Wright Chat

I know Frank was enamoured with concrete - as it is such a plastic material, and will form any shape you want with relative ease. I also recall, from my reading of "Building With Wright" by Herbert and Katherine Jacobs that he placed a high value on a process of building a wall which resulted in the wall being complete as soon as it is created.

Having lost the Jacobs #1-inspired home I spent 3 years designing and 1 year building, I am now contemplating a second attempt at a home for myself and my new wife. This time it will not be based on a design of Frank's, but it will incorporate many of the design features of his Usonian homes.

As "Hot Blocks" are no longer rated for use without extra insulation in my location, I need a new way to assemble a wall which is highly insulated, zero maintenance and does not require anything other than erecting. (A "Hot Block" is a 250mm thick Concrete block which contains a 50mm panel of polystyrene as insulation. The remainder of the space is filled with concrete. The "R Value" of these is now below the latest building insulation requirements, so you'd have to build a wall outside them and insulate it, which sort of defeats the purpose...)

The Tilt Slabs I am looking at using are highly polished reinforced concrete panels of 240mm thickness with 100mm on the exterior and 120mm on the interior, with a 25mm layer of closed-cell foam between them. They exceed (by a factor of 2) the insulation requirements, and of course they have a huge internal thermal mass. (As much as 30 tons of it in a 3 bedroom house in fact.)

Services are provided by conduits laid down prior to the pouring. The panels are trucked the the site, laid on edge and secured to each other with steel. Job done.

It seems to me Frank would approve of such a system, as it results in incredibly quick construction times, does not require any painting, fitting, insulating or other work at all.

Try as I might, I can't come up with a down-side, and the price actually works out to be lower by the time everything is added up. AND, it won't come down in an 8+ Earthquake, either. We had a 7.1 here in September for those of you who weren't aware of the massive quake here in NZ on September 4th.

I have some fascinating plans in mind for the concrete panels also, and believe I can achieve a pretty desirable design using this method.

Sounds like your mind is made up. If it's cheap and true to the material, Wright's principles would entail approval. I can't imagine how he could approve of poured concrete but not tilt-slab.

I've never heard of his building this way, but he admired Gill, who used the method extensively, and Schindler, who built his own house that way. Much of the house (though not the construction method) shows up in Taliesin West and the Usonians.

look at the Racine workers housing by Schindler and Wright - been there, done that - next time, hire an architect to help you

Downside ? I guess it depends on what you desire in the way of a residence. A "highly polished" concrete surface, inside and out, begins to sound like an igloo, to me -- perfect for a hot climate, perhaps, if not a chilly one ?

I wouldn't want to have to pierce or puncture that perfect skin to hang furnishings and decor -- particularly as it would be hard to do, and harder to invisibly repair later -- so I'd probably start making an intermittent or continuous wooden armature around the interior walls, standing on the floor and/or hung from the ceiling and (ideally) not fastened to the walls at all; it would carry concealed up- and down-lighting where desired and support shelves and other built-ins, and provide a means of hanging pictures -- as well as serving as a background for free-standing furnishings. The contrast of warm wood and cool concrete would be quite handsome, to my way of thinking.

I assume there would be wood-framed openings, including a wall of door-windows ? Would you make a wood-lined ceiling, or perhaps show the roof structure, as another foil to the cool walls ?

Here's Schindler's tilt-slab house.







His own rendering








Interior -- visually cool, even when warmly lighted







The opposite side of the same space


S D R

Schindler separated (or connected ?) his slabs with ribbons of glass -- a brilliant move. If the slabs were alternated with a piece of wood, perhaps keyed into the concrete for a weather-tight connection, the wood could support whatever wall-fastening (inside or out) that might be desired -- as well as providing a nice rhythmic accent ?

S D R

I don't have an image for the project, but it was called "The Monolithic Home", workers housing, in Racine from 1919. Schindler was largely responsible for the design. They were really quite nice, but his client, Hardy, was unable to obtain financing for the project.

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