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


SAMARAQuest


Benton Sixth Grade Team

The Cherokee Reds

Brittney Chenoweth / Sarah Jewell
Matt Neer / Whitney Widmer

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SAMARAQuest
    1   Do you know why FLW liked nature?
    2   Why did he build with nature?
    3   Did you like all of the furniture he designed for you?
    4   How did the pink light bulbs give a cast that was different
          from the regular, white bulbs?
    5   Why did FLW specify the pink?

The Cherokee Reds is an excellent name for a team of young students interested in Frank Lloyd Wright and SAMARA. Cherokee red was Mr. Wright's favorite color in Nature.

Frank Lloyd Wright's love for Nature resulted from his activity as a young boy working and playing on his uncle's farm in Wisconsin. The farm was large and stretched along a hilly country side adjacent to the Wisconsin River.

It was on the farm that, as a budding young artist, he saw many forms and colors in Nature that attracted his eye. He was especially attracted to the colors and arrangements of flowers. Examples include the morning glory, the lilly, the hollyhock and the sumac.

He paid very close attention to the details in the forms and shapes of many plants- the shapes of trees, branches, seeds, animal tracks in the snow, and even the honey comb made by bees.

Later in life, Mr. Wright used his ideas about Nature to design his buildings. A few examples are the Hollyhock House, Sumac House, Honey Comb House, Falling Water, Snowflake and, of course, SAMARA. He often designed and named his houses based on abstractions of Nature.

Below on the left is Frank Lloyd Wright's abstraction of the hollyhock flower. On the right is an example of art glass he designed circa 1904.


With an abstract pattern inspired by Nature, the art glass is made from a myriad of green and gold rectangles and clear glass. Both designs remind us of the vivid colors and distinctive patterns of Nature that Frank Lloyd Wright had observed as a young boy on his uncle's farm.

We liked most of the furniture that Frank Lloyd Wright designed for our House because it was special for us and fit in with SAMARA's tie to Nature - wing seeds in motion. This tie-in to Nature can be seen in most of the furniture in the living and dining areas of the House.

Much of our furniture was designed to be used in different ways and to provide flexibility in use and arrangement. The coffee table, for example, is made up of six triangular shaped tables that come apart and can be put back together again to form different shapes.

The individual triangular tables can be used as chairs and can be stacked. Some of the furniture including the television trays, the dining room chairs, and the outside lanai furniture are designed with the SAMARA logo. The incorporation of the "winged-seeds in motion" logo into the furniture was Mr. Wright's way of bringing Nature into the House.

It is interesting that Mr. Wright specified pink light bulbs for the lamps. Again, tying the inside of the house to Nature outside. The pink color reflecting off of the wood, brick and ceiling produces an effect closer to natural light.

This is especially effective with Mr. Wright's designs of indirect lighting as seen in the pole lights, deck lights and book shelving lights.

I've really enjoyed responding to your team's questions. To learn more about SAMARA, I encourage each of you to visit the other Benton Sixth 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.

Visit the other
Benton Sixth Grade Teams
to learn more about
SAMARA.
The Cherokee Reds / The Waterfalls / The FLWs
The Winged Seed People / Winged Seeds / The Pinecones

Visit these other Benton SAMARAQuest Teams
Grade 3 / Grade 4 / Grade 5 / Grade 6

Return to the Benton SAMARAQuest Main Directory

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