Building Techoclogy » Frank Lloyd Wright http://www.building-tech.com The Building Technology Resource Tue, 25 Jan 2011 23:11:06 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Usonian http://www.building-tech.com/usonian/ http://www.building-tech.com/usonian/#comments Sat, 30 May 2009 06:21:57 +0000 blogtopia http://www.building-tech.com/reference/architectural-style/usonian/ gordon_house Usonia is a word used by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright to refer to his vision for the landscape of the United States, including the planning of cities and the architecture of buildings. Wright proposed the use of the adjective Usonian in place of American to describe the particular New World character of the American landscape as distinct and free of previous architectural conventions.

Although rarely used in the sense of “U.S. citizen”, Usonian is more common than the alternatives. Variants of the Jacobs House design are still in existence today and do not look overly dated. The Usonian design is considered among the aesthetic origins of the popular “ranch” tract home popular in the American west of the 1950s.

‘Usonian’ is a term usually referring to a group of approximately fifty middle-income family homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright beginning in 1936 with the Jacobs House. The “Usonian Homes” were typically small, single-story dwellings without a garage or much storage, L-shaped to fit around a garden terrace on odd (and cheap) lots, and environmentally conscious with native materials, flat roofs and large cantilevered overhangs for passive solar heating and natural cooling, natural lighting with clerestory windows, and radiant-floor heating. A strong visual connection between the interior and exterior spaces is an important characteristic of all Usonian homes. The word carport was coined by Wright to describe an overhang for a vehicle to park under.

Noted Usonian houses

  • Arthur Pieper residence, Paradise Valley, Arizona
  • Dorothy H. Turkel House, Detroit, Michigan
  • Herbert and Katherine Jacobs First House, Madison, Wisconsin
  • Kentuck Knob, Western Pennsylvania
  • Muirhead Farmhouse, Hampshire, Illinois
  • Pope-Leighey House, Alexandria, Virginia
  • Rosenbaum House, Florence, Alabama
  • Weltzheimer/Johnson House, Oberlin, Ohio
  • Zimmerman House, Manchester, New Hampshire
  • Duncan House, Donegal, Pennsylvania (Dismantled and relocated from its original location in Lisle, IL)
  • Louis Penfield House, Willoughby, Ohio
  • Robert Levin House, Kalamazoo, Michigan
  • Bernard Schwartz House, Two Rivers, Wisconsin
  • Usonia Homes, Pleasantville, New York
    o Sol Friedman House
    o Edward Serlin House
    o Roland Reisley House
  • Frank S. Sander House, Stamford, Connecticut

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]]> http://www.building-tech.com/usonian/feed/ 0 Mid-Century modern http://www.building-tech.com/mid-century-modern/ http://www.building-tech.com/mid-century-modern/#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 07:31:38 +0000 blogtopia http://www.building-tech.com/reference/architectural-style/mid-century-modern/ helsinki_university_of_technology_auditorium Mid-Century modern is an architectural, interior and product design form that generally describes mid-20th century developments in modern design, architecture, and urban development from roughly 1933 to 1965. The term was coined in 1983 by Cara Greenberg for the title of her ground-breaking book, Mid-Century Modern: Furniture of the 1950s_ (Random House), celebrating the style which is now recognized by scholars and museums worldwide as a significant design movement.

Mid-century architecture was a further development of Frank Lloyd Wright’s principles of organic architecture combined with many elements reflected in the International and Bauhaus movements. Mid-century modernism, however, was much more organic in form and less formal than the International Style. Scandinavian designers and architects were very influential at this time, with a style characterized by simplicity, democratic design and natural shapes.

Like many of Wright’s designs, Mid-Century architecture was frequently employed in residential structures with the goal of bringing modernism into America’s post-war suburbs. This style emphasized creating structures with ample windows and open floor-plans with the intention of opening up interior spaces and bringing the outdoors in.

Many Mid-century homes utilized then groundbreaking post and beam architectural design that eliminated bulky support walls in favor of walls seemingly made of glass. Function was as important as form in Mid-Century designs with an emphasis placed specifically on targeting the needs of the average American family. Examples of residential Mid-Century modern architecture are frequently referred to as the California Modern style.

Pioneering builder and real estate developer Joseph Eichler was instrumental in bringing Mid-Century Modern architecture to subdivisions in California and select housing developments on the east coast. George Fred Keck, Henry P. Glass and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created Mid-Century Modern residences in the Chicago area. Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House is extremely difficult to heat or cool, while Keck and Glass were pioneers in the incorporation of passive solar features in their houses to compensate for their large glass windows.

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