The Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park. Photograph by John Knuteson.
This drawing project considers the Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park, Clayton, Missouri, a Usonian House designed by Wright in the 1950’s. The project is intended to supplement the historical lens of my master’s thesis, but uses a completely different methodology of visual investigation to hypothesize, reflect and ultimately make a design proposition that is both critical and speculative, using intuition, play, and iteration—as well as open-ended visual experimentation.
The drawings echo the format of the Wasmuth Portfolio drawings and underscore the idea that overlooked perspectives can challenge and restructure a leading historical narrative. The first series of drawings seeks an acquaintance with the house through plan, section, and isometric drawings, created by hand. The drawings were created on mylar paper, allowing for them to be layered to produce varying graphic and compositional results. Several collage studies were created - using words, photographs, and grasshopper coding - as additional layers for the drawings to interact with. These are then used as base material for a series of portraits that, instead of focusing on Wright’s architecture, draw inspiration from Russell and Ruth Kraus, the owners. These drawings use lines, color, photographs, and text as layered graphic tools to reposition and reconstitute the image of the house.
GALLERY
