The Ingenious Interlocking Brick Design of the Iconic ‘Ennis House’ by Frank Lloyd Wright
Architectural channel This House took a look at the “Ennis House” in Los Angeles, one of the most iconic houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. This incredible brick home was designed after his Prairie School period and was unlike anything anyone had seen before. The house was assembled rather than built, using more than 27,000 interlocking textile blocks to create a unique style of antique modernism.
Ennis House towers above Los Feliz like an ancient monument reimagined for the Jazz Age. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1924 and assembled from more than 27,000 patterned “textile blocks,” this Los Angeles landmark blends Maya-inspired mystique with cutting-edge modernism.
The home appeared in a number of television shows and movies. Unfortunately, it was damaged during the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and the flood of 2005. The home was completely restored with original block molds and modern materials to give the house more stability.
Craftspeople cast new blocks, using molds taken from surviving originals, stainless steel pins stitched cracked walls, subterranean drains whisked runoff away from the hillside, and a concealed steel frame lent the house the spine it had always lacked.
This house is particularly special because Wright looked at a simple brick and saw a uniquely beautiful house that matched its surroundings perfectly.
What endures, beyond the drama of restoration or the thrill of cinematic cameos, is the clarity of Wright’s experiment: a single idea pursued to its limits. He imagined concrete—the “gutter-rat” of building materials—raised to the dignity of sculpture; he sought a house that felt quarried from its own hill; he wanted walls that were as much ornament as structure.
