Author Canine Architecture

For the Chinese horoscope, 2018 is the year of the dog. As a commemoration, we present the history of this House designed by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright for a very special customer.

Without a doubt, in the history of architecture, the figure of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is obligatory mention. Considered by many the largest American architect, Wright left in this world a prodigious legacy ranging from interventions in decorative and graphic arts, houses, public buildings, commercial and urban planning to this curious house Projected for Eddie, a nice black Labrador.

Jim Berger, the owner of the can, was the son of a client of Wright, mechanical engineering professor Robert Berger who had entrusted the famous architect with the design of a family home.

In 1950 Wright delivered the blueprints of the house to Robert Berger who was given the task of building it for himself. Jim, who was 12 years old, needed a home for his canine friend, and in June 1956, respectfully directed a letter to Frank Lloyd Wright asking for the design of the house and offering as payment all he had earned working on the cast of Newspapers for several months.

The answer was not immediate, because at that time Wright was busy with the construction of several works (for the dates given coincide the Guggenheim Museum of New York, the Beth Solomon Synagogue in Pennsylvania, the house for William Tracy, the remodeling of the square Hotel in New York, or the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Wisconsin, among other projects).

However, at the second attempt, the answer was a complete set of blueprints that the architect sent as a gift for Jim and for Eddie. The result is a wooden house, with a triangular floor and gabled ceiling that integrates perfectly with the context and like any author architecture, presents unmistakable design features.

Unfortunately, neither Eddie nor the following pets that the Bergers had wanted to inhabit the house. The animal mind remains a mystery, however this history allows us to know the human side and the generosity of one of the great figures of the world architecture.