Froebels Gifts, Lincoln Logs and LEGO Bricks.
Building your own house stokes an internal flame in a person to explore the motivations and inspirations behind the concepts and ethos expressed by the home. The motivations are instinctive, I honestly don’t understand what pulls me in a certain direction, and inspiration comes from many corners. Trying to unravel all of that is a great personal journey of understanding.
Julie and I just returned from an architectural tour visiting Chicago, Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW) home and studio, the Robie House, and 14 homes in Oak Park IL.. I will confess to also attending and enjoying immensely a Cubs game at Wrigley Field J
For Herons’ House, Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School; Gustav Stickley and Craftsman Farms; Ole Kirk Christiansen and his son Godtfred, of LEGO; and David Lewis, the principle designer of Bang & Olufsen, were all sources of inspiration. Nature and the setting of our lot in it's environment are more than inspirations, they are partners with the house and us.
The Prairie style was a reaction to other imported styles falsely placed in America, and the desire to have a uniquely American expression of architecture. The Chicago area is as flat as a plane of glass. That location and landscape gave rise to the Robie house in the 1900s and its horizontal lines paralleling the horizon. The Robie house is one of the ten most important houses in history and changed architecture forever in America. While less famous than Fallingwater, built 35 years later, it is equally if not greater in importance in the principle it expressed and how it changed the future of homes to this day.
At first glance, our home on a hillside has very little in common with the flat prairie and tall prairie grass of the Midwest. A closer look, and some thought, revels the connection.
Viewed from across the lagoon on Cannon road, or on the trail system in the Capri development off of Horizon Dr., you can see the house parallels the planes of the lagoon and the Pacific Ocean, just as the Robie House did so to the planes of the Midwest.
I am sure the phrase has already been coined but I’ll refer to our architectural style as "Coastal Prairie." To me it is more representative of our form than the often-used "California Craftsman" or "Coastal Ranch" moniker.
FLW in his 90’s said that "Froebels gifts" ran through his fingers tips, to pencil, to paper, in every house that he ever designed. Froebel started Kindergarten in Germany and his gifts were building blocks and activity blocks. He envisioned that the "Gifts" will teach the child to use his environment as an educational aid. Secondly, the gifts will give the child an indication of the connection between human life and life in nature. Finally, that they will create a bond between the adult and the child who play with them.
This could be said in the more modern times of LEGO bricks. As a child, like many kids today, I played endlessly with LEGO bricks, building houses, farms, cities, airplanes and my favorite form, the racecar! I also note that my architect is a huge fan of Rokenbok toy systems, also a construction toy with electric components.
A historical footnote, FLW’s son invented Lincoln Logs and that leads me to a question. Today’s kids are not so much into Froebels Gifts, Lincoln Logs and LEGO Bricks, but more into electronics, Nintendo, and Xbox. As I said, it leads me to a question.
Is this a good thing, and for what future does this prepare our children, our earth?
I am thankful for my exposure to my "Froebels Gifts" equivalent, LEGO bricks. We’re going to have a few surprises in Herons’ House J
Peder