The Jacobs

House
By Frank Lloyd Wright

“The experience of space”

[Fig.1; Frank Lloyd Wright]

[ Fig. 2; View from the garden ]

Victoria Dolfo - ID: 18889487

AR322 - Modern House

JACOBS HOUSE VICTORIA DOLFO 1

[Fig. 3; sketch of the house, done by Victoria Dolfo ]

“Whether people are fully conscious of this or not, they actually derive countenance and
sustenance from the ‘atmosphere’ of the wings they live in or with. They are rooted in them just as
a plant is in the soil.”1

These are the words with which the acclaimed 20th century ‘greatest architect’ describes one of his
masterpieces: ‘The Usonian House’. His architectural designs are well-known for rediscovering
the same fundamental principles but, as Kenneth Frampton has noted, the Usonian Houses differ
from his past works both in space and function, making them unique. The term “Usonia” derives
from the All-American writer Joseph Duff Law, who presents a new name for the United States:
“United States of Northern Independent America”.2 Ultimately, Frank Lloyd Wright coined this
word to describe his latest concept of affordable and easily constructed architecture which frees
itself from the European formality code; giving a keener response towards the American
landscape.

The conceptual aspect of the so called Usonian houses trends from a progressive development of
the design recalled in the previous Prairie houses; characterised by dramatic horizontal lines
which blend with the surroundings, expanding the interior into the outside. Furthermore, its main
features consist in a structure built around a central chimney and large open spaces; rather than
closed rooms. Conversely, in the new design the architect experiments on smaller, dynamic and

1 Frank Lloyd Wright in Robert McCarter, Frank Lloyd Wright (2nd edition, Phaindon Press Limited 2001) 249

2 James Duff Law, Here and There in Two Hemispheres (Scotland: Home Publishing Company, 1903) 112

JACOBS HOUSE VICTORIA DOLFO 2

asymmetrical spaces where the courtyard is conceived as the focus of the entire spatial
composition3.

The design layout of Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Usionian Houses” are all combined into a repetitive
set of characteristics, which could be summarised into: a single storey house; wood and brick
walls; a gridded plan; a flat-roof with cantilevered eaves; continuous south facing windows with
horizontal wood cladding; L-shaped which finally frames a garden.

The first prototype house which underlines every element listed above and also is identified as the
first of Wright’s Usonian house is the : Herbert Jacobs House in Madison , Wisconsin 1936.

[Fig 4; site plan of the house ]

As you get closer to the house, your eyes are triggered by a rich garden which encloses the building,
filled up with various trees evenly placed, and vegetation. The residence rests on a concrete pad and
consists of a basement under which a system of steam heating pipes for, heating and domestic hot
water was installed, altogether with a ground floor characterised by different roof levels, with an area of
1,550 square feet (144 m2).

3 Frank Lloyd Wright in Robert McCarter, Frank Lloyd Wright (2nd edition, Phaindon Press Limited 2001) 251

JACOBS HOUSE VICTORIA DOLFO 3

Its layout is organised in a L-shaped plan folding inwards and fixing its site without encircling it. Its
two wings are functionally organised in order to create a clear distinction between the public and
private spaces. The public wing is parallel to the road that houses the east-facing living area with views
of the interior garden through the large glass surfaces of the living room4 , whereas the private one
contains the two bedrooms, with large windows facing the south garden and connected to each other
through the north aisle. Stepping closer towards the outside carport’s cantilevered roof at the edge of
one corner, which is defined by a continuous brick wall, we encounter the masonry core of the house.

[Fig 5; view from the side walk ] [ Fig 6; view from the sidewalk towards the.
entrance]

Accordingly from here, entering from the left hand side of the complex, as we turn right we will find
ourselves in front of the first main entrance. This entrance opens up towards a rather long narrow
brick-walled aisle, which once crossed takes you into the foyer, outlined by an enduring back wall and at
the roof by small clerestories that run all way long. Within it, there is a closet enclosed by one foot
deep, in such a manner that the front face of the bookshelves are aligned to the end of the interior wall,
thus to avoid any unused space.
Moreover, it is also important to take into consideration the fact that the architect, in order to make
the bookshelf rather unique itself, tried to incorporate it to the wall by constructing the scaffolding
with the same materials used for the wall, resulting in an illusion where the shelves seem like they are
being dragged out directly from the walls.

