ABSTRACT
Although beginning his life in the middle of the 19th century, Frank Lloyd Wright pioneered and remained fascinated by one of the symbols of 20th century modernism-the system built house. He introduced the Usonian Houses in timber and concrete, many examples of which were constructed in different parts of the USA. He produced designs for the City Block House as a prototype in concrete but the numerous proposals for the All Steel Houses in Los Angeles are amongst some of his most enduring images (Riley, Reid 1994). In his autobiography (1932) Wright commented on the design method of his early employer Joseph Lyman Silsbee, that he got a ground-plan and made his pretty sketch… It would then come out into the drawing room…keeping the floor plan near the sketch if possible… However, by the time of the Robie House, Wright had moved closer to Silbee’s method than he perhaps could have imagined. Previously Wright had claimed that no man ever constructed a building worthy of the name of architecture by modelling the plan on a perspective sketch fantasy. He had felt that such methods only produce scene paintings.
