Frank Lloyd Wright's
SAMARA
John E. Christian, Owner


SAMARAQuest


Benton Fourth Grade Team

The Philippine Mahoganies

Cassie Lawson / Jessica Robertson
Ray Cline / Lindsay Taylor

---

SAMARAQuest
    1   What is your favorite area of SAMARA?
    2   Why are the bedrooms so small?
    3   Did you ever feel claustrophobic?

My favorite area of SAMARA is the living room. I like to sit in the large chair which is next to the glass windows and in front of the television.

In this location, I have natural light in the day time and at night there is plenty of illumination from the deck lights above making it easy to read.

This location is close to Nature which is visible through the large plate glass windows. I can see the vines, trees, flowers, birds and quite often animals like squirrels, raccoons and opossums.

I can see the sun and the shadows it produces at different times of the day and when it rains and snows. I am close enough to feel like I am actually part of the natural environment.


You have heard me say that Mr. Wright loved Nature and he designed his houses to be as close to Nature as possible.

One of his famous quotations is, "You should spell Nature with a capital N just like you spell God with a capital G because Nature is as close to God as we can get on this Earth."

The bedrooms are small much like the bathrooms and hallway to save space in the overall construction of the house.


This reduced the building costs of his houses to a point where his clients could then afford to include the more expensive innovations and artistic ideas that Mr. Wright always proposed.

However, Frank Lloyd Wright thought that a large living room space was important and he always designed the living rooms to be larger than those in an ordinary house.

At SAMARA, the ceilings of the entry, hallway, main bathroom, utility room, dining area and guest bedroom are low measuring only about 6 feet 7 inches high. For some people, these areas of the house can create a claustrophobic feeling.

This is true for some of my guests especially football and basketball players from Purdue who are both big and tall. They do notice the low ceilings. However, this is something that living in a such a house you get used to and really think little about it.


The different ceiling heights between the entry and the the living room, and between the living room and the dining area create a new sense of space. The Christian family never had a claustrophobic feeling in these areas probably because we were not so big and tall and we became accustomed to the conditions.

But, keep in mind that Frank Lloyd Wright always designed his buildings to suit the personality and character of his clients. His buildings were all different. So, SAMARA suited us just fine.

I've enjoyed responding to your questions. To learn more about SAMARA, I encourage you to visit the other Benton Fourth Grade Team pages. You may also be interested in taking a look at the Benton SAMARAQuest Challenge.

The Benton SAMARAQuest Challenge is designed to expand your learnings beyond what you already know about Frank Lloyd Wright and SAMARA. The Challenge suggests activities for exploring things you're interested in learning more about in your studies of the world's greatest architect.

Be sure to visit other
Benton Fourth Grade Teams
to learn more about
SAMARA.
The Benton SAMARAQuest Fifth Grade Teams The Tour People / The Origamies / The Favorites
The Flat Roofs / The Fireplace People / The Philippine Mahoganies
Visit these other Benton SAMARAQuest Teams
Grade 3 / Grade 4 / Grade 5 / Grade 6

Return to the Benton SAMARAQuest Main Directory

---

Copyright © 1998   All rights reserved.
The John Christian Family Memorial Trust, Inc. and LEARNING ASSOCIATES
Latest revision September 30, 1998