‘A companion to the horizon’

Idealistic in many ways, the so-called Usonian houses by twentieth-century architect and designer Frank Lloyd Wright represented a progressive, altruistic, socially minded approach that was ahead of its time. Here we explore the Usonian furniture of Frank Lloyd Wright, generously gifted to the NGV Collection by Krystyna-Campbell Pretty AM and Family.

Frank Lloyd Wright is recognised worldwide for developing a uniquely American style of architecture through his progressive early twentieth-century houses, built in what was known as the Prairie style. Equally, many of Wright’s later houses, including Fallingwater – the house designed for the Kaufmann family in Pennsylvania – and his public buildings, such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, are celebrated for their profound connection to place and their striking organic design.

One aspect of Wright’s career that is perhaps less well known was his deep interest in developing a model for low-cost housing that was intended to be well designed, comfortable and, above all, affordable. Wright called his houses ‘Usonian’, from the word Usonia which he coined to refer to the United States, in preference to the word ‘America’. The term ‘Usonia’ reflected his ideal vision of the American landscape and the integration of planned cities that did not stem from a pre-existing classical tradition but was entirely unique to the American landscape. It was a vision that was never realised but the democratic principles that underlay Wright’s vision were expressed through the many Usonian houses that he designed. Wright developed these ideas during the 1930s, when the United States was in the grip of the Great Depression and in all, over one hundred houses were built across America over a period of twenty years or more, with the first house, the Willey House, built in 1934.

Wright’s Usonian houses were in many ways an updated, modern version of his Prairie-style houses. The interiors of Wright’s Usonian houses also have much in common with our current-day approach to living. Like his Prairie houses, Wright’s Usonian houses were long and low, with broad overhanging roofs that were either flat or low-pitched – ‘a companion to the horizon’, as Wright described them. Such design provided passive solar heating as well as natural cooling for the house. In many cases Wright also extended out the roof line of the house to form a carport. (By the 1930s, the car was rapidly becoming an essential element of modern family life; Wright is, in fact, credited with coining the term ‘carport’.)

Usonian houses were modest in scale –generally only around 139 square metres –and most were just one storey. In keeping with Wright’s profound respect for nature and his desire for architecture to work in harmony with it, his Usonian houses were often situated in rural, forested settings, with the houses deeply set in the landscape, their overhanging roofs often close to the ground in places, depending on the lie of the land. Many houses were L-shaped to embrace an outdoor terrace and they were often designed so that the public side facing the road had little exposure, while the rear, private side of the house was completely open to the landscape, with large plate-glass windows and doors. This direct connection between the interior and exterior was a particular feature of Usonian homes. Wright achieved this connectivity through the concrete slab that formed the floor of the house and also extended to the outside terrace; it was polished, tinted and impressed to look like a continuum of large terracotta tiles laid throughout.

The interiors of Usonian houses were characterised by open-plan living spaces focused around a large fireplace and chimney, which formed the heart of the house. As the architect Alan Hess described them, ‘These modest-sized houses put a new, casual middle-class lifestyle into artful form, melding living room, dining room, and kitchen into a single articulated space.’¹  A basic palette of materials characterises all Usonian houses; the materials include timber, stone, brick and glass, which were used due to their ready availability. Walls were comprised of exposed brick or stone or lined with timber or plywood and these features, along with the architectural detailing, formed the natural ornamentation of the house. During the 1940s and 1950s Wright began to incorporate concrete blockwork and patterned formwork into his Usonian houses to add further visual interest. These houses were referred to as ‘Usonian Automatics’.

There were few internal walls in Usonian houses and much of the furniture, cabinetry and bookshelves were built in to save space. Despite the low-cost approach, Wright still designed all the furniture for his Usonian houses, each concept unique. Chairs and tables were based on geometric forms including the triangle, cube and parallelogram, and pieces were easily constructed through interlocking modular elements with simple upholstered cushions. The NGV recently acquired a pair of chairs thanks to the generous support of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and Family. The large, low pair of chairs dates to the late 1930s and are typically Usonian, with their flat angled planes and triangular supporting elements. For cost efficiency, the chairs were made from cypress plywood with a chipboard core. They would have originally had simple walled cushions for the seat and back with textile panels that hung over the front and back ledge. While Wright’s Usonian houses were modest in scale, his freestanding pieces of furniture were capacious and reflect his desire for his houses to be comfortable spaces for living.

While Wright had aspirations to create a low-cost housing model that would be accessible to many, his Usonian houses were bespoke projects that more often than not exceeded their budgets. They became custom-built houses for families of comfortable means, which Wright eventually acknowledged. Regardless, Wright’s Usonian architecture, with its ‘modest dignity’, as some described it, played a critical role in the development of America’s mid-century, domestic architecture, in particular the popular Ranch style house of the 1950s.

Amanda Dunsmore is NGV Senior Curator, International Decorative Arts and Antiquities.

This essay was commissioned for NGV Magazine, Issue 32 | Jan–Feb 2022.

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