Completed in 1910, the house Wright designed for Frederick C. Robie is the consummate expression of his Prairie style. The house is conceived as an integral whole—site and structure, interior and exterior, furniture, ornament and architecture, each element is connected. Unrelentingly horizontal in its elevation and a dynamic configuration of sliding planes in its plan, the Robie House is the most innovative and forward thinking of all Wright’s Prairie houses.
In his design of the Prairie house, Wright absorbed and transformed the principles of traditional Japanese art and architecture, drawing on elements such as the open floor plan, flexible living spaces, and a sense of simplicity and geometric abstraction.
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Comparison of the Robie House dining room (1910) and the interior of the tea house at Katsura Palace, Kyoto, Japan (1616 – 1663)