Frank Lloyd Wright
New American Library, New York, 1982; originally published 1954, English
Nonfiction, Architecture
ISBN: 9780452008410

From the Publisher (1954). The world's greatest architect here meets the urgent problem of suitable shelter for The Family in a democracy, in a magnificent and—as was to be expected—challenging book. Here, presented at last in full detail, is the natural house. The moderate cost houses described in this book and profusely illustrated with 116 photographs, plans and drawings, are houses—of infinite variety for people of limited means - in which living has become for their owners a purposeful new adventure in freedom and dignity. Mr. Wright tells the story of the world famous 'Usonian' houses, so that we now see, in text and illustrations, how they have evolved from original conception to final execution. He has also written a step-by-step description of the “Usonian Automatic,” explaining just how that remarkable house is built—a simplified method of construction so devised that the owners themselves can build it with great economy and beauty. For this purpose, there are, in addition to Mr. Wright's text, special photographs and drawings of the method and materials, showing clearly how the Usonian Automatic is built. For more than a half century Frank Lloyd Wright has been the prophet of a new idea in architecture. It is called “organic architecture.” It has spread throughout the world. Its liberating influence now appears—or semblances of it appear—nearly every structure being built.

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Emilio Ambasz

This book is one of several Wright wrote to proselytize for his notion of organic architecture. I read it when I was 14 years old. Stylistically abominable, it is nevertheless a very influential text. Organic architecture is a philosophy of architecture that promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world through design approaches so sympathetic and well integrated with the site that buildings, furnishings, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated composition.

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