BARREL CHAIR 1907

Wright saw the chair as an architectural challenge. He used tall straight chairs as a screen around tables. The simple shapes of his furniture permitted machine production, making the designs affordable. Indeed, Wright believed that machines could actually enhance the designs. “The machine has liberated the beauties of nature in wood,” Wright told the Arts and Crafts Society in a 1901 lecture. “…With the exception of the Japanese, wood has been misused and mishandled everywhere,” Wright said.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin in 1867. He and his family settled in Madison, Wisconsin in 1877. He was educated at Second Ward School, Madison from 1879 to 1883. After a brief sting at the University of Wisconsin where he took some mechanical drawing and basic mathematics courses, Wright departed for Chicago where he spent several months in J. L. Silsbee’s office before seeking employment with Adler and Sullivan. Wright evolved a new concept of interior space in architecture. Rejecting the existing view of rooms as single-function boxes, Wright created overlapping and interpenetrating rooms with shared spaces. He designated use areas with screening devices and subtle changes in ceiling heights and created the idea of defined space as opposed to enclosed space. Through experimentation, Wright developed the idea of the prairie house – a long, low building with hovering planes and horizontal emphasis.