Week 10

Here's a link to my SRP PowerPoint:

SRP PowerPoint Presentation

_______________________________________________________________

MARIN COUNTY CIVIC CENTER

This week, I addressed the psychology of Wright’s organic architecture. Always aiming to shape the human with his structure, Wright fastidiously designed every aspect of his buildings from the exterior to the furniture to the lighting to the homeowners’ wardrobe to the dishes to even the napkins! He aspired for his structures to shape the way that people behave--whether in residences or in public buildings.

Wright’s Guggenheim revolutionized the way that art museums display and visitors view art; his Marin County Civic Center likewise challenged traditional assumptions of what a government building should look like and function as.  

The last of Wright’s major works, the Marin County Civic Center was also the first of Wright’s government buildings. Looking more like a futuristic spaceship than a government office building, the Marin County Civic Center’s long V-shape, blue roofs, circular accents, and pointed tower seem to have leaped from the pages of a sci-fi novel.

Source: inhabit.com

Comprised of two long sections housing the Administration Building and Hall of Justice connected to a central rotunda at a 120-degree angle, the Marin County Civic Center is punctuated by a 52-meter high polygon-shaped tower, staying true to Wright’s geometrical style. The building’s light blue roofs mimic the color of both the surrounding hills and sky. Indeed, the building both looks and functions as an aqueduct, connecting the three hills and funneling the water flowing through the building into the ocean. Like all of Wright’s buildings, the Marin County Civic Center melds the rolling hills of the landscape with its domes spaced-out across the landscape. Golden spheres and accents celebrate the sunny California climate (“Key Works of Modern Architecture by Frank Lloyd Wright”).

Source: noehill.com

Here Wright pioneered the use of an indoor atrium. Open light wells stretch across the building’s long hallways, allowing natural light to filter in the entire building and providing each office with a view of the outdoors (Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly Vol. 24 No. 4).

Source: Wikipedia

In fact, the Civic Center accomplished Wright’s mission for architecture to enhance the beauty of the landscape and make residents appreciate Nature more; upon the completion of construction, Marin County residents realized the beauty of the hilly landscape and decided to protect the landscape from further residential or commercial construction (Pfeiffer, Global Architecture: Marin County Civic Center).

Harkening back to Robie House’s novel attached garage, automobiles continued to fascinate Wright. The Marin County Civic Center was the first government building to address the post-World War II automobile culture taking over the United States, connecting to the highway and constructing access roads that run under the building’s archways. In fact, the building was intended to only be accessible by car (“Key Works of Modern Architecture by Frank Lloyd Wright”).

Source: Marinlibrary.org

The focal point of the Civic Center, however, is its prominent circle motif found everywhere from the archways to the payphones to the door handles to the water fountains to the signs. This design peaks with the domes that punctuate the building and thematically connect building to landscape (cnet.com).

Source: aviatorsandcameramen.com

Source: "Key Works of Modern Architecture by Frank Lloyd Wright"

While Wright often adapted shapes from the site’s natural topographical features, the shapes he chose hold a significance extending beyond linking outdoors and indoors. They impact the mental state of the visitors and residents by providing subconscious cues that tap into human’s most basic psychology: cognitive architecture.

The straight lines of squares, rectangles, and triangles imply stability and practicality, on account of the shapes’ association with the element of earth. However, without being offset by bright colors, the shapes give an air of uninviting coldness, as seen in the exterior of Unity Temple, a monolithic cube. On the other hand, Unity Temple’s light-colored interior transforms its square accents into the feeling of stability that religion provides. Likewise, in the Jacobs House, the warm colors of the russet wood, coupled with the rectangular shape of the house, provides the sense of practicality and efficiency that Wright strove for with his built-it-yourself Usonian houses. While vertical lines suggest aggression and strength, horizontal lines are associated with tranquility, unity, and harmony (creativebloq.com). The spiral of the Guggenheim Museum emphasizes the creative energy well suited for an air museum. Likewise implying growth and transformation, spirals break down rigid norms, just as the Guggenheim Museum overturned traditional museum design (designshack.net).

Continuing this theme in the Marin County Civic Center, Wright broke away from 100 years of courtroom design with his curved rows for spectators and jurors, curved tables for attorneys, and a lectern in the center to promote more direct contact with witnesses and the judge. Curved tables psychologically promote communication and consensus (notice the circular tables the next time you visit Starbucks, purposely chosen to be more welcoming and less lonely-looking than the more common square tables!).

Source: cnet.com

Here, blue connotes trust, peace, loyalty, and unity. The Marin County Civic Center’s light blue roofs play into the sense of harmony and democracy that the Hall of Justice and administration promote (Understanding the Meaning of Colors in Color Psychology).

My Marin County Civic Center lesson plan explores the psychology of cognitive architecture through shape and colors. This lesson introduces cognitive psychology: human preference for symmetry, colors, and shapes. Students will select a shape and color scheme representing building’s function (school, government, church, recreation), and then draw and color their design.

Source: everettpotter.com

(For all you biomimetic fans, you could even delve deeper into nano biomimetics of molecular biology: doesn’t the Civic Center look like a dividing cell?!).