Cultural sustainability through architectural preservation: A case study of Frank Lloyd Wright's Florida Southern College

Abstract

This paper explores the approach to cultural sustainability through architectural preservation. It analyses Frank Lloyd Wright's design of the Florida Southern College campus in Lakeland, Florida in the United States as a case study. This campus contains the largest unified collection of Wright's architecture. Between the 1930s and the 1950s, he designed the master plan as well as 10 individual buildings for this project. These buildings compose the core of the campus, which is located on a hillside facing a lake to the south. The campus serves as a critical exemplar for demonstrating the cohesive interaction between humanity, buildings, and landscapes that is lacking in typical modernism. In addition, this campus demonstrates influences from various Eastern thoughts on Frank Lloyd Wright's design. The preservation of this campus is not only related to the cultural and historical identity of this college, but also acts as a lived site for visitors to reflect on the fundamental meaning of human existence. In order to investigate this topic, my research employs archival materials such as writings, drawings, photos, and manuscripts relating to Florida Southern College. They are interpreted through phenomenological analysis similar to Maurice Merleau-Ponty's aesthetics. Through the case study, this paper investigates and explores how the preservation of historic buildings and landscapes can sustain people's memories and desires for a poetical life, which are ways to enhance the value of cultural sustainability.

Architecture as Mediation: The Korean Pavilion at the Montreal Expo ′67

“…Modern buildings shape our lived environments, and thoughtful buildings occupy the memory of our lives. As revealed by the historian Frances A. Yates's pioneer work on the art of memory (Yates, 1992), the preservation of architecture is not only significant in terms of the historical and cultural identity of a modern building, but also recalls the collective memory of its residents and visitors because it embodies their poetic lives through reflecting on the fundamental meaning of human existence (Seo, 2014). The preservation of the Korean Pavilion at the Montreal Expo '67 interweaves elements of traditional and modern Korean architecture.…”