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


SAMARAQuest


Benton Sixth Grade Team

The Winged Seed People

Amanda Patch / Phillip Clark / Katie Leuenberger

---

SAMARAQuest
    1   How do you keep SAMARA so clean and original?
    2   How does the floor heating system work?

Winged Seed People, as the name of your team, is a wise choice. Many plants in nature have winged seeds.

You are familar with the large winged seeds produced by maple trees. You probably have played with these because when tossed into the air they come down in helicopter-like fashion.

Other common plants that have winged seeds are the elm, ash and basswood trees as well as many flowers.

Most people, however, do not know that there are winged seeds in pine cones. Mr. Wright knew this and chose them to design my house. From the tiny winged seeds of pine cones, he made an artistic sketch as the logo for my house. He called his design SAMARA and used it for many designs both inside and outside of the House.

SAMARA designs include inside furniture, garden lanterns, stationary and the outside lanai furniture.

SAMARA is very easy to keep clean both inside and outside. Even though the House is now 41 years old, most of the items have retained their original appearance.

I have lived alone in the House and as you know the less people living in a space the easier it is to maintain it and keep it clean.

Outside, Mr. Wright used wide roof overhangs to protect the wood, brick and windows from the weather. This helps keep everything looking clean and maintains the original look.

However, an even more important, and unique, feature of SAMARA is the fact that there is a minimum amount of air circulation through the House. This eliminates drafts and the stirring up of dust particles.

This is because of the way the House is heated. There are no hot air ducts.

The heat for SAMARA comes from the floor. Before the concrete was poured for the inside floor, copper pipes were layed through the House.

The pipes were connected to a natural gas boiler in such a way that warm water could be circulated through the pipes using electric water pumps.

The system of pipes was carefully tested under pressure for leaks and then wet concrete was poured over them.

With this innovative heating system, warm water heats the concrete floor and provides even heat throughout the House.

The temperature of the water, and thus the temperature of the floor, is controlled by outside thermostats to provide for uniform heat. The colder it is outside the warmer the floor.

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 all of the
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

---

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