Happy Labor Day – and if you celebrate Rosh Hashanah: a Sweet and Happy New Year to You!

 

 Modernist Stained-glass Window in Lake Worth, Florida. ©tckaiser

Sculptural Luminaries, Inspired by Nature

The first - the Coral

Ten years at sea would have a profound impact on anyone’s life. For New Zealand-based designer David Trubridge, it inspired him to create furniture and lighting that expresses his close connection to the sea, to nature in general, and to his deep commitment to environmental stewardship.

Trubridge graduated from Newcastle University in England in 1972 with a degree in naval architecture. He

David Trubridge

taught himself to make furniture while he worked as a forester in rural Northumberland.

Then in 1981, Trubridge, his wife Linda, and their two small sons set out on a yacht named “Homepipe” determined to navigate their way through the Caribbean and the Pacific. They’d sold everything they had to buy the boat that would be their home for a decade.

When the family ultimately settled in Whakatu, New Zealand, Trubridge began to work on furniture designs that would be the basis for his small business. When he introduced “The Coral” pendant light in 2004, that small business gained the attention of the international media and, in turn, the international market. His small business wasn’t so small any longer.

The Kina

“The Coral” wasn’t originally intended as a light. It was just a form Trubridge created out of plywood by repeating a geometric polyhedral 60 times. Trying to find a use for this fascinating form, he stuck a light bulb in it one day. And so began a series of “sculptural luminaries, inspired by nature,” such as…

·       “Navicula,” which recalls the microscopic diatoms that float in the ocean

·       “Kina,” which references the inner shell of the sea urchin that wash ashore on New Zealand beaches

·       “Flax,” inspired by the long leaves of the indigenous flax plant

·       “Snowflake,” which Trubridge designed after a trip to Antarctica

·       “Ulu,” based on the leaf of a certain Tahitian tree

·       and so on…

The Navicula

A Problem and Its Ingenious Solution

Most of David Trubridge’s lighting pendants are quite large – one of many reasons why they work so well in open, clean-lined modernist interiors. “Navicula,” for example, is 22” x 8” x 57”. “Snowflake” is 31” x 16” x 31”. The “Sola” pendant is a 31” x 31” x 31” globe. Made of plywood and other lightweight materials, the large pendants aren’t heavy. But imagine the shipping charge for pieces of that size, which would have to be passed along to the buyer, thereby dramatically raising the price. Beyond the cost, Trubridge was also concerned about the carbon footprint such shipping would entail.

The Kit

So he devised a clever solution: He would ship his giant designs as kits of parts that buyers would assemble when they arrived. That way, the lights could be shipped economically in flat boxes. And the environmental impact? Trubridge now holds Life Cycle Assessments (LCA’s) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs).

According to the website (www.davidtrubridge.com), Trubridge and his company are also dedicated to sourcing sustainable materials. “Wherever possible, all timber is from sustainably managed plantations in New Zealand or the United States. Wood is left natural where appropriate, with natural non-toxic oils being used in place of harmful solvents. From a design point of view, the products use only the minimal amount of materials and are generated with a focus on longevity.”

The Hinaki, inspired by fish traps

Trubridge’s work has been featured in numerous international publications. In 2008, Express magazine named him one of the top 15 designers in the world. In 2012 the Pompidou Centre in Paris acquired his “Icarus” installation for its permanent collection.  

Where are they?

David Trubridge collections are available through retail stores, some of which will assemble the pendants for you for a small fee. The website lists three Florida cities with Trubridge retailers: Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Pensacola. Go to the Where To Buy page to find those and all other retail sources.

Flax

To see all of Trubridge’s collections, visit www.davidtrubridge.com.

Thank Frank

Frank Lloyd Wright continues to impact our lives every day.

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FLW and Fallingwater

“I would rather solve the small-house problem than build anything else I can think of.”

-- FLW

In 1991, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) officially declared Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) “the greatest American architect of all time.” International academia considers him one of the three or four greatest modern architects of all time in the world.

Wright’s name conjures images of such iconic FLW buildings as the Guggenheim Museum, the swirling concrete sculpture in New York City; Taliesin West, his iconic school of architecture in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert; and Fallingwater, the masterpiece he built into the rocky side of a mountain and above a waterfall in Mill Run, Pennsylvania.

These are only three out of 500-plus projects he completed over his 70-year career.

Yet to this visionary genius from Wisconsin, solving the American suburban “small-house problem” for “the common people” was a persistent mission. And the solutions he found forever changed the paradigm of residential design.

If you’re sitting in a modern or “contemporary” house right now, you’re enjoying Wright’s genius right now without even knowing it.

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“I believe in God, only I spell it N-a-t-u-r-e.”

