From the outset, Frank Lloyd Wright exhibited bold originality in his designs for both private and public structures—and he rebelled against the ornate neoclassic and Victorian styles favoured by conventional architects. Wright was opposed to the mechanical imposition of preconceived styles. His interiors had a Japanese influence; they emphasized the sense of spaciousness, which is derived from open planning with one room flowing into another. We’ve seen this design rationale affecting our homes over the last century, as it’s become more and more popular to open the kitchen and dining room into each other’s spaces—as well as opening up these spaces to the living room.

Here are a few other modern inventions that touch most of our homes in some way:

• Wright initiated many new techniques for construction, such as the use of precast concrete blocks reinforced by steel rods.
• He also introduced air conditioning, indirect lighting, and panel heating.
• Radiant floor heating created by embedding hot water pipes in the floor
• Double-glass windows and all-glass doors
• The carport

Some other lessons to learn from this architectural legend

Use native colours and materials. He liked to use, for example, the soft yellows and reds seen in autumn tree foliage on the site. If you’re wanting to use stone (real or decorative), use stone native to the Kootenays; take a close-up picture of stone colours and shapes when around your site or in your walks through the mountains, etc.

Bring exterior materials (it’s important for it to be the same as the exterior of your house) into the home, which represents a connection to the site outside. Wright did this primarily with stone and you see this influence become more and more popular; for example, with chimneys being façade with stone.

Consider the faces of your home as either solids or void pieces instead of a standard wall with a punched window in it. Not to say that you’re not going to have this condition anywhere on your home, but try for larger window openings. Glass allows the best interaction with the site and permits natural light to come in. If you are concerned about heat loss, consider this: a 6-inch thick concrete wall allows more heat loss than a single pane of glass. With today’s technology, you can get very good double glazed windows and triple glazed windows that have more advanced thermal bridging buffers.

View the exterior of your building with more value than just walls with materials slapped on as veneer. Express the elements of the interior through to the exterior. Emphasize the structure of the home, the roof lines and the entrance and window openings. Spend more time designing the exterior usage of materials as they will look richer and dramatically increase the value of your home. Consider a person’s mindset when they go to buy a used home. They look through the paper or internet or real estate building window at a picture of the front façade. You choose a home to look at almost entirely by the price, size and look. When you go to the home, you look inside the home and interior finishes and colours means less because each person can picture a fresh coat of paint or some renovation upgrades. But if the exterior house material arrangement, colours, window placement, etc. are not desired . . . you move on to the next home or consider buying it at a much lower price than a home with a well designed exterior.