#textile block

Frank Lloyd Wright

Millard House (La Miniatura), Pasadena, California (Exterior perspective from the garden) 1923-24

La Miniatura, the Millard House in Pasadena, is the earliest in a series known as the Textile Block houses, designed by Wright in the 1920s; all are located in southern California. This color rendering depicts the Millard House in its lush surroundings. The house is constructed of a combination of plain-faced and ornamental concrete blocks, which were cast on the site from molds designed by Wright. The square blocks, with perforated, glass-filled apertures, form a continuous interior and exterior fabric. The relatively small scale of the blocks allows for a design that closely follows the contours of the landscape.

In his autobiography, Wright wrote: "The concrete block? The cheapest (and ugliest) thing in the building world. . . . Why not see what could be done with that gutter-rat?" In his Textile Block houses, Wright attempted to introduce a flexible building system, marrying the merits of standardized machine production to the innovative, creative vision of the artist.

100 WOMEN ARCHITECTS IN THE STUDIO OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT (2009)

The Storer House by Frank Lloyd Wright. Designed as an organic extension of its rugged environment, Wright's Storer house - second of the textile-block houses - rises on a series of terraces set into a Hollywood hillside, its cement blocks mixed with decomposed granite from the site itself.

A quiet corner off the living room is furnished with a Craftsman chair and desk. The frescoed wall and ceiling treatment is by Christian Granvelle.