Blending and Contrasting the Artificial and the Natural: Russel Wright's Manitoga

This integration of a 1950s domestic dining room with a natural environment, and the juxtaposition of artificial and natural materials, textures, and colors, were central design strategies in Russel Wright's experimental “dream house,” Dragon Rock. For Wright, Dragon Rock was 'a designer’s experiment, not only in designing a house, but in designing a home and the way to live in it'. Wright's experiment went beyond the house to encompass the surrounding environment, shaped by him into a woodland garden. He called the property Manitoga, derived from an Algonquin word meaning 'Place of Great Spirit'.