I was introduced Usonian[1] House by the podcast 99% invisible[2] last month.
Until now, Frank Lloyd Wright was the most famous architect of our time, known for the grand gesture of the buildings: Guggenheim Museum, Water Fall Building, etc.
This Usonian House was the challenge to create the affordable house for the young professional and working class people. It started out as 5000 dollars house, about 85,000 dollars in today’s money. It is quite affordable.
Then, I learned about Usonia, New York, cooperative houses in Westchester, a suburb of New York City. What was drawing for me to research about them was the utopian optimistic social movement: Beautifully designed affordable houses for everyday people in the U.S. In addition to that, Frank Lloyd Wright designed them. He was one of the most famous celebrated architects in the U.S. And, like many
other iconic architects, he was the untouchable and un-relatable elites where his practice engages only to the wealthy, or the institutions.
I was wrong. Wright did design the houses for the young families. For weeks, I visited Lions’ New York Public Library looking at the pictures of those houses. They are revolutionary in my eyes even though they were built fifty to seventy years ago. Wright said,” to experience the hill, be of the hill, you must build into it.”[3] Those Usonian houses were very horizontal, and the views from the inside of the houses are reminded me of the traditional stone garden in Japanese temples. The vista of nature is continuous and extending to the outside. The ceiling seems to hang low, but that accentuates the vastness of the outdoors.
By reading the book Usonia, New York[6], I was moved by David Henken and other core pioneers’ commitment, endurance, and aspirations. This magic of cooperative community lasted for a generation, and more is very attractive to my eyes.
Cooperative housing projects offered a means for ordinary people to bypass political, racial, and ethnic differences to unite toward common social goals.[4]
Although Wright designed only three houses directly, he did the layout of all houses. I am a city dweller and have no desire to live in a suburb. And, I grew up in the concrete boxes. Still, I wonder how one’s life will be changed by living in this organic house.
In the 1930s Americans all across the country dreamed of a better life. The hardship of the great depression laid bare the faults of a strictly capitalistic economy, and many Americans sought greater social and economic fairness.[5]
The great depression in the 1920s motivated Americans to look for greater social and economic fairness. I wonder why Americans today don’t follow the similar path. I observe that not only in the U.S. but also in many parts of the world, people submit to the digital gadgets to distract their minds either consciously or unconsciously to avoid this social issue. This Usonian community was the ground up approach to change their environment and their way of living to change the society (even it was small). Those young, idealistic families had the energy to commit,
while current counterparts were bounded by the capitalistic way of living and lost energy altogether. My works address the physical space to be experienced as communal space, hoping for people to re-awaken the organic balanced way of living.
[1] “It is said that the name “Usonian” was adapted from events that transpired during one of Wright’s overseas trips to Europe. In the early 1900s, there was the talk of calling the United States “U-S-O-N-A” to differentiate America from the new Union of South Africa that had just been established. Wright then took the term and applied it to his new style of homes.” House, Rosenbaum. “A Beginner’s Guide to Usonian Architecture.” ROSENBAUM HOUSE, 06 July 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2017. <http://wrightinalabama.com/?p=463>.
[2] “Usonia 1.” 99% Invisible. Ed. Avery Trufelman. 99% Invisible, 7 Feb. 2017. Web. 28 Apr. 2017.
“Usonia the Beautiful.” 99% Invisible. Ed. Avery Trufelman. 99% Invisible, 14 Feb. 2017. Web. 28 Apr. 2017.
[3] p130 Reisley, R., Timpane, J. P., & Filler, M. (2001). Usonia, New York: Building a community with Frank Lloyd Wright. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
[4] P4 Reisley et al.
[5] p1 Reisley et al. Chapter one: Dreaming of Usonia,
[6] Usonian Homes, Pleasantville, NY. Personal photograph by author. 2017.
[7] Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks., and Yukio Futagawa. Frank Lloyd Wright Selected Houses Volume 7: Charles T Weltzheimer .. N.p.: A.D.A. Edita, 1991. Print.
[8] Reisley, Roland. Interior of the Reisley House. N.d. Roland Reisley, Pleasantville, NY. Usonia the Beautiful. Web. 28 Apr. 2017. <http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/usonia-the-beautiful/>.
kayoko nakajima 