Many of you know about my great admiration for Frank Lloyd Wright. As with most creative and inspired people, he had his warts as a human being, but he was driven by the idea that everyone should have an opportunity to live in a beautiful, functional home. His Usonian houses were his attempt to provide what he understood to be a much needed solution to an ongoing problem.
He wrote in 1954 in THE NATURAL HOUSE "The house of modest cost is not only Amaerica's major architectural problem but the problem most difficult for her major architects. As for me, I would rather solve it with satisfaction to myself and Usonia (his made up word for the United states and the North American continent) than build anything I can think of at the moment"
Wright's Usonian houses remain as a tribute to the splendor that can take place in small places that feel palatial. Built in furniture, open floor plans that still include private retreats and the use of sweeping vistas through walls of glass , courtyards and broad roof overhangs that make the outdoors an extension of the livable space are the basic tools he used. They are still available today and there is a growing demand for their use to be revived.
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