Christian Witt-Dörring

By 1910 Vienna's architectural avant-garde was deeply divided into two irreconcilable camps. In contrast to Josef Hoffmann and his Secessionist circle, which subscribed to the unity of the arts and consequently pursued the ideal of the Gesamtkunstwerk or Total Work of Art, the lonely wolf Adolf Loos rejected this model as nothing more than a new type of corset. Loos demanded a strict division of art and function. During Wright's visit to Vienna in 1910 – and even while the father of modern Viennese architecture, Otto Wagner, was still active – a new generation of architects like Josef Frank and Dagobert Peche began to enter upon the scene. In drawing from both approaches a new generation reached its own conclusions as to what the future role of architecture and design in society should be.

Taking Wright and the Robie House as its central focus, Frank Lloyd Wright: Origins and Influences explores the international exchange of ideas that shaped the work of progressive designers in Britain, Europe and America at the turn of the twentieth century.

Recorded July 17, 2014