This fall, Integrated Design Studio challenged students with foundational theory about craft, meaning and materiality. Students explored the constructive intentionality of Greene and Greene, the monolithic rigor of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian houses, and modern layered wall sections informed by energy efficiency and sound building science.
The project is a visitor's center for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian Pope-Leighey House, on the grounds of Woodlawn Plantation in Alexandria, VA.
Study of and a visit to Wright's Pope-Leighey house in Arlington informed students’ work to pick up where Wright left off. As always, the focus went beyond problem-solving to how today’s aesthetic and functional demands could transform the theoretical architectural intentions embodied in the iconic houses of the early twentieth century.