Heavy metal digs A look at Robert Bruno\s Steel House

(image via: Senosiain Arquitectos)

The 2006 home cost a reasonable 160,000 euros (just over $200,000) to build one would guess living in it would be a real trip, so to speak. One possible drawback, though, would be an attack by a giant hermit crab looking for new digs.

(image via: In Between Days)

Organic architecture is hardly a new trend, even allowing for shelters and structures constructed in the pre-industrial age. If only modern architecture is considered, the Casa Mil in Barcelona, Spain, would have to be given props for its daring originality. Designed by the aforementioned Antoni Gaud, the Casa Mil was built between 1906 and 1912 with a comprehensive renovation being undertaken in the 1980s.

(image via: E-Architect)

The building, known also as La Pedrera or The Quarry, features a bizarre stone sculpture garden on its roof that would have been even more outrageous had not city planners put their collective foot down.

(image via: Wikimedia)

One last lingering look at the Casa Mil focuses on one of the timelessly styled figures on the roof. The design, while shocking for the early 20th century, would fit in well with todays style or that of 2008 BC.

(image via: Wikipedia)

Once Gaud had broken the mold, other artistic architects took the organic ball and ran with it. A perfect example is the Einstein Tower in Potsdam, Germany. Conceived by Erich Mendelsohn in the depths of World War I, the tower was not opened until 1924 and is still used today as a functioning solar observatory.
(image via: MutualArt.com)

According to Otto Friedrich, author of Before the Deluge, A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s, Mendelsohn somewhat nervously took Einstein himself on a detailed tour of the finished tower. The acclaimed genius remained silent until some hours later. Finally, when pressed for his opinion by the building committee, Einstein whispered but a single word: Organic.

(image via: Itravelnet)

The word organic conjures up images of living things, and theHundertwasser House Vienna reflects that definition by incorporating soil, grass and trees into its structure. The house actually a suite of 52 apartments and offices was built in the early 1980s by architects Prof. Joseph Krawina and Peter Pelikan. The buildings organic features spill out into the street below in the form of wavy pavement that creeps up and even into a decorative fountain.

(image via: Britannica)

I need a fighter, a lover of space, an agitator, a tester and a wise man. I want a temple of spirit, a monument! So wrote Hilla Rebay, art advisor to Solomon R. Guggenheim, to architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1943. The temple which sprung from Wrights imagination is the remarkable Guggenheim Museum located next to New Yorks Central Park.
(image via: JMG-Galleries)

Wright later commented that I can think of several more desirable places in the world to build this great museum, apparently feeling that the cosmopolitan city was noisy, congested and overcrowded. Its somewhat ironic that the Guggenheim has become a lasting symbol both of New York and of Wright himself.

(image via: Wetenschapsmethodologie)

No discussion of Frank Lloyd Wright and organic architecture would be complete without mentioning the magnificent Fallingwater House near Pittsburgh, PA. Designed by Wright for department store magnate Edgar Kaufmann Sr. in 1935, the project took 2 years to complete and cost $155,000 an appreciable sum in those bleak Great Depression years and equivalent to $2.3 million today.

(image via: Superstock)and

Onlineartcenter Fallingwater was revolutionary for its day in that instead of pushing nature aside, Wright incorporated it into the heart of the home. For many, Fallingwater epitomizes what architecture can and should be. Its aid that the house inspired Ayn Rand to write her epic novel, The Fountainhead. The views above show Fallingwater in summer (left) and winter (right).

(image via: Book of Joe)

Organic architecture of a different kind is represented by the Bubble House, designed by Antti Lovag and purchased by Pierre Cardin in 1990. Illuminated by the warm sun of Frances Cte dAzur, the design has been termed by some to be one part house, two parts hallucination.

(image via: Planetagadget)

Like Robert Brunos Steel House in Lubbock, the Bubble House is a work in progress that is still unfinished 38 years after construction first began. Things have dragged on for so long that the wealthy French industrialist who commissioned the house

(image via: Pingmag)

Its fair to ask: Should organic architecture be green? Well, being environmentally friendly is one thing, but Patrick Blancs creations actually ARE green overlaid with a living carpet of plants and shrubs! As seen above in Paris Muse du Quai Branly, Blanc brings buildings to life in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower

(image via: Skyscraperpage)Last

but not least is a mammoth project expected to dominate the skyline of Mumbai, India. Waves will soar 80-stories into the sky and will offer residents incredible views of the Indian Ocean from its delicately scalloped balconies. Architect Sanjay Puri took the crests of ocean waves as his inspiration, expressed in the undulating balconies which linearly traverse each floor. The upwardly flaring style of Waves seems to defy the laws of physics. It may look organic but what would Einstein say?