4Análisis de las estrategias bioclimáticas empleadas por Frank Lloyd Wright en la casa Jacobs I
(Barcelona Vol. 69, Iss. 547,  (2017) ( https://search.proquest.com/docview/1961752727?accountid=7408 )

JACOBS HOUSE VICTORIA DOLFO 4

 [Fig 7: interior living room]
Now forgetting the bookshelf and placing it behind us, we find ourselves in the living room: “the one”
spot of the house which predominantly shows Wright’s frequent ideal of the important relationship
between exterior and interior; nature and humanity. Accordingly, laid out by the entire façade there is a
continuous set of vertical wood-framed glass doors which allow external light to directly enter into the
whole space.
Another feature that accentuates such ideal of uniqueness of the garden is the ceiling, which the
architect decided to reorientate by changing the direction of the wooden bands that occurs at the
middle of the living room . Thus, he moved its wooden bands from being parallel to the back wall,
where the bookshelf we encountered before was, to the side wall towards the windows.

Now, if we walk all the way alongside the glass windows we will run, at the end of it, into a bricked wall
that cuts the building both on the outside and inside. Due to the fact that, the wall comes out both
forward, towards the garden, and inwards towards the tall fireplace that sits as the centre core of the
“public” wing, and also acting as the hinge between the two wings of the house.
If we keep walking, passing next to the fireplace, on the right hand side, we can find a rather small sized
table, set attached to the windows, with more or less a maximum of five, maybe six chairs.

[Fig 8- 9 : dining area ]

JACOBS HOUSE VICTORIA DOLFO 5

This part of the dining area is open completely with glazing, enclosing an amazing view towards the
courtyard which can be glanced also by the people standing in the kitchen. Facility that is set behind
the fireplace and confined inside a rather small squared area. At the back of the kitchen wall, also
acting as a juncture between the two wings, there is a bathroom placed right besides the secondary
entrance which leads to the private core compound by two bedrooms featured by tall vertical glass
windows south-facing the garden. The whole east wing joins the two bedrooms in a long corridor that
protrudes towards the master bedroom in addition to a study at the end of the wing. Interesting aspect
to recall is the way the walls of the rooms are not evenly placed but they slide one onto the other,
highlighting the asymmetrical shapes that Wright was aiming to achieve.

[Fig 10-11 : sketch ecterior, view from the garden towards the house, more specifically the living room]

Frank Lloyd Wright, in his own words regarding the Usonian home design, stated:
We can never make the living room big enough, the fireplace important enough, or the sense of relationship
between exterior, interior and environment close enough, or get enough of these good things I've just mentioned. A
Usonian house is always hungry for the ground, lives by it, becoming an integral feature of it.”5
What is revealed by the architect’s mentality is his continuous approach to his principal of organic
architecture which is emphasised in the construction of the private house using natural building
materials such as: pine, redwood, brick and glass; suggesting the union of simplicity and harmony with
nature. “The purest and most acclaimed application of the architect’s Usonian concept, with a rather
extraordinary home design” would be the words used by most critics concerning the first Herbert and
Katherine Jacobs House (1937) of which was then designed a second one.

First off to understand and analyse correctly how this house has truly been built we must identify it
within the historical and temporal context in which it was constructed. During the Great Depression
in the 1930s , a period which was restraining America's building industry, Architects and designers had
to change their pursuits in order to sustain their lives. Frank Lloyd Wright took on apprentices in his
Taliesin Fellowship and started developing an ideal city that could have existed in a post-depression

5 FrankLloydWriteSites.com, Herbert Jacobs House I, (2007-2009), available at <https://

franklloydwrightsites.com/wisconsin/madison/jacobs1/jacobs1.htm>, accessed 24 December 2018

JACOBS HOUSE VICTORIA DOLFO 6

United States. He envisioned a city where the lands domain was a right, and the political power had a
restrained functional strength. The first name given to this project was: "Usonia" but it was later on,
settled with the name :”Broadacre City.” From this part of the story we understand the real meaning
coming from the name of the houses “Usonian”.Thus, we arrive in 1936 when Herbert Jacobs
challenged Wright to design and build him a home on A rather small sized piece of land for under
$5,000.
The architect succeeded in reaching the challenge at a final cost of $500 more than claimed.
Ultimately, the outcome was an intimate, private,1550 square foot ranch stylish home. The
commissionaires were so remarkably happy that asked Wright to built an other house just some miles
away from the first one.

The name given to the second one remained the same despite the fact that people referred to it as
either : the “ Herbert Jacobs House 11” to differ from the previous one and as the “solar hemicycle” due to
its semicircular layout and use of natural materials to conserve solar energy. The two houses are very
different from each other but despite this they still have some elements that can be found in both. As
for one: the frequent cantilevered horizontal lined roof, which, conversely from the first Jacobs House
is leaning outwards in a circular way following the plan that Frank Lloyd Wright designed for this Solar
Hemicycle which is placed in an area exposed to cold winds so he decided to put in place some
solutions that could warm up as much as possible the structure, reducing the need for artificial heating.

