Millard House, Textile block house in Pasadena, United States.
The Millard House is a residence in the organic style in Pasadena, United States, arranged across three levels with roughly 2,400 square feet of living space. The concrete blocks form perforated wall surfaces that, together with terraces and shallow water features, create a porous architecture where interior rooms and garden merge into one another.
Frank Lloyd Wright built this residence in 1923 for Alice Millard, a dealer in rare books, using concrete blocks manufactured on site from materials found on the property. The project marked a turning point in his work, as he employed here for the first time a modular building system that combined industrial prefabrication with handcrafted detail.
The building represents a departure from Wright's Prairie house style, introducing modular construction methods intended to make architecture more accessible to regular citizens.
The entrance is located on the middle floor, where a large living area opens directly onto the surrounding outdoor spaces. The kitchen and dining area occupy the lower level, while the main bedroom sits on the upper floor and offers additional privacy.
Each concrete block carries a geometric relief created through a special casting process, and the blocks interlock so that the walls stand without additional mortar. The perforation of individual blocks produces filtered light effects in different locations that shift throughout the day.
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