Frank Lloyd Wright’s Vision for Affordable Housing in Baltimore
One of the core demands of the Park Heights Master Plan is to rebuild vacant lots with as many as 1,300 new housing units. In the spirit of building an urban environment that honors the residents’ individuality as one of the pillars of quality-of-life, Create’s proposal for Park Heights looks to Frank Lloyd Wright’s vision of affordable housing: the American System-Built Home.
These houses are Wright’s answer to the paramount problem of providing the “house of moderate cost,” described by Wright as “not only America’s major architectural problem, but the problem most difficult to her major architects.” Featuring modular components designed for mass production, customizable features answer to what Wright called the “national ideal” of individuality — something sorely lacking in the “Tower in the Park” style of so much urban affordable housing built in the last century.
Prior to the interruption of the First World War, Wright had plans to sell these prefab homes nationally, using a car-dealership model. “You can own an American home,” announced a full-page ad in a 1917 Chicago newspaper, selling Wright’s modular, affordable designs. Perhaps the most celebrated, visionary architect of the past hundred+ years, Wright embraced modular construction. Quoting his 1901 speech “The Art and Craft of the Machine:”
“The Machine is Intellect mastering the drudgery of earth that the plastic art may live; that the margin of leisure and strength by which man’s life upon the earth can be made beautiful, may immeasurably widen; its function ultimately to emancipate human expression!”
In his ecstatic praise of “The Machine,” Wright was showing his hand in favor of modular construction. Truly, what could be more conducive to providing this “margin of leisure and strength” to all people of moderate means than access to affordable dwellings, designed by a master architect and customizable to satisfy each resident’s individuality?
Create’s vision is to bring updated versions of these individualized homes to Park Heights. To make this a reality, Create has partnered with Lindal Homes. Besides being a pioneer in modern home design for over 70 years, Lindal brings a unique partnership with The Frank Lloyd Wright Institute, allowing them to offer the New Taliesin Mod.Fab homes. These eco-conscious designs, ready to be rolled out on an affordable scale through modular construction, would offer an elegant, colorful solution to Park Heights’ vacancy and housing concerns.
