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Frank Lloyd Wright design ideas any house can use

2 months ago

I read an article today from someone who stayed in a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Now Now, we all know his designs had their issues, or we have issues with the design, usually both. But, the ideas make for an interesting place to live.

Among them, from the article, The home will play on all of your senses. and The architecture is designed to physically move you – and it does.

Other points in the article are specific to this house, and to fact that it is a rental. But I appreciated the design thoughts, including a particular ”quirk”.

Here is the article.

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Comments (7)

palimpsest
2 months ago
last modified: 2 months ago
I toured a Frank Lloyd Wright house that had a bathroom door that was probably under 20" wide. I had a 24" wide bath door at the time, and it was Distinctly narrower than mine. And for a FLW house the bathroom was not small.

And furniture. Almost no furniture looks exactly right in a FLW house.
bpath
Original Author
2 months ago
He often designed the furniture! A neighbor of ours was a FLW apprentice and designed, and built, his own house. Nearly all the furniture was built in, or he designed and built. The furniture he bought was two Stressless chairs with ottomans. They looked only slightly out of place.

You’re right, FLW houses can be quirky. They are more like art. Very expensive, hard to move, art. You have to adapt to the house, which isn’t how home design should be.

BUT, some principles, like using light, and ceiling height, and narrowing vs widening.One of my favorite architects was Stanley Anderson, kind of local, but his houses entice you to move into the next space, yet reluctant to leave the last space behind. I love when architects design that way. Not always about the room you are in, but ”oh the places you’ll go”.

It’s nit about the boxes, but how they relate and flow, and how you relate and flow with them.
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Gorgeous house. Nice kitchen, too many uppers for me though. ;) I love the screen, I dream of having something like that in my home one day. I don't think I'd be drawn to the chandelier on its own, but I do think it looks lovely and appropriate in this home. I like the mix of contrasting light and dark tones, and the geometric sqare/circle shape. Okay, now I'm wondering why I initially didn't appreciate the pic of the chandelier on its own, as I like the parts of it very much. A natural knee jerk reaction against brutalism maybe.
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FLW is one of the icons of architecture, and I love his work. On our trip south, we passed a road sign for FALLINGWATER, one of the loveliest homes I've ever seen. He had a way of designing everything in the place to make it perfect. Thanks for bringing this one to the forum. Many things about his designs can become part of our plans for remodeling and we'll wind up with a home which functions better.
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I actually begin to feel anxious when looking at pictures of FLW houses. I grew up in Chicago and lived in Oak Park, so eventually visited all his buildings that were open to the public. I understand their architectural significance, their museum quality, and even their appeal to some people. But not to me. IMO they are cold, uncomfortable, dark, and off-putting. Where do you read a book, seduce a lover, change a baby? You could put a barn on that gorgeous property and it would look beautiful!
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I don't think it's a matter of affecting historical significance so much as creating a bathroom that looks compatible with the house long-term. The original bathroom will always look "correct" in a house, no matter how old it is, because it's what the house came with. Replacements can be problematic. I doubt the people who put the remodeled baths in the FLW houses I've shown above thought they looked as out of place in the 1980s or 1990s or early 2000s as they look out of place now. Everything about the bath the OP has pictured says "original". Often the toilets got replaced, but that tile-in sink, faucet, the vertical tube lighting, and the Hall-Mack recessed soap dish, cup/toothbrush holder (which you can sell on eBay--a new-old-stock one is listed for $175), speak to the era of the house. I don't think the OP has to recreate the original bath, but the closer in spirit the bath is to the original house, the less likely it will look dated and out of place in seven years. It might still look dated (like the original looks dated) but not out of place, so much. I really would not use any tile that is trendy enough to say 2010s for example.
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palimpsest
2 months ago
He almost always designed the furniture, and would be furious with clients who wanted to use anything other than his furniture. Like the Kaufmann's Italian peasant chairs at the dining table:
just_janni
2 months ago
I am with FLW on the peasant chairs...
palimpsest
2 months ago
His dining chairs, as originally designed, were often really uncomfortable, too upright, too tall in the back. Even his banquettes are often too upright and shallow. These have probably been mummifying since 1955 but even new I am not sure these would have made for slouchy relaxing.
PRO
Mark Bischak, Architect
2 months ago
I had a potential client, that was an avid fan of Frank Lloyd Wright, come to me and wanted me to design an authentic Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian style house for him. He found the humor in the first question I asked of him, "Where do you want the roof to leak?"
PRO
Virgil Carter Fine Art
2 months ago
Famous Wright comment, "...move your desk!..." when called about a roof leak!

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