Organic architecture

Organic architecture holds that a building should be in harmony with its site, its climate and its users, as if it had grown out of the place. The term is most closely associated with Frank Lloyd Wright, and Fallingwater, the house set over a waterfall, is one of its best-known examples. Organic architecture does not always mean curving forms; the real emphasis is on the unity of part and whole, and of building and surroundings.

Principles of organic architecture

Design starts from the slope of the land, the view, the sun and the wind. Local stone, timber and earth are used in their natural state, and the line between inside and outside is softened. Plans are shaped around the daily life of the people who use them, with spaces flowing into one another. Some architects have taken a different route, drawing on growth patterns, shells and cell structures in nature to arrive at free, fluid forms. Both readings reject the idea of a building as an object detached from its context, which is why organic architecture is often seen as a forerunner of sustainable and biophilic design.

Organic architecture in visualization

In renders of organic buildings, terrain and planting matter as much as the architecture. Getting rocks, trees and water right is what makes a building feel as if it belongs. Bringing that unity into an image, as discussed in organic design in architecture, starts by building the landscape before the building.