As I go deeper into the woods, I hear the sound of an active stream.  Through the trees I catch a glimpse of the house.  I pick up the pace, and then Fallingwater comes into full view sitting on top of a waterfall.  My mouth drops open.  All the photographs I have seen don't do justice to this unique house and its imposing site.

I have to remind myself that the house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 and built in 1936.  It was the time of the Great Depression and a time when organic and modern architecture weren't commonly practiced.

Fallingwater, the once weekend retreat for successful businessman Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. and family, sits in a remote area of the forest.  A variety of oak trees, other hardwoods, and native white rhododendrons surround the hideaway.  Built mainly of glass, steel, concrete and native sandstone, the retreat is a sight to behold.  Low to the ground and three stories high, cantilevered terraces with reinforced concrete jut out into space.  One continuous vertical window framed in steel and painted red, starts at the basement and goes up to the third floor.

Through a slit between two walls on the side of the house, I enter Fallingwater.  The entry seems a bit dark.  But when I get to the living room, the space opens up and I'm hit by a flood of natural light.  The enormous room, which measures 35' x 45', has broad bands of windowpanes.  The windowpanes emit an incredible amount of light.  And because the space is based on an open floor plan that has no partitions, the windowpanes also provide unobstructive views of nature from all sides.



The focal point of the living room is the hearth, a favorite boulder on which Kaufmann sunbathed.  The living rock protrudes about one foot through the floor. Wright incorporates the boulder as a basic part of the house because he believes the house should evolve from the site.

The floor of the room is made of quarried stone, and it's one continuous surface that goes from the inside to the outside where it becomes the terrace.

The walls are rough sandstone laid down in horizontal uneven layers.  Wright reiterates the horizontal uneven pattern of sandstone as it appears in nature. Like the floor, the walls continue to the outside of the house.  

Wright uses very limited colors and materials inside and outside of the house.  He uses the natural colors of site materials and nature. The color of the sandstone walls is ecru, and he adds red and yellow as accent colors.

The remainder of the house consists of two to three bedrooms, a modern kitchen, a skylighted reading area, a music alcove, and a hatch that opens up and provides access to the stream. 

In addition to the main house, there is a guest house located a short distance away.

Frank Lloyd Wright and Edgar J. Kaufmann were two unconventional and bold thinkers.  They loved nature and strongly believed it should be a major component of life.  Wright brought nature and architecture together and made them a unified whole.  It was daring and original, and it was organic architecture at its finest. Fallingwater was truly remarkable for its time. Kaufmann not only lived in nature, he also became a part of it.




Image Credits:happy via via photopin cc
jasonpearce via photopin cc
jasonpearce via photopin cc
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leonelponce via photopin cc
wallyg via photopin cc


Bibliography:

Hoffman, Donald.  Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater.  New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1993. 

Nash, Eric Peter.  Frank Lloyd Wright: Force of Nature.  New York: Smithmark, 1996.