- Title
- The Spatio-Visual Geometry of the Hollyhock House: A Mathematical Analysis of the ‘Wright Space’ using Isovist Fields
- Creator
- Ostwald, Michael J.; Dawes, Michael J.
- Relation
- Nexus Network Journal Vol. 22, p. 211-228
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00004-018-00422-3
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2020
- Description
- One of the most widely accepted theories about Frank Lloyd Wright’s domestic architecture is that he employed a recurring pattern of spatial and visual relations in his planning, to control the experience of movement through his houses. Known as the ‘Wright Space’, this theory has recently begun to be tested using computational and mathematical means, providing the first quantitative assessment of its validity. To date, the results suggest that a spatio-visual pattern akin to that formulated in the Wright Space can be found in some of Wright’s Prairie Style and Textile-block designs, but several of his most famous works remain untested. In this paper Wright’s Hollyhock House, an important intermediate work in his oeuvre, is examined to test two hypotheses. First, the paper seeks to determine whether passage through the house conforms to the spatio-visual pattern identified in the Wright Space. Second, the paper examines the claim that the experience of the Hollyhock House is more similar to that of Wright’s later Textile-block architecture, than it is to his earlier Prairie style works. The paper uses a computational method, isovist analysis, to test the hypotheses.
- Subject
- Frank Lloyd Wright; Hollyhock House; isovist analysis; space syntax; prospect-refuge theory
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1439382
- Identifier
- uon:40904
- Identifier
- ISSN:1590-5896
- Language
- eng
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