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Building a Home

Frank Lloyd Wright design ideas any house can use

last year

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.

Comments (7)

palimpsest
last year
last modified: last year
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
last year
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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Sochi, I really would consider it if I thought DH would ever actually leave this area. Every time I mention it or show him something I have found, he says he loves the house...being in PA near where I grew up would afford us the chance to eat at one of our favorite spots regularly (yes, ded, you know where that is!)...that it would be great to live on the water...the FLW house is amazing and he loves the way it sits on the land...It would be perfect to live in the country in France...but in reality, I don't think he would ever go along with it. Sometimes, I really get irritated, but I sort of get it and he has many ties in this area. Maybe someday, I will get my own place-some little space away from the hustle and just come back for visits! ;)
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If money were no object, I'd recreate his--and his son Lloyd's-- Mayan Revivals. Ennis House, 1924. FLW, Los Angeles Ennis House (video) dining room. Sowden House facade. Lloyd Wright, 1926. Los Angeles Dining at the Sowden House, (a.k.a. the Black Dahlia Mansion) arch.Lloyd Wright. ***** Authorized non-structural modern reproductions of the "textile blocks" from the Ennis hose are available. I thought of "flavouring" an upcoming build. But at something like C$300 a block, not for the great unwashed.
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I would be happy there as a second home : ) It makes my heart sing and gets the creative juices flowing. How could anyone live in a house like this without being inspired on a daily basis? 1929Spanish, so sorry but I’m up next for the Powerball lol. I‘m normally not one for house guests but this home would be an exception if I owned it. I‘d fill it with artists of all sorts. I’d walk around and watch people paint while I listened to live music. Ok, a girl can dream. Oh, and although I’m mainly a wine drinker I think I’d need a bartender on staff just to make fancy muddled Mojito’s for the crowd. Yep, I could live there.
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palimpsest
last year
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
last year
I am with FLW on the peasant chairs...
palimpsest
last year
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.
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Mark Bischak, Architect
last year
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?"
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Virgil Carter Fine Art
last year
Famous Wright comment, "...move your desk!..." when called about a roof leak!

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