20th Century and Designs

Frank Lloyd's Prairie And Usonian Style Few architects in the 1900s compare to Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 -- April 9, 1959) who was also an interior designer and writer. Throughout his lifetime, Wright was credited with over a thousand designs and over half of these constructed. Wright who was a famous lover of organic architecture was in the forefront of the Prairie School architectural movement and invented the Usonian home model.

Many office buildings, schools and even museums were designed with the unique style of Prairie School Architecture by him (Prairie School Architecture). Wright was born in 1867 into the family of William Carey Wright (1825 -- 1904) and Anna Lloyd Jones (1838 -- 1923) who resided in the agricultural settlement of Richland Centre, Wisconsin. Both of his parents were teachers although his father was politically and legally inclined.

When Wright came of age, he travelled to Chicago -which was in the midst of a revival after the Great Chicago fire incident of 1871- in search of a job. In a short while, he got employed as a designer in a design firm owned by Joseph Lyman Silsbee. While there, he met a fellow designer, George G. Elmslie, who would later be converted to Prairie style architecture by Wright.

Due to a clash of interest, Wright left Silsbee and joined the Adler & Sullivan Company in less than a year. Sullivan admired the qualities of Wright and they struck up a good relationship. Wright took advantage of this rapport to persuade Sullivan to employ his friend Elmslie and they both shared Wright's new hard-earned office space. Wright's career experienced continual successes until he was named head draftsman, a position where he oversaw all residential designs carried out in Sullivan's company.

Wright worked on five projects which were developed and two of those houses still exist today. Wright lived an extravagant life, spending his money on costly cars and apparel, causing him to accept about nine separate projects to shore up his finances. The houses were designed in the Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles and eight of them still stand today. Wright's designs in those days were majorly in Sullivanesque or the conservative Dutch Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, and Queen Anne styles.

By the beginning of the 20th century, Wright held claim to over 50 designs. The Prairie Wright fully developed the Prairie School style in 1900 and 1901. He worked on four projects which are widely regarded to as the pioneer designs of this style. Wright also put his ideas in writing and published them in the Ladies Home Journal in response to a request from Curtis Publishing Company's President, Edward Bok, for better house designs.

Wright's designs "A Home in a Prairie Town" and "A Small House with Lots of Room in it" were published in February and June 1901 respectively and after an initial delay, people fell in love with the idea. Wright's houses called "Prairie Houses" were low structures with slightly sloping roofs, simple features. They were constructed with special materials and were built to fit in with the unique Chicago landscape.

Wright established his status as a world class draftsman with the unique designs of these structures which were quite distinct when compared to the then conventional houses. These buildings had typical horizontal features which made them fit in perfectly with the Midwestern landscape. Wright called the underlying philosophy behind his design "Organic Architecture" and explained that all forms of design should be influenced by their environment and its function. This philosophy which was invented in 1894 by Wright in his early career days defined his architectural career.

Wright's Prairie School style structures were different in all respects from the normal house designs and they were the pioneer examples of the "open plan" design. These designs became necessary due to the rising abscondment of domestic helps in a large number of American homes and they entail designs which enable the lady of the house to monitor the children and guests in the other rooms while doing her domestic duties. Modern designs have been proven to have developed from Wright's novel "open plan" design.

Apart from Wright's masterful use of space, he applied his organic architecture philosophy to every aspect including the basics of his design. Notwithstanding the scale of the house, his designs, both interior and exterior, were often well detailed after his philosophy. His Prairie houses had distinct patterns that were replicated all over the structure i.e. windows, floors, furniture and even the decorations.

Wright was among the first designers to design specially-made furniture and electric light accessories including glass lamps and lampshades and blended them in with the rest of the design. Wright also developed novel uses for emerging building materials such as concrete and glass bricks. Wright loved using glass in his designs as they allowed a view of the surroundings and at the same time shielded the interior. Apart from his famous Prairie School style, Wright also developed another building philosophy called Usonian.

Usonianism The term Usonian refers to about sixty averagely priced family residences Wright designed in 1936. These structures were small bungalows with only living space and were designed in an L-shape with an enclosed garden terrace. Traditional building materials, flat roofs, spaces for solar panels and lots of windows were normal features of these houses. Wright had a profound interest in community planning and development and contributed over 40 works to this effect from around 1900 till his death. The Usonian homes also had.