A Pattern for Simplified Living: The Usonian Houses of Frank Lloyd Wright
Summary | Specifications | Tour Schedule | Images | Installations | Press | Checklist (PDF)
What would be really sensible in this matter of the modest dwelling for our time and place?
– Frank Lloyd Wright, An Autobiography
This exhibition of approximately 135 drawings, models, photographs, furniture and artifacts explores the architect's most successful and longest-lived affordable home building program. From the mid-1930s until Wright's death in 1959, approximately 150 Usonian houses (each unique) were built, while scores more were designed but never realized.
The philosophical, architectural and structural foundation of the Usonian home was simplification. "It is not only necessary to get rid of all unnecessary complications in construction..," Wright explained, it was also necessary that homeowners, "…must themselves see life in somewhat simplified terms."
In the Usonian home, Wright designed a completely new kind of house that was suited to an American lifestyle and affordable for the average citizen. Although Wright stressed simplification, modification, reduction and elimination in his Usonian homes, the designs also featured varied geometries, spatial complexities and experiential richness. According to one homeowner, this is the "paradox" of the Usonian house.
The Usonian house concept was born during the Depression and shaped by the financial hardships and material shortages that plagued the era, but its principles of modest size, economy of materials and sensitivity to the environment still resonate today. As America faces new economic and environmental challenges in the 21st century, the exhibition considers the relevant lessons of the Usonian house.
Specifications:
| Number of Works: | Approximately 135 drawings, models and photographs from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation as well as furniture and artifacts from other public and private collections. |
| Curator: | Jane King Hession, architectural historian |
| Organized by: | International Arts & Artists |
| Approximate size: | 4,500 to 5,000 square feet |
| Security: | High security |
| Fee: | $92,000 |
| Shipping: | IA&A makes all arangements; exhibitors pay courier and outgoing shipping costs within the contiguous US |
| Booking Time: | 12 weeks |
| Tour: | Beginning Fall 2013 |
| Contact: | Marlene Rothacker |
Tour Schedule:
Summary | Specifications | Tour Schedule | Images | Installations | Press
