Prairie Style emerged in Chicago around 1900. This style materialise with art and craft movement with emphasis on nature, craftsmanship and simplicity with the work and writings of Architect Louis Sullivan mentor of Frank Lloyd Wright when he founded his architectural practice in Oak Park.
The style was dubbed “prairie” after Wright published building plans he called “A House in a Prairie Town” in 1901. The style became popular among other architects, particularly in the Chicago area, and inspired the similar America foursquare or prairie box style.
Design Features of Prairie style
- Horizontal lines
- Natural materials
- Cantilevered flat roof
- Open, flowing spaces
- Rows of window
- Strong geometric pattern and massing
- connected indoor and outdoor spaces
- No basement in the traditional sense of the word
Some of the examples of this style are majorly residential – Frank Wright Thomas House, William G. Fricke House, William E. Martin House, Arthur B. Huertley House, Unity Temple, Peter A. Beachy House, Isabel Roberts House, J. Kibben Ingalls House, Oscar B. Balch House.
ROBIE HOUSE – The significance of Wright’s design of the Robie House is that he neglected the conventional idealisation of a house as a box containing a smaller “boxes” for rooms. By contrast, the interior space is fluid and transparent, allowing the entry of light without obstructing the view. This “explosion of the box” produces the effect of walls unfolding to reveal large, vast spaces. The floor composition is based on two adjacent horizontal bars that are mixed in a central space, anchored by the vertical column of the fireplace, around which the rooms are arranged and interconnected.
THOMAS HOUSE – The residence features an L-shaped plan and Wright employs a variety of design innovations to harmonise its two wings and upper and lower stories. Wright emphasises the structure’s horizontal planes and visually connects distinct architectural volumes through the use of ribbon windows and dark string courses. In his design of the house Wright abandons the traditional structure elevating the basement to ground level and raising the living quarters in order to increase privacy. The main entrance of the house is accessed indirectly through an elaborate arrangement of passageways—a walled walk leads to a dramatic archway, just beyond and to the left of which are stairs that wind back and forth to the expansive terrace and entrance. Beaded moulding and geometric ornament in the woodwork, as well as the abstracted floral motifs that appear in the leaded glass doors and casement windows, reinforce Wright’s analogy between the house and a natural organism.
AR Details 