Deja Chenyang DU talks on Frank Lloyd Wright: Fallingwater, USA (1936)

Artist: Frank Lloyd Wright

Title: Fallingwater House

Year of construction: 1936

Year of completion: 1937

Materials: Reinforced concrete, stone

Building type: Private house (weekend house for Kaufmann Family)

Location: Bear Run, Allegheny Mountains of southwest Pennsylvania, USA

Broader style/Movement/Specific historical context

Frank Lloyd Wright is an important figure in 20C architecture development as he lauched the Prairie style which sought to integrate architecture with the natural landscape. In the design of Fallingwater, we can see combined elements of the International Style with the Prairie Style. Prairie Style, as a signature of Wright’s work, is embodied in the Fallingwater as always: the horizontal emphasis, low-pitched roofs with large overhangs and low boundary walls that are related to the flat prairie landscape of the American West and Middle West. The International Style is shown with the terrace built of modern reinforced concrete and which is related to emphasis upon volume, thin planes, regularity and dependence upon the intrinsic elegance. Actually Wright’s Fallingwater has influenced the International Style architect such as Gerrit Rietveld in his work of Schroeder House. As an admirer of Japanese Architecture, Wright incorporated many Japanese/Oriental elements in his design exterior and interior. The connection with nature that Wright believed as his credo is probably influenced by Japanese/Confucius emphasis on harmony between human beings and natural surroundings, where he tried to fully utilize the landscape and natural existing materials instead of causing any destruction, and interior decorations are also full of Japanese/Oriental elements and philosophy which fit the simplicity very well.

Description of the work

 (A short 3D simultation on Fallingwater construction)
Fallingwater is built in the forested mountain area where the Bear Run flows rapidly between rock cliffs and the water falls down from the rock deck with the beauty of speed, volume, sound and elegant curve. The main building is built above the running falls on a narrow cliff ledge. The main building has a typical horizontal emphasis, where the platform of the first floor and second floor extend out largely into the open air, resembling another layer of natural cliff ledge. The color of the house is in light beige, elegantly fits with the darker colored woods whilst still catches your eyes with its lightness especially in the whole piece of dark green in summer and also responds with the white snow in winter. The house is designed to fit the routines of a family that enjoyed contemplative time indoors, reading and good conversation, as well as vigorous exercise out of doors. As a result the house is constructed with a guest wing located upper hills with the connection of sheltered path from the main building, an outdoor pool in the guest wing. The usage of glasses on the wall is massive, making the indoor space transparent and open, which might largely related with Japanese style. The only pop-up color is the red frame of the glasses on the wall, naturally attracts your attention to look outside the windows. The floor is comprised of local masonry and the wall is constructed to resemble the layers of sandstone. Bedrooms are not in big size but with natural wood colored furniture and Japanese styled paintings, with sandstones reaches out serving as book shelves.

The romance of Fallingwater and its designer Frank Lloyd Wright could be traced back to 1934, when Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., a 25 year old apprentice of Wright’s introduced the great architect to his father, owner of the Kaufmann Department Store in Pittsburgh. Wright said to Kaufmann when sitting in the family’s house, “Edgar, this house is not worthy of your parents”. In the following months, a masterpiece in the architecture history was brewing. The weekend house that Wright was to build is located in a forested Appalachian hollow where the Kaufmann family loved to picnic near a waterfall. Wright started to coordinate with Fayette Engineering Company to survey on the complicated landscape in 1934, and with the survey result fully carried out in the spring of 1935. In Sept. 1935, after 9 months of hard work, Wright finished crystallizing his idea into sketched up design. The whole construction including interior design and furnishing cost 155000 USD at that time which equals 2.4 million in 2009.The resulting structure is fitted onto a narrow cliff ledge, with walls of rough local sandstone and terraces of reinforced concrete that project dramatically over the stream and falls. The family was surprised by the idea that Wright was actually building the house above the cascade instead of below it. Fallingwater served as a country place for the family from 1937 to 1963, and later it was devoted to the Pennsylvania Conservancy as a public museum till now. Fallingwater has astonished the public since its completion, as it was designated as a “National Historic Landmark” in 1966 and also named by the American Institute of Architect as “the best all-time work of American architecture”.

Key quotes

“In Fallingwater Wright captured the perfect essence of our desire to live nature, to dwell in a forested place and be at home in the natural world.”---------Edgar Kaufmann, jr.

“Living in a house built by you has been my one education.”---------Liliane Kaufmann

“I began to see a building primarily not as a cave but a broad shelter in the open, related to vista without and vista within.”---------Frank Lloyd Wright

"I think Wright learned the most important aspect of architecture, the treatment of space, from Japanese architecture. When I visited Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, I found that same sensibility of space. But there were the additional sounds of nature that appealed to me."

--------- Contemporary Japanese architect Tadao Ando

My own opinion of the work

I had the chance to see this masterpiece when I was in the USA in the fall of 2009. It was such a marvelous view when I walked up to the hill in a distance to the house and look at it through the woods and leaves, and actually it’s the only spot you can see the full view of the waterfall. It might be Wright’s design to encourage the family for a regular outing in the forest. As you are in the building, you actually could never see the waterfall from any angle though you hear the intriguing sound of the water flows every minute.

I love the closeness a man-made work could have with the nature and how it is embodied in every little details of the design. There is an on-the-floor window that you can open to access to the stairs which directs you down to the water side from the living room. The first floor is composed of a large central core of living room where you will find a subtleness of the combination of luxury, simplicity, leisure and nature. The floor is made of local masonry, with pieces of luxury patterned carpet covered somewhere on the ground in the living room. Near the fireplace, there are outstretched rocks serving as step stones to the fireplace. There is even a wood stake near the stove serving as a bar table for wine. The furniture is in well alignment of rectangular shaped areas and lines. I was very impressed by how much thought and consideration Wright has put into the design. You could not see the kitchen in the main building, but it is intentionally hidden somewhere, since the family didn’t cook by themselves instead all the cooking was done by domestic servants. Standing on the balcony, you hear the running stream, you feel the dampness of the fresh air, and you see a full eye of green. And surprisingly, you will also see the joy of life and taste of the family through the artistic statues purchased by the family which are put on the balcony, including Buddha head, copper made Libra like statue, etc. The path to the Guest Wing is sheltered to keep guests from the dropping rains and sun in some seasons. And Wright had treated trees as reserved ancestors, and in deference to their exalted position, when one was in too close proximity to a building, he chose either to build around it or to incorporate it in to the design rather than cut it down.

Reference/Resources

Lynda S. Waggoner, Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Romance with Nature, 1996.

Greatbuildings,http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Fallingwater.html

Fallingwater Official Website, http://www.fallingwater.org/

3D Simulation of Building Fallingwater, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CVKU3ErrGM

A look at Fallingwater, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSbjVgpXDoA

Question

What do you think Wright’s combination of technology, imagination, and nature in Fallingater. If you were Wright, how would you design the house, also in the more connected to nature way, or in a more trendy way at that time as “machines of living”?