Wright-sized Houses: Frank Lloyd Wright's Solutions for Making Small Houses Feel Big

Wright-Sized Houses is the first book to look specifically at the small houses Frank Lloyd Wright designed throughout his seventy-year career.

‘The house of moderate cost is not only America’s major architectural problem but the problem most difficult for her major architects’ he said and, beginning as a young architect in the 1890s in the Chicago area, proceeded to make it his life’s work to design the small house of character.

As with many modern architectural ideas that we now take for granted, Wright was there first. This book presents a wealth of ideas for how to build or renovate a house to make it feel far more spacious than would seem possible.

Lloyd Wright railed against unused parlours and basements and proposed combined living-dining areas. He built in furniture along the walls, used open plans that flowed around corners, dramatized high ceilings with eye-fooling details, turned solid walls into window walls, designed space-saving kitchens lighted by skylights, divided houses into ‘quiet’ and ‘living’ zones and embraced views of nature to add an outdoor ‘room’. He did away with bulky garages in favour of carports and experimented with prefabricated and build-it-yourself designs to help would-be homeowners stay within a budget.

For readers looking for tips on making a small house feel big as well as for fans of Wright’s work of all kinds, Wright-Sized Houses offers a refreshing new window into why, even in the twenty-first century, he remains the last word in architects.

Diane Maddex is an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects and has served as the book publisher of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which owns Wright's home and studio in Illinois and his Pope-Leighey house in Virginia. Her other books published by Thames & Hudson include: