Was it possible that Frank Lloyd Wright had been or seen the future?

Question:

Was it possible that Frank Lloyd Wright had been or seen the future?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Interesting question. Every great mind foresees a possible future, is inspired by what tomorrow might bring. In this sense, yes, Frank Lloyd Wright saw the future. In my opinion, however, he did not travel in time in any unusual way, see, or visit a future outside of his lifetime.

It's useful to think about causality -- what causes what. Science fiction often shows us reversals of the expected cause to effect relationship, as when a person from the future comes to the past or a person in the past sees the future. There is no evidence that this really happens, though it is a tantalizing idea. Answering your question for certain would involve seeing the future ourselves.

It's just an opinion, but I don't personally believe the answer is yes because Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture, though progressive and innovative, is not particularly futuristic as such.

He was inspired by geometry (which has been around since antiquity), nature, and perhaps by some Asian architecture. You can see similar influences at play in the Arts and Crafts movement (people like Rennie MacIntosh) and other interesting architecture. His work is inspirational, but not such a radical departure from concepts that existed in his time as it might seem at first glance. If you look at the Guggenheim in NY alone without studying his other work -- Fallingwater, for example --you may not see it. To understand Wright's many connections to his own time you have to look at multiple examples of his work.

It's 2006, and if you look around you'll see very few buildings and houses that look like Frank Lloyd Wright's masterworks. As time passes, you are likely to see fewer and fewer. Most architects dream of doing the sort of thing Wright did, but practical realities tend to intervene. Unless something changes radically, the future will see continued increases in human population, increased popullation densities, fewer raw materials -- all things that will make buildings like those Wright designed less likely rather than more so. Even his most progressive designs like Broadacre City, "The Disappearing City" are not at all likely in a conceivable future. The only people in the future who will live or work in anything like a Wright design will be fabulously wealthy eccentrics nostalgic for the past.