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Frank Lloyd Wright’s devotion to “organic architecture,” as he called his guiding ethos, informed everything he designed. So he looked to forms found in nature for inspiration. The design for the Guggenheim, for example, was reportedly based on a shell. Fallingwater -- voted the “best all-time work of American architecture” by the AIA -- is, in essence, an outcropping on the mountainside.

Wright’s work was never ostentatious – not even his largest, most expensive houses. He believed in clean lines and simplicity and despised the restraints and unnecessary ornamentation of architectural styles that preceded him, especially the ornate fussiness of the Victorian era.

FLW's 1920 Frederick Robie House, the epitome of his Prairie style.

To Wright, American homes needed to be more open, airy, and livable for everyday citizens. He saw the need for fewer, larger rooms conducive to family life, with an abundance of natural light and easy access to the outdoors, both physically and through constant views.

His philosophy was manifest in all of his work, including the Prairie Style houses (his term) he designed for the mid-western U.S. (1893 to early 1900s) and later in the small, one-story “Usonian” houses, as he named them, that he conceived during the Great Depression.

The 1936 Jacobs "Usonian" House

Of the latter, Wright knew his clients would emerge from the Depression destined to lead simpler lives without household help. They were going to need affordable, sensible, aesthetically pleasing homes. Among other considerations, this would require consolidated functionality.

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“The architect must be a prophet…a prophet in the true sense of the term…If he can’t see at least ten years ahead, don’t call him an architect.”

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So – you’re sitting in your modern or contemporary house right now, and you’re wondering where the great man’s influence still lurks. If you’re an architect, you already know. If not, prepare to be amazed…

FLW created deep, cantilevered roof overhangs to protect all of his windows.

(1) The hallmark of Wright’s groundbreaking Prairie Style was its horizontal emphasis --- “a companion to the horizon,” he said. One way in which he expressed that emphasis was with his use of flat or hipped roofs with deep, cantilevered overhangs.

(2) A pioneer in structural glass:  The roof overhangs were necessary to shade all those wonderful horizontal bands of windows and floor-to-ceiling glass doors that allowed natural light and panoramic views of nature to fill the interior.

FLW stunned the world with his concept for open floor plans, like the one above.

(3) Wright introduced the concept of open floor plans, a fresh and rather startling concept then, but de rigueur in all modern homes since then. The concept was not only beautiful and comfortable, but it also consolidated functionality rather than dividing the home’s function into a series of separate, confining-areas. As a result, Wright achieved the “fewer, larger rooms” he advocated for modern American living, as well as the open airiness we still love about modern houses today.

(4) Wright was both an artist and a pragmatist. As the latter, he knew that without domestic help, the post-Depression wife/mother (as was the norm then) would need to keep an eye on her children while performing her work in the kitchen. The open floor plan aided that. It also banished the claustrophobic kitchen that kept her away from family and friends. He installed skylights in the kitchen ceiling to provide natural light since the “workroom of the house,” as Wright called it, was often in the windowless core of the house.

(5) Other kitchen innovations we take for granted that sprang from FLW’s genius:

•       over-the-counter lighting to avoid working in your own shadow
•       backsplashes for quick and easy cleanup
•       generous counter spaces

A Wright kitchen. Notice the over-the-counter lighting, generous counter space, and backsplash.

(6) To avoid costly, time-consuming plasterwork, Wright specified more efficient, less expensive pre-finished plywood for his interior walls – arguably the precursor to drywall.

(7) Construction technique and materials: Wright was the first architect to use new building materials – concrete and steel – in domestic architecture, including cost-efficient and durable concrete block construction. He hid the humble blocks behind veneers of more attractive materials, such as wood, stone, and brick (depending on the place in which the house was built).

(8) By embracing those construction materials previously relegated to commercial buildings, he was able to create L-shaped footprints for his houses. The “L” enclosed and overlooked a back yard/courtyard/private garden for the suburban homeowner – another way to blur the boundary between indoors and outdoors.

(9) Functional innovation: The L-shape also let him separate the bedrooms from the more “public” areas (living/dining/kitchen) in a one-level house. He believed this separation was vital for harmonious family life.

Wright invented the carport.  On this FLW house, it's carport-as-sculpture.
(Photo by James Michael Kruger)         

(10) He took advantage of other technical advancements to reduce costs for his clients. For example, furnaces had become smaller and cleaner. So he eliminated basements, opting instead for less expensive concrete slab foundations. He ran pipes through the slab for radiant heating. Many well-kept mid-century modern houses still feature their original under-the-floor heating.

(11) When automobile design and materials made them less vulnerable to the elements, Wright also reduced construction costs by replacing garages with “carports” – a term he coined.

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These are only a few elements of modern and contemporary houses that we take for granted today. So when you have a few minutes, look around your own house. Chances are you’ll find several reasons to thank Frank.