A DESERT LABORATORY: FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S PATTERNS IN THE SONORAN DESERT

Abstract

The desert serves as a major turning point in Wright’s career. During his desert laboratory, Wright continued to establish his “organic principles” in how architecture should interact with nature, evidenced by his methods of conventionalizing the desert sphere. This thesis will analyze four primary works which Wright developed in the desert: his six-month Ocotillo research camp, the unbuilt plans for the San Marcos in the Desert hotel and the Taliesin West Fellowship, which exists until today. The final chapter will focus on Broadacre City, Wright’s vision for a democratic utopia, developed at Taliesin West and under the influence of the desert’s aura. These projects will be analyzed as a three tiered scale: patterns in objects, patterns in building and lifestyle, and urban patterns. These reveal Wright’s multi-disciplinary approach: as patterns of thought, textile patterns and graphic designs, patterns of translation between conceptual and physical form, patterns in tools and teaching methodologies. These represent the poetic totality of Wright’s work and all-inclusive design practices to create an embodied whole. Wright’s time in the desert serves as a long-term experiment in form and lifestyle, as this merge of disciplines becomes Wright’s most innovative idea to arise from his desert laboratory.