Usonia

Usonia (pronEng|juːˈsoʊniə) is a word used by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright to refer to his vision for the landscape of the United States, including the planning of cities and the architecture of buildings. Wright proposed the use of the adjective Usonian in place of American to describe the particular New World character of the American landscape as distinct and free of previous architectural conventions.

Although rarely used in the sense of "U.S. citizen", Usonian is probably more common than the alternatives. John Dos Passos used it in his USA Trilogy. (See alternative words for American.)

Usonian houses

Usonian is a term usually referring to a group of approximately fifty middle-income family homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright beginning in 1936 with the Jacobs House. [http://www.usonia1.com] The "Usonian Homes" were typically small, single-story dwellings without a garage or much storage, L-shaped to fit around a garden terrace on odd (and cheap) lots, and environmentally conscious with native materials, flat roofs and large cantilevered overhangs for passive solar heating and natural cooling, natural lighting with clerestory windows, and radiant-floor heating. A strong visual connection between the interior and exterior spaces is an important characteristic of all Usonian homes. The word carport was coined by Wright to describe an overhang for a vehicle to park under.

Variants of the Jacobs House design are still in existence today and do not look overly dated. The Usonian design is considered among the aesthetic origins of the popular "ranch" tract home popular in the American west of the 1950s.

Origin of the word

The word Usonian appears to have been coined by James Duff Law, an American writer born in 1865. In a miscellaneous collection entitled "Here and There in Two Hemispheres" (1903), Law quoted a letter of his own (dated 18 June 1903) that begins "We of the United States, in justice to Canadians and Mexicans, have no right to use the title 'Americans' when referring to matters pertaining exclusively to ourselves." He went on to acknowledge that some author had proposed "Usona," but that he preferred "Usonia." [James D. Law, "Here and There in Two Hemispheres" (Lancaster: Home Publishing Co., 1903), pp. 111–12n.] Perhaps the earliest published use by Wright was in 1927,

But why this term "America" has become representative as the name of these United States at home and abroad is past recall. Samuel Butler fitted us with a good name. He called us Usonians, and our Nation of combined States, Usonia.::–("Frank Lloyd Wright on Architecture: Selected Writings 1894-1940", p. 100.)

However, no one has ever been able to find the Butler reference. John Sergeant wrote, "It has been suggested that Wright picked up the name on his first European trip in 1910 when there was talk of calling the U.S.A. 'U-S-O-N-A', to avoid confusion with the new Union of South Africa." (USONA, of course, would have stood for United States of North America.)

The word is clearly cognate with the Esperanto name for the United States, "". The creator of Esperanto, L. L. Zamenhof, used this name in his speech at the 1910 World Congress of Esperanto in Washington, D.C., coincidentally the same year Wright was in Europe. However, the Esperanto online dictionary "Reta Vortaro" [http://reta-vortaro.de/revo/art/uson.html] attributes the word to Wright.

Noted Usonian houses

* Arthur Pieper residence, Paradise Valley, Arizona
* Dorothy H. Turkel House, Detroit, Michigan
* Jacobs House, Madison, Wisconsin
* Kentuck Knob, Western Pennsylvania
* [http://www.muirheadfarmhouse.com/ Muirhead Farmhouse] , Hampshire, Illinois
* Pope-Leighey House, Alexandria, Virginia
* Rosenbaum House, Florence, Alabama
* Weltzheimer/Johnson House, Oberlin, Ohio
* Zimmerman House, Manchester, New Hampshire
* Henry L. Kamphoefner House, Raleigh, North Carolina
* Ritcher House, Raleigh, North Carolina
* Duncan House, Western Pennsylvania
* Louis Penfield House, Willoughby, Ohio
* Haynes House, Fort Wayne, Indiana
* Robert Levin House, Kalamazoo, Michigan
* Bernard Schwartz House, Two Rivers, Wisconsin

ee also

*Use of the word American
*Polychrome Historic District A similar effort to provide inexpensive housing by John Joseph Earley

Notes

External links

* [http://usonia1.com Jacobs House]
* [http://www.pbs.org/flw/buildings/usonia/usonia.html Frank Lloyd Wright: Usonian House] at PBS.org
* [http://www.arch.columbia.edu/DDL/projects/usonia/usonia.html Columbia University] - Usonia: Frank Lloyd Wright's Vision for America
* [http://esperantohouston.org/elna2002.html Esperanto League of Houston] regarding Usono and Usonia
* [http://www.popeleighey1940.org/ Pope-Leighey House] , Usonian house in Alexandria, Virginia, open to the public
* [http://www.oberlin.edu/allenart/collection/flwright.html Weltzheimer/Johnson House] , Usonian house in Oberlin, Ohio, open to the public
* [http://www.archinform.net/stich/2441.htm?ID=a4d96b4da09f2f741365ee23964f27c0 List of Usonian houses]