How Frank Lloyd Wright tamed the Arizona heat
Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright mastered climate-compatible home design decades before sustainability entered the national conversation, per a Bloomberg deep-dive published last month.
Why it matters: Phoenix summers are getting hotter and Wright's building techniques could help Arizonans keep cool without overrelying on AC.
The big picture: Wright, an OG snowbird who wintered in Arizona from 1929 to 1959, designed a dozen structures around the Valley, including his iconic Taliesin West estate in Scottsdale.
Zoom in: Architecture experts and historians told Bloomberg that Wright practiced "organic architecture," meaning he built structures to complement the surrounding landscape and mimic nature. Examples include:
Incorporating alternating patterns of light and shadow to create shade, which was inspired by Saguaro cactus pleats;
Orienting his buildings to work with natural air flow to create cooling drafts;
Building the David and Gladys Wright House on pillars so the living space caught the natural desert breeze;
And creating exterior walls via massive slabs of cobbled desert rock to absorb heat and transfer it slowly indoors during cool desert nights.
The bottom line: While Wright's techniques can inspire sustainable design today, Fred Prozzillo, head of preservation for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, noted that sustainability was not Wright's goal.
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