Discover what made the future: Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect whose skillset extended to interior design, writing and education.

Wright pioneered what would later be called the Prairie School movement of architecture. This was marked by the use of horizontal lines, hipped roofs with overhanging eaves. The windows were grouped in horizontal bands thought to evoke the image of the horizontal planes of the prairie landscape.

Wright’s philosophy was centred around what he called organic architecture. This was the idea that structures should be designed in harmony with our environment. This philosophy is put on display by the jaw-dropping Fallingwater built in 1935 and named by some as the best of all-time by an American architect.

Over a career spanning 70 years, Wright designed 1,000 structures, half of which were actually completed. Among these designs were offices, hotels, schools, churches, museums, and even skyscrapers. Alongside the architectural work, he also designed furniture, stained glass windows and wrote 20 books.

Wright brought colour into the relatively conservative field of architecture at the time and was often in the headlines for scandal regarding his marriages or for the infamous murders at his Taliesin estate.

In 1991 Frank Lloyd Wright was recognised by the American Institute of Architects as the greatest American architect of all time.