American System-Built Houses by Frank Lloyd Wright (1911-1917)

Just three years after Sears, Roebuck and Company began constructing catalogue homes in bulk, Frank Lloyd Wright designed a markedly different type of house, the "American System-Built Houses" (also known as the "American Ready-Cut System"). Whether Wright was reacting specifically to the cookie-cutter homes being churned out by Sears, and later by other department stores such as Montgomery Ward, remains unclear. But his approach differed in its quest to produce infinite variations rather than set models. He is on of the very first architects of note to tackle the issue of the factory-built house and to contemplate its immense potential in a time of rapid industrialization.

Wright teamed up with the Milwaukee-based construction firm Richards Company between 1911 and 1917, outlining in over nine hundred drawings a systematized housing array where the wood framing, cladding, floor joists, rafters, roofs, moldings, windows, and doors would all be cut precisely in the factory and required no on-site carpentry. The result was decreased construction time and labor costs, offering a fresh alternative to prefabricated houses on the market, non of which was blessed with a recognizable architectural name.

Wright transposed the uniquely American and self-styled prairie house into the blueprint for a housing system that could disseminate his unique architectural vision across the United States. What is so astonishing about the collection of drawings, now held at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, is the fact that no two designs are alike. Wright explicitly indicated that it was the elements that were to be prefabricated, not the overall forms. In one sense, this begs the question of the client's role, a fact that is difficult to decipher because non was ever built.

It remains unclear if Wright imagined that he would design a specific house for a specific client, simply keepng in mind a palette of prefabricated ingredients, or whether the sheer mass of drawings was intended to function as a menu of options from which to order directly from a supplier. Despite a marketing campaign, the house never caught the notice of private consumers and it was eventually abandoned as Wright turned his attention to more lucrative commissions. Regardless, the approach was entirely novel and portends a fascination with mass customization that would emerge in Wright's work many years later.

(Source: Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling by Barry Bergdoll and Peter Christensen)