139. Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright

 

Fallingwater 
Pennsylvannia, U.S. Frank Lloyd Wright (architect) 1936-1939 C.E. Reinforced concrete, sandstone, steel, and glass

It's a house that doesn't even appear to stand on solid ground, but instead stretches out over a 30' waterfall. It captured everyone's imagination when it was on the cover of Time magazine in 1938.

Form

An expressive combination of reinforced concrete material, cantilevered construction and a dramatic site. The house comes close to realizing Wrights ideal of a structure growing organically out of it’s site. Perched on a rocky hillside over a small waterfall, the house, nicknamed “Falling Water” has become an icon of modernist architectural style. Wright’s naturalistic style integrates his building with it’s site. In the Kauffman house, reinforced concrete and stone walls complement the sturdy rock of the Pennsylvania countryside. 

Function

A private home (vacation house) for the Kauffman family, Edgar, Liliane, and their son Edgar Jr. (Department Store magnate)

Content

The main focus of Falling Water is one large room opening out into the terraces and porches. The horizontal planes of these porches, in turn, are balanced by the vertical volumes of the fireplace. The local stone used in this chimney mass is related both in color and texture to the natural rock of the river bank. The cantilevering here allows the several stories the independence to develop their own fluid floor plans. As on the outside, the inside radiates around the central core, with advancing and receding areas promoting what Wright called the “Freedom of Interior and exterior occupation.” The floor and walls are built from natural stone found on the site.

Context

Frank Lloyd Wright was the most famous of the Prairie School of architecture. They rejected the idea that buildings should be done in historic styles of architecture, however, they insisted that they should be in harmony with their site. Wright employed complex irregular forms that seemed to reflect the abstract shapes of contemporary painting; rectangles, triangles, squares, and circles. Stylized botanical shapes were particularly prized. Rather than situating the structure with a view of the 30 foot waterfall, Wright built it directly above the waterfall.

Innovation

Ferroconcrete- Cement reinforced by embedding wire mesh or iron rods in it. Cantilever- The extension of a slab or beam horizontally into space beyond its supporting post. Made possible by the invention of ferroconcrete. Wright focused on the relationships of masses and voids, the arrangement of windows and doors, the colors and grains of wood and the textures of stone. Through his masterly interrelations, space for living and working comes to life and breathes. His organic architecture was based on the unity of site, structure and decoration. A house, he thought, should express warmth, protection, and seclusion. Interior space, moreover, should not confine but expand without interruption from the inside to the outside so as to bring people closer to nature. Wright was known to have an organic philosophy for architecture, believing that the design of a building should reflect a harmony between the natural and the manmade. Wright took inspiration from Japanese architecture, which emphasizes many of the same elements.

Artistic Decision

Wright sought to find a way to incorporate the structure fully into its site in order to ensure a fluid, dynamic exchange between the interior of the house and the natural environment outside. To take advantage of the location, he designed a series of terraces that extend on three levels from a central core structure. The contrast in textures among concrete, painted metal and natural stones in the house’s terraces and walls enliven its shape as does Wright’s use of full length strip windows to create a stunning interweaving of interior and exterior shapes. “No house should ever be on any hill or on anything. It should be of the hill, belonging to it, so hill and house should live together and each be happier for the other.” 

Interpretation

Mies van de Rohe wrote in 1940: “The dynamic impulse from Wright’s work invigorated a whole generation. His influence was strongly felt even when it was not actually visible. Fallingwater has been lauded by many over the years, perhaps most notably by the American Institute of Architects which, in 1991, named the house the best all-time work of American architecture. According to Franklin Toker, Fallingwater’s most important contribution to Modern Architecture is surely the “acceptance of Modern architecture itself.”

Details

Seeking a hideaway where he and his mistress could live, Wright built a residence and studio in 1911 in Spring Green, Wisconsin. While the architect dubbed his estate Taliesin, in honor of the Welsh bard, the press branded it the “Love Cottage” and “Castle of Love.” https://www.history.com/news/the-massacre-at-frank-lloyd-wrights-love-cottage