Analysis
The choice of concrete was not just economical,
but fit with Wright's concept for the building. It was honest and simple.
It revealed the bare walls and
unified the temple. He got the most for the least cost. Wright repeated many
forms for both economy and formal control. Repetition was not merely a means
to an end, but reinforced the building’s pure geometry, proportions and
cubic vocabulary. He believed that pure geometry was divine.
Wright said his design was a "frank revival of the old temple form, as better
suited to the requirements of a modern congregation than the nave and transept
of the cathedral type." He abandoned the traditional church type in favor
of a type more suited to the faith of the congregation that was to use it.
The post and lintel and central design of the Unity Temple is much like simple
Greek
and Roman temples, and some restrained High Renaissance buildings, such as
Palladio's Villa Rotunda. The Villa Rotunda has a central open space that people
move through,
while in the Unity Temple, people similarly flowed around the central space.
He returned to natural, pure forms.
Much Classical and Renaissance was shaped by the search for beauty
in universal proportion and elemental geometries to be found
in nature and refined architecture.
Wright similarly orders the Unity Temple on a rigorous system of proportion,
much like Greek temples, determined by measurements of the central
space of the sanctuary. The central space is 33 feet square, a 1:1
proportion,
and,
at 30
ft high, almost a cube. The entrance cloisters and balconies surrounding
the main space are 16 ft deep, a 1:2 ratio, and the four
square corner containing
the stairs are 11 feet, a 3:1 proportion. Almost every other space
of the building is in proportion with the central space of the sanctuary.
Wright
rejected the use of recent historical church form, and believed
in the timelessness and universality
of proportion and elemental geometry. "Principals
are not just invented, they are not evolved by one man or one age." We
see historical references in the Unity Temple because they are
fundamental and it
is natural to use them. Wright was returning the church form to
nature, the earth, and the divine.
"I believe in God, only I spell it Nature."
Floor Plan of Palladio's Villa Rotunda
Exterior - Temple of Zeus
Floor Plan - Temple of Zeus