Compose styles
Rather than blending styles toward a middle, this gives them roles. The first one carries the structure, the next comes in as the accent, and anything after that shows up in a single detail. Where they fight each other, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Organic Architecture: Stretch the horizontals and open from a low entry into a tall room
- Type
- Set in Organic Architecture's manner (Repeat one geometry down to signs and furniture, adding no foreign typeface), and let Prairie School's lettering (Wide capitals set in one horizontal line, aligned with the eaves) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Organic Architecture's material (Local stone and solid timber joined by plaster and matched metalwork); bring in exactly one thing from Prairie School (Roman brick and quartersawn wood, only the horizontal joints raked).
- Colour
- Build on #d9d1bd, #77806a, #4d4539 and admit one accent from #d8d7bf, #a49e67, #2c2425.
Where they fight
- Organic Architecture and Prairie School both belong to Modern Architecture, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Organic Architecture Assembling natural materials and curves without reading contours and sun produces a shell that could stand anywhere, missing the principle that unites site, structure, furniture and movement.
- Prairie School Applying the horizontal motif to the elevation while shortening the eaves, so no shadow falls and the lines flatten into surface pattern.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Organic Architecture (style, 1900s–) and their accent from Prairie School (style, 1893–1920s). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Organic Architecture exists for: houses on slopes or in woodland where floors step with the ground instead of cutting it, or projects where built in furniture and building share one module throughout. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Organic Architecture - Integration with terrain - Horizontals - Natural materials - Inside-outside continuity Composition: Stretch the horizontals and open from a low entry into a tall room. Type and lettering: Repeat one geometry down to signs and furniture, adding no foreign typeface. ## Accent comes from Prairie School, used sparingly - Emphasized horizontals - Deep overhanging eaves - Ribbon windows - Low-slung roofs Let one material quality come from it: Roman brick and quartersawn wood, only the horizontal joints raked. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #d9d1bd, carry the structure in #77806a and #4d4539, and let a single accent come from #a49e67. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: intimacy, calm, luxury, trust. ## Where they fight - Organic Architecture and Prairie School both belong to Modern Architecture, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. ## What goes wrong - Organic Architecture: Assembling natural materials and curves without reading contours and sun produces a shell that could stand anywhere, missing the principle that unites site, structure, furniture and movement. - Prairie School: Applying the horizontal motif to the elevation while shortening the eaves, so no shadow falls and the lines flatten into surface pattern. ## Across the four Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture. ## Constraints - Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. - Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work. - Produce original compositions in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Organic Architecture 1900s– / Style / Modern Architecture
Refuses to treat building, furniture, material, terrain and light separately, designing them as one continuum that includes the place and the life lived in it.
- Prairie School 1893–1920s / Style / Modern Architecture
An architecture of the horizontal line answering the midwestern prairie. Deep eaves, ribbon windows, low roofs and continuity between inside and out established the first American modern house free of imported European styles.
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