[fig 12; Jacobs House 11 plans]

JACOBS HOUSE VICTORIA DOLFO 7

As a matter of fact, in order to achieve so, the house opens with a large concave glass façade, and a
partially buried inwards form given by the building in prospect: in this way the heat is intercepted with
the best location of the rooms and the exposure to the air currents is being controlled.
Eventually, what could have been done to control the currents even more and accordingly both the
light and shade, was to plant some trees in such a way to protect the areas of the house, aiming towards
the direction of the strongest winds.

One recurring aspect in Frank Lloyd Wright portfolio of work is in the composition of the buildings,
where the horizontal line prevails, but the overall image can not be separated from the vegetation and
other natural elements, which Wright treats as "architectural" materials.
Visions of Wright’s Prairie Houses such as: The Robie house (1910) and Darwin D. Martin House ( 1903) or
the Kauffman House : Falling water , characterised by cantilevered terraces which lean outwards cutting
the surrounding and giving a feeling of elasticity and softness eulogising the earth on which each
building sits. Same feeling is conveyed in the Herbert Jacobs House, where the horizontal orientation
of the roof is perceived by the architect as the “Earth line of human life”6 proposing the relationship
between house and landscape.

Such strong relationship is revealed only by the experience of space, this is indeed the only way we can
truly and fully apprehend the importance of architecture. That Architecture that allows us to live on
Earth, that gives space to our homes and form our daily routines. In Wright’s “cause of architecture”7 ;
three fundamental principals are outlined, which lead us to the understanding of architecture:
- Space; or what Wright calls : “ the space within”. Such space is derived from two main concepts: the
occupant’s movement: “the position” and the experience of the spatial order of the design
“composition”.
- Construction; that serves as the development of the various concepts for ordering and enclosing a
space.
- Landscape; relationship between the interior and exterior spaces, and all the materials that link these
two spaces, which are the setting of our daily routines.

The importance of space, or, of the experience of space, has been interpreted by the architect and
reused in different ways all the way towards the end of his architectural production. Different from his
standards, was the Guggenheim Museum, in NewYork, where due to the restrained site in which the
building had been erected, the spaces needed to be designed in such a way as to support themselves

6 Frank Lloyd Wright , The natural House, p16 ,(Horizon Press, 1954)
7 In the cause of Architecture, the title of a series of articles by Frank Lloyd Wright published in
Architectural Record, 1908

JACOBS HOUSE VICTORIA DOLFO 8

upwards rather than outwards. On account of this, the visitors to the museum. have to go all the way
up to the top through an elevator and then descend alongside a spiral ramp all the way down to the
centre entrance square. This way the space has to be experienced and cannot be skipped.

[Fig 13; interior Guggenheim gallery, central core] [Fig 14; sketch of exterior view, done by:
Victoria Dolfo ]

Likewise the so famous Edgar Kauffman house: “ Fallingwater” (1935, Pennsylvania ) which, as Frank
Lloyd Wright himself stated: “the ideas involved here are in no wise changed from those of early work. The
materials and methods of construction come through them. The effects you see in this house are not superficial effects,
and are entirely consistent with the prairie houses of 1901-10”8
Here the house was built taking into account space, both the surrounding and the liveable inside the
residence. "The experience of space”, here, becomes an indispensable factor for the understanding of
architecture and of the architect’s style. As a matter of fact: the use of materials, the site where it was
constructed, all the cantilevered terraces and glass
walls; recalls Wright’s principal of Organic
Architecture, unifying the nature that surrounds the
complex with the building itself.
Accordingly, if we enter into the manner we would
experience a sensation of complete metamorphosis;
firstly, between the building and the outside and then,
between us and the space.

[fig 15; exterior view of Fallingwater house]

8Robert McCarter, On and by Frank LLoyd Wright: A primer of Architectural Principles (1st edition, Phaidon
Press 2005) 232

JACOBS HOUSE VICTORIA DOLFO 9

In conclusion, Wright’s importance and influence on the future architecture, does not rest in a matter
of style or shape, but on the wider experiential possibilities that he tried to give with his portfolio of
works. He stated, indeed, in his early career that the main feature for his conception of architecture
was the floor plan. The buildings are generated from the plan which gives form and order to the living
space. The only reason why it was a must for Frank Lloyd Wright to shape space in plan was for the
experience of man. As he stated in “An American Architecture”: “Architecture is man’s great sense of
himself embodied in a world of his own creation”. Thus, Architecture is what gave order to the human
experience making him present in todays world, in the space that is conceived and being occupied.

