WRIGHT, Frank Lloyd
(b. 1867, Richland Center, d. 1959, Phoenix)

Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio: playroom

1889-98
Photo
951 Chicago Avenue, Oak Park, Illinois

The remarkably open interior, in which Wright eschewed the Victorian hierarchy of public rooms for warm central spaces that gave primacy to family life, embodies Wright's desire to liberate space. The dining room, added in 1895 together with a barrel-vaulted playroom, marks the architect's first attempt to create a unified environment. Wright designed everything in the home, from the lighting and mechanical systems to its furniture and decorative arts. It is, however, the playroom that best reveals Wright's increasing embrace of simplicity. Though the scale of the playroom is carefully tailored to a child's point of view, its expansiveness renders it one of the greatest of Wright's early achievements and signals his ability to manipulate space.




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