houseatnishiogi-f01, originally uploaded by scarletgreen.

There is a kinesthetic body response to forms and lines. Thus the horizontal line is sensed empathetically as being at rest, just as the body is at rest when horizontal. Frank Lloyd Wright exploited this in his Prairie Houses around Chicago, stressing and emphasizing the horizontal lines and planes of his houses, not only to relate their form to the flat, midwestern prairie but also to convey the image of domestic tranquillity. In contrast, the vertical line is sensed as one of aspiration, reaching, assertiveness. There is a sense of dynamic equilibrium as a result of forces at work in the vertical line (just as our bodies are maintained erect by a multitude of muscle actions). But the line that most strongly conveys dynamic action and movement is the diagonal.

This House at Nishiogi, Designed by Mikio Tai, Architect Cafe 2008
Suginami-ku, Tokyo, Japan.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 5:04 pm and is filed under Home Design. Tags: architect, Chicago, Contemporary Homes, design, Frank Lloyd Wright, House, Japan, Other Design, Tokyo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.