Needless to say, the best American praised architect of the 20th century, does not need his buildings to
be lead by verbal explanation, they clearly stand out for themselves. They have the great power to be
understood just by having the opportunity to invade, experience and inhabit one of its majestic homes.

JACOBS HOUSE VICTORIA DOLFO 10

Bibliography :

Análisis de las estrategias bioclimáticas empleadas por Frank Lloyd Wright en la casa Jacobs I
(Barcelona Vol. 69, Iss. 547,  (2017) ( https://search.proquest.com/docview/1961752727?accountid=7408 )

Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright (Taschen 2015)

Corriere della Sera, Frank Lloyd Wright, Forme naturali e astrazione geometrica (Corriere della Sera 2016)

Frank Lloyd Wright, In the cause of Architecture (Architectural Record, 1908)

Frank Lloyd Wright in Robert McCarter, Frank Lloyd Wright (2nd edition, Phaindon Press Limited 2001)

Frank Lloyd Wright, The natural House (Horizon Press 1954)

FrankLloydWriteSites.com, Herbert Jacobs House I, (2007-2009), available at <https://

franklloydwrightsites.com/wisconsin/madison/jacobs1/jacobs1.htm>, accessed 24 December 2018

James Duff Law, Here and There in Two Hemispheres (Scotland: Home Publishing Company, 1903)

Robert McCarter, Frank Lloyd Wright (2nd edition, Phaindon Press Limited 2001)

Robert McCarter, On and by Frank LLoyd Wright: A primer of Architectural Principles (1st edition, Phaidon
Press 2005)

Pictures :

Fig. 1 : photo by : Yousuf Karsh , portrait available at : <https://karsh.org/photographs/frank-lloyd-

wright/> , accessed data: 27 December 2018

Fig 2 : Frank Lloyd Wright , Herbert Jacobs House, view from the garden, available at : <https://
www.australiandesignreview.com/architecture/frank-lloyd-wright-usonian-low-cost-co-op-housing/ >
accessed data: 28 December 2018 article by Aleesha Callahan

Fig 3: Jacobs house sketch, side view, done by : Victoria Dolfo.

Fig 4: site plan, Herbert Jacobs House 1936, (Usonia 1) Madison, photo by v.hain, available at : http://
wrightchat.savewright.org/viewtopic.php?
t=4299&view=previous&sid=72c23091ec3346e6647bcb281faa48d0 accessed 1 January 2019

Fig 5: photo by Lawrence W. Speck available at http://larryspeck.com/looking/herbert-and-katherine-

jacobs-house/, accessed 3 January 2019

Fig 6: front entrance to the house, , photo by Andy Zuhlke (taken on June 5th 2012) available at : https://
www.flickr.com/photos/andrewzuhlke/7343971606 accessed 3 January 2019

Fig 7: view from interior living room of the Jacobs House, available at : https://commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/File:Jacobs_First_House_-_living_room_02.jpg , author : James Steakley , accessed 6 January 2019

Fig 8: interior aisle through dining area, photo by oono.yusuke, available at : https://www.flickr.com/
photos/27245899@N07/3506387719, accessed 6 January 2019

JACOBS HOUSE VICTORIA DOLFO 11

Fig 9: dining table, photo by james Steakley, available at : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Jacobs_First_House_-_dining_room.jpg accessed 6 January 2019

Fig12: Jacobs House II , Frank Lloyd Wright, plan drawings of the two levels of Jacobs II. These drawings
are found in "The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion" ( 1993 by William Allin Storrer, The University of
Chicago Press), p 293. Available at: http://wrightchat.savewright.org/viewtopic.php?
t=6334&view=previous&sid=2af23fca9ed928c393c332eaaf33d874 accessed 7 January 2019

Fig 13: Interior of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Photo: David Heald, available at:
https://www.guggenheim.org/arts-curriculum/topic/guggenheim-on-the-inside accessed 7 January 2019

Fig 15: exterior of the Edgar Kauffman House or also called “fallingwater” by Frank Lloyd Wright,
available at : https://www.warmlyyours.com/en-US/posts/Frank-Lloyd-Wright-s-Organic-Design-
Including-Radiant-Heat-Lives-On-3134 accessed 8 January 2019

1
2

<

JACOBS HOUSE VICTORIA DOLFO 12