I was at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York a couple of months back. There was (and still is until the end of September 2017) an excellent Frank Lloyd Wright exhibition on.

Wright was a designer who embraced so much. I highly recommend you read up further on him, even if you know of his work already.

in 1935 Wright unveiled a proposal for a community called Broadacre City. To get the idea across Wright made a 12 foot by 12 foot model. Wright was driven by the idea of providing a better life within the American systems of democracy and capitalism.

Here’s a shot of Wright and his apprentices working on the model (taken during my visit to MoMA). If you look closely you can see the model is made up of a four by four grid. Wright was very specific about what went into the model – and what didn’t.

A shot of Wright and his apprentices looking over a model of Broadacre

The museum had recreated the model (which I didn’t get a shot of). Next to the model was an activity sheet. The bottom half of the activity sheet carried some of Wright’s rules – exclusions even – for Broadacre.

A shot of me holding a leaflet at MoMA - I will detail it in a second

The exercise the museum set is a good one as well.

I believe we need to create a new city because…

If you could start from nothing, if you could create your own city what you would you encourage? What would you discourage? What would you exclude, or not let in to your city? Do you know of a city that already exists that meets your vision? Is there a city that already exists that is an antithesis to your ideals?


This post tagged with:
MoMA, Frank Lloyd Wright, cities, Broadacre City, prototyping, civic design