Exhibition Catalog - Lawrence Technological University

5
The modular wall sections could be prefabricated
offsite and raised into place. Along with these panels,
Wright discarded the traditional stud-wall frame.
In the Usonians the weight of the roof instead rested
on the sandwich walls, masonry (usually brick) end
walls, and a masonry core at the center of the house
containing the fireplace, kitchen, and utility room.
Because the walls were relatively weak most Usonians
were limited to one story in height, but Wright
believed this to be a way to inject informality into
these largely middle class houses, as well as helping
to integrate the structure into the surrounding
landscape. These sandwich walls contained no air
cavities, so no wiring or piping could be run through
them, as Wright felt them unnecessary because of
the in-floor heating system.
In keeping with the overall simplicity of the Usonian
project, the houses required few materials beyond
the concrete slab floor, wood, brick, and glass.
These materials, Wright felt, needed very little maintenance,
unlike the plaster, paint, and wallpaper
of traditional houses. And the Usonians’ floor plans
further revealed Wright’s desire to simplify as well as
his recognition of social changes in American family
life occurring by the 1930s. Economic necessities
of the Great Depression and changing social mores
led American families to seek greater informality and
casualness in their lives. According to historian John
Sergeant, “In America immediately after the war the
new house was changing for three reasons: (1) there
emerged a freer attitude toward children; (2) there
was a new woman’s role with more activity outside
the home; and (3) with a proliferation of external functions,
less time was spent in the home.” 12 In response
to the increasing amount of servant-less families and
the emerging trend toward informality, Wright created
houses more tailored to the demands of contemporary
wife/mother roles. Most prominently, he
abolished formal dining rooms in favor of alcoves
with dining tables, which were located next to the
kitchen – which he now called the “workspace” – in
order to minimize the distance between the places
for preparing and eating meals. He also collapsed
together the dining and living areas. This essentially
merged three rooms into one (counting the kitchen),
continuing the process of opening interior space by
breaking down boundaries that he had begun with
the Prairie School houses.
Photograph by Harvey Croze
Usonian houses were “zoned” into public and private
sections, and this can be read in their form and configuration.
Many of these houses used an “L” shaped
plan, or some variation, which placed the living/dining
room in one wing, the bedrooms along a singleloaded
corridor in the other wing, and the utility areas
like the workspace and bathroom in the hinge
between the two wings. This arrangement shielded
the house’s private rooms from non-family visitors.