://www.aalto.com/natural-aalto-3leg-stool.html (Accessed: 15 May 2016).

Alvar Aalto (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvar_Aalto (Accessed: 15 May 2016).

skin (2014) Hoke house in Portland by Skylab architecture. Available at: http://ideasgn.com/architecture/hoke-house-portland-skylab-architecture/ (Accessed: 15 May 2016).