Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, Chicago, Illinois

Frank Lloyd Wright believed that a building should evoke its location. We see this not only in Falling Water, but also in the Robie House in Chicago, Illinois. This building was constructed between 1907 and 1909, and was designed as a “prarie house,” a style that was quite popular in Chicago at that time. With long, sweeping, ground-hugging lines, the house captures the expansiveness of the surrounding Midwest flatlands, truly meshing the structure with the earth around it.

Wright was inspired by Japanese organic architecture, and believed that individuals should have the right to move within a “free” space with a non-symmetrical design that interacts with its non-symmetrical surroundings. He achieved this in the Robie House with a “wandering” plan that combined both open and closed joined spaces, grouped around a central fireplace. (Fireplaces are common with Wright; he believed in the hearth's age-old domestic significance.) The home combines enclosed patios, overhanging roofs and strip windows which allow for unexpected light sources and a view of the outdoors. The result is a celebration of the third dimension, motion, and space.

The Robie House is anti-classical because its emphasis is not on form; it is not rational or simple. It is emotional and abstract and its design is far from simplistic. Wright abandoned all symmetry with the Robie House. He eliminated a facade and created a hidden front door and extended the roofs far beyond the walls. He also matched the new and abstract interior spacial arrangement to the exterior design, allowing the flow of the interior space to determine the sharp angular placement of the exterior walls.

Wright relied on the principle of continuity in his design: “Classic architecture was all fixation ... Now why not let walls, ceilings, floors become seen as component parts of each other? ... You may see the appearance in the surface of your hand contrasted with the articulation of the bony structure itself. This ideal, profound in its architectural implications ... I called ... continuity.” With a style entirely his own, Wright achieved this idea of continuity through organic architecture unmatched by any other.