Prairie Home Architecture

Prairie Home Architecture, rooted in Native American style, strongly integrates with surrounding landscapes. The style shows horizontal lines, low-pitched roofs, and rows of windows. Builders emphasized bulky structures, skilled craftsmanship, and minimal decoration. Prairie houses look low and blend seamlessly into their environment. Frank Lloyd Wright built iconic examples like the Robie House between 1910 and 1917. His designs inspired the concept of Organic Architecture.

The Arts and Crafts movement strongly influenced the evolution of this style. It answered objections to industrial life and Victorian extravagance. The movement emphasized meeting human needs without unnecessary excess. Its principle encouraged simplicity and functional design in every settlement.

This style’s name came from one of Wright’s publications. In 1901, Wright published building plans titled “A House in a Prairie Town.” The design soon gained popularity among architects. It inspired the American Foursquare, also known as the Prairie Box Style.

Key elements:

Wright was highly impressed by the precise horizontal lines that were quite evident in Japanese prints; he applied the same while designing the intricate details such as trim, bricks, cedar siding among others, by keeping them arranged horizontally.
This style emphasized on built in furniture that was again tightly based on exact decoration as needed. Wright rejected the notion of Victorian extravagance as a whole.
The raw materials were applied and preserved with minimum finishing and as far as possible, in their natural state. The natural stains exhibited originality that added to the prairie concept.
At times, the large flat roofs employed elongated overhangs that ran as long as four feet.
The main focus areas in a prairie home were the Dining and Living rooms. Wright assumed houses as structures to be meant for entertaining public, with a tad less focus on other purposes. This resulted in the establishment of open and free-flowing spaces.
Horizontal rows of windows ran as continuous strips to give the illusion of glass walls.
Since nature had a big impression on Wright, the decorative patterns resembled geometric patterns based on natural elements. For example, the windows often had mullions that were adorned with patterns based on plants like wheat.