Frank Lloyd Wright: a Precursor of Sustainable Architecture.

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The notion of sustainability relates to the necessary balance between a specific species, its natural environment, and the system of which it is a part. The end result must extend beyond maintenance of the system without jeopardizing the survival of future generations; to the extent possible it must strive to improve the system.

Sustainability applied to architecture and urban design pertains to the system that views people from a twofold perspective, as individuals and as members of a community, together with the planning and building activities they carry out to modify the system with a view to enhancing it in the future.

Also known as green architecture or eco-architecture, sustainable architecture proposes architectural and urban planning designs that make use of natural resources with minimal impact on the environment, through the rational design of buildings and their materials and infrastructures, and that provide their inhabitants with a sense of well-being.

The 20th century witnessed profound changes and a major revolution in ideas and forms of artistic expression. In architecture, the search for the new art that ushered in the century entailed a radical departure from the past and with it from traditional forms of planning and building. It seemed obvious that, by rejecting old methods and exploring the infinite possibilities of new materials and manufactured products along with the fresh ideas inspiring creative processes, success would be ensured. However, those new interests abandoned basic principles and have led to many of today's problems, which make the pursuit of architectural sustainability a priority objective.

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The figure of Frank Lloyd Wright in this context assumes great importance. His search for balance and harmony with nature inspired a new architecture. which made him the precursor of that first generation of heroic architects, the fathers of modern architecture, whose impact has not yet been surpassed. He was the precursor of the concept of architectural space and demonstrated that universal principles derived from human nature itself were all that was needed to produce the innovative architecture called for by the new century.

This American architect, born in Wisconsin in 1869, applied the principles of sustainability to his architecture with great ease and spontaneity. He did not make reference to them explicitly but rather inescapably, as a result of his training combined with his parents' work ethic and the years he spent on his uncle's farm in an unspoiled...

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