32 Simple and Basic Design Ideas of Frank Lloyd Wright
I was recently reading an article from the September issue of 1956 House and Home and was astounded to see an interesting FLLW article with tips for the average home builder. As I was reading through the article I was realizing that those tips and advise were still just as pertinent today as it was in 1956.
The particular house the article refers to is the Zimmerman house built in Manchester, New Hampshire. The home is part of a series of homes that Wright built known as the Unisonian Homes that were low cost homes for moderate income families.
32 Simple and Basic Design Ideas of
Frank Lloyd Wright
1. Stress the Horizontals.
(a) Stretch the roof line.
(b) Keep the fascia in one straight line except for a good reason.
(c) Define a strong middle line.
2. Don't waste a big overhang on the north, and don't feel you must use the same roof pitch on both sides.
3. Keep the roof line low.
4. Don't build a whole wall and punch holes in it for your windows. Build your wall only to a sill height then rest your windows in structural courses above it.
5. Scale an entrance to its wall. Don't put a dinky, to small doorway in a big surface.
6. Don't stick a toy chimney in a big expanse of roof or it will look like an afterthought.
7. Dramatize a high ceiling by emphasizing a below standard ceiling line to fool the eye.
8. Use a dropped ceiling in the hall to make the living room ceiling seem higher by contrast.
9. Make the room seem wider by placing an important design element like these brick window columns at right angles to the room.
10. Use a glass gable without an overhang to let the sun play changing patterns on the ceiling.
11. Plan built-ins around the wall to free center space, and make a narrow room work like a wider one.
12. Break up the open plan by letting it flow around corners, so you can't see all the dining area from the living room or all the open kitchen from the dining room.
13. Make the terrace seem a part of the living room. For example (a) Carry your planting through the glass. (b) Carry your floor line through the wall. (c) Use ceiling high glass to let people see you ceiling run right past the wall. (d) Continue the ceiling pattern out onto the overhang.
14. Miter the glass in corner windows to make the corner disappear.
15. Provide a driveway big enough for off-street parking.
16. Don't landscape the grounds for expensive maintenance.
17. Give the house privacy from the street by planting, by facing glass areas toward the rear, by setting the house back.
18. Raise the planting boxes so the gardener won't have to bend; provide a hose bibs in each box.
19. Make the terrace big enough to serve as an outdoor room, or it becomes merely a path.
20. Raise the terrace slightly to get good drainage and make the lawn maintenance easier.
21. Face house toward the sun and away from stormy winds, if it is built in cold country.
22. Put everything in the kitchen within reach of the housewife. Store utensils and dishes used everyday on open shelves so she doesn't have to open cupboard doors over and over.
23. Make the kitchen tall so cooking odors can rise.
24. Keep the mess of the open kitchen out of sight.
25. Punch a hole in the roof of an inside bath ; light it from above.
26. Give the owner a huge bathroom mirror, and light it evenly all around the border.
27. Make the low "ceiling line" (in the house, actually a plate line) do double duty as a lighting trough.
28. Use natural materials that call for little maintenance
29. Use shelves for decoration.
30. Make even a small entrance hall long enough to give the living room some privacy. And make the coat closet big enough.
31. Put your kitchen at the heart of the house, even if it has to be an inside kitchen.
32. Pivot rooms around a huge fireplace and hide the heater room behind it.
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The particular house the article refers to is the Zimmerman house built in Manchester, New Hampshire. The home is part of a series of homes that Wright built known as the Unisonian Homes that were low cost homes for moderate income families.
32 Simple and Basic Design Ideas of Frank Lloyd Wright
1. Stress the Horizontals.
(a) Stretch the roof line.
(b) Keep the fascia in one straight line except for a good reason.
(c) Define a strong middle line.
2. Don't waste a big overhang on the north, and don't feel you must use the same roof pitch on both sides.
3. Keep the roof line low.
4. Don't build a whole wall and punch holes in it for your windows. Build your wall only to a sill height then rest your windows in structural courses above it.
6. Don't stick a toy chimney in a big expanse of roof or it will look like an afterthought.
7. Dramatize a high ceiling by emphasizing a below standard ceiling line to fool the eye.
8. Use a dropped ceiling in the hall to make the living room ceiling seem higher by contrast.
9. Make the room seem wider by placing an important design element like these brick window columns at right angles to the room.
10. Use a glass gable without an overhang to let the sun play changing patterns on the ceiling.
11. Plan built-ins around the wall to free center space, and make a narrow room work like a wider one.12. Break up the open plan by letting it flow around corners, so you can't see all the dining area from the living room or all the open kitchen from the dining room.
13. Make the terrace seem a part of the living room. For example (a) Carry your planting through the glass. (b) Carry your floor line through the wall. (c) Use ceiling high glass to let people see you ceiling run right past the wall. (d) Continue the ceiling pattern out onto the overhang.
14. Miter the glass in corner windows to make the corner disappear.
15. Provide a driveway big enough for off-street parking.
16. Don't landscape the grounds for expensive maintenance.17. Give the house privacy from the street by planting, by facing glass areas toward the rear, by setting the house back.
