Canvas, Frank Lloyd Wright, & Taliesin West (Video)
I had the great pleasure of visiting the Frank Lloyd Wright’s School of Architecture‘s western lecture series location, Taliesin West, in Scottsdale, Arizona. Not only were the buildings (all designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, of course) a visual buffet of gorgeousness, they were full of historic fun facts as well as firsts in the field of architecture. (Did you know he was the first to introduce path lighting within floors? Like what you see in movie theatres or on airplanes! Pretty cool stuff!)
One fun fact I couldn’t get enough of is Frank Lloyd Wright decided not to put regular ceilings on the buildings of Taliesin West. What did he use instead? Canvas! Can I get a “woot woot” for fabric?!!
Watch more here…
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Hey everyone,
I’m here in Scottsdale, Arizona at Taliesin West, which is the winter home of famed American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Now, when he built this place back in 1937, he didn’t make ceilings right away. Instead he took canvas and stretched it overhead to help defuse the light so that the rooms were still bright, but there wasn’t any direct sunlight.
Today the ceilings are still made of canvas panels, but they’re covered with a layer of insulated fiberglass, then topped with a treated Plexiglas for protection from UV rays.
It’s just another great use of fabric in the world around us and in our rich global history.
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