A British Frank Lloyd Wright enthusiast has been blocked once again from building one of the architect's unrealized designs in the English countryside. Hugh Petter had his proposal to apply an FLW plan originally designed for a site in Pasadena rejected last year by the North Somerset Council, which, upon hearing that there are no Wright creations outside of the U.S. or Japan, hilariously remarked that he "can't be that influential." Now, the Architects' Journal reports that a planning inspector has blocked Petter's appeal.
To try and bring public sympathy to his plight, Petter created the video below, which recounts his efforts to get the design implemented—negotiating for years with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and getting his site and plan approved by one of the foundation's official architects—and attempts to provide some proof of Wright's influence. The home wouldn't be the first Wright design to be posthumously built, neither would it be the first to be criticized for going against Wright's site-first ethos by being applied in a different locale.
In backing the conclusions of the council, that the decontextualized design would essentially mar the countryside, planning inspector Edward Gerry is quoted as saying "at the time of its conception the design may have been considered to be highly innovative and exceptional. Nonetheless, in my view, the design, including in terms of its horizontal form and its use of materials, would not be of exceptional quality or of an innovative nature when considered against modern construction techniques."
· Inspector rejects appeal for UK's first Frank Lloyd Wright house [Architects Journal via Arch Daily]
· UK Committee: Frank Lloyd Wright 'Can't Be That Influential' [Curbed National]
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