19. Make the terrace big enough to serve as an outdoor room, or it becomes merely a path.
20. Raise the terrace slightly to get good drainage and make the lawn maintenance easier.
21. Face house toward the sun and away from stormy winds, if it is built in cold country.
22. Put everything in the kitchen within reach of the housewife. Store utensils and dishes used everyday on open shelves so she doesn't have to open cupboard doors over and over.
23. Make the kitchen tall so cooking odors can rise.
24. Keep the mess of the open kitchen out of sight.
26. Give the owner a huge bathroom mirror, and light it evenly all around the border.
27. Make the low "ceiling line" (in the house, actually a plate line) do double duty as a lighting trough.
28. Use natural materials that call for little maintenance
29. Use shelves for decoration.
30. Make even a small entrance hall long enough to give the living room some privacy. And make the coat closet big enough.
31. Put your kitchen at the heart of the house, even if it has to be an inside kitchen.32. Pivot rooms around a huge fireplace and hide the heater room behind it.
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So practical and straightforward, not to mention livable and beautiful! Thanks, James, for posting this (still) very timely advice.
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Wow, this is awesome article. Your content is very informative and useful for me. I really appreciate your explanation about design building here. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteJuly of 2024 -- I meant to comment years ago on this entry in your blog. It was so helpful to me in thinking about the house I wanted to build. Now in July of 2024 I have been working on my house for three years, and I am pleased that it follows many of the ideas presented here. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteEmphasizing a straight fascia line among Wright’s design tips underscores alignment’s power in architecture. Homeowners in Toronto who value both style and durability should consider fascia repair Toronto for clean, long-lasting roof edges.
ReplyDeleteExcellent advice for the most part, but there ARE a few things I have to take issue with, or to qualify -- so here goes, point-by-point:
ReplyDelete2. You actually DO need a big overhang on ALL sides, even the north (the main purpose of an overhang is privacy, not shade) -- but as far as the roof pitch, it's OK to use an asymmetric pitch if necessary;
5. A too-big doorway can compromise security -- however, you CAN achieve the same visual effect by scaling the porch to the house instead;
6. Keep in mind that per the building code, a chimney MUST rise at least 3 feet above its opening AND at least 2 feet above the ridge of the roof, or it will be a fire hazard;
8. Also per the code, the ABSOLUTE minimum height of a ceiling is at least 7 feet (at least, last I checked -- they might actually have changed it to 7' 6" since then), which means that some of the dropped ceilings at Fallingwater and a few of Wright's other houses are actually code violations;
10. NO WAY -- a glass gable (even with an overhang, let alone without one) would DESTROY privacy in the room;
11. Personally, I don't like built-ins at all -- they make the layout inflexible, and also they seem to me like a way for the architect to dictate to the customers how they SHOULD be using the space, instead of cooperating with them in terms of how they ACTUALLY DO use it;
12. I'm 100% with Wright about breaking up the open plan -- and while at it, the best way to do so is to use not only corners, but also interior walls (i.e. to break it up all the way into a traditional floor plan with separate rooms accessed from a hallway);
14. BAD idea -- this will make it easier for people OUTSIDE the house to look IN, while not improving the view for those INSIDE the house very much;
17. Good ideas for the most part, but setting the house back might not always be possible;
21. Good idea, and do the opposite in hot country -- however, the facing direction is not always something you can freely choose;
24. Yes, keeping the mess out of sight is good -- BUT the best way to do that is to GET RID of the open kitchen and REPLACE it with a traditional CLOSED kitchen (such as a Stuttgart-style kitchen) -- also note that this will keep the odors from spreading through the house per (23);
25. This will ONLY work for a bathroom on the top floor -- also, the skylight (and, in fact, ALL skylights) MUST be made of FROSTED glass, NOT clear glass (camera drones ARE a thing, y'know, and these days they're available to ANYONE, not only to Homeland Security);
28. Don't forget that first and foremost, the materials (natural or otherwise) should be fire-resistant, seismic-resistant and wind-resistant;
30. I'm 100% with Wright on this one, but a better way is to go even further and give the living room privacy by COMPLETELY separating it from the entrance hall with an interior wall (and put the door toward the back of the hallway); and
31. BAD idea -- a kitchen SHOULD NOT be an interior room, it NEEDS a window for daylighting and for better ventilation.
Oh, forgot one more thing:
ReplyDelete3. A steep roof is better -- it sheds snow rather than letting it build up, it allows the inclusion of a habitable sky parlor (just ask Jules Hardouin-Mansart), and it survives much better in high winds. Of course, you don't usually see houses with steep roofs AND big overhangs -- but I've actually come up with a way to combine both these features in the same building (the only drawbacks of my proposed system being that it does require quite a bit more lumber than the standard rafters-on-wall plate method of construction, and it does take up about 1 foot or so of vertical space between the sky parlor and the floor immediately below)!
Just to clarify my response to idea #14: what I meant was that it's better to NOT have any corner windows AT ALL, because they make it easy for those OUTSIDE the house to look IN, while not significantly improving the view for those INSIDE the house when compared to 2 regular windows near, but NOT meeting at, the corner of the house.
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