Fallingwater: Franklin Lloyd Wright - Essay Example

 Fallingwater: Franklin Lloyd Wright Fallingwater is a house designed and constructed by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) in 1935 and is considered perhaps the prime example of Wright’s architectural influence within America, as well as having paved the way for international modernism. The house was commissioned by Edgar and Lillian Kaufmann as a vacation home on some of their favorite property in Bear Run, Pennsylvania, along their favorite stream. Although they anticipated receiving a home that afforded a wonderful view of a vigorous waterfall at one of their favorite picnic spots, Wright had other ideas in mind. Rather than constructing the traditional four-square home that observes nature from without, Wright created a structure that would provide shelter and comfort to the family, but that interacted with nature on a fundamental level. The residence is not so much a house as it is a man-made outgrowth of nature, perfectly in tune with its surroundings, able to take part in the daily occurrences of the river and thoughtful of its natural neighbors. To understand how Fallingwater connects and harmonizes with its natural surroundings, it is important to understand its general characteristics, Wright’s approach to architecture, how the exterior works to blend with the surroundings, how the interior works to extend or replicate nature indoors and how these work together to create a movement and flow to the overall home that provides that same sense of healing nature that could be found prior to the house’s construction. One of the founding principles in Wright’s philosophy was a deep-seated belief in the idea of nature as sacrosanct. “Nature is not only the will of God, it’s also the only part of God we’re ever going to see,” he said during a video recording documenting his accomplishments (Iverson, 1988). According to Wright, who grew up studying the natural forms and positions of his Wisconsin valley, everything in nature took on a form of architecture he wanted to design. “What is architecture? Architecture is the frame of life. It is the nature and substance of whatever is. The universe has a plan. Everything has its plan” (Wright cited in Iverson, 1988). To Wright, the important aspect of architecture was in providing a sense of shelter, which was a feeling as much as a form, leading to his development of the open-style prairie houses with the emphasis on the horizontal. This was part of the teachings he had learned from his mentor, Louis Sullivan. In his work, Wright took Sullivan’s idea of ‘form follows function’ to another level, asserting that ‘form and function are one’ (Curtis, 1996, p. 114). The horizontal, according to Wright, was the angle of domesticity and so provided a sense of stability despite the loss of the box-like rooms that had been prevalent in the Victorian era. http://www.gibson-design.com/resource-wright+.html Through his design, Wright tried to demonstrate that the reality of the building was no longer limited to just the floors, the walls and the roof. Instead, it was important to allow the outside to come in. “The space designed to be lived in is the reality of the building” (Wright cited in Iverson, 1988). This space had to start with consideration of the ground upon which it was to be built. “We start with the ground. In any and every case the character of the site is the beginning of the building that aspires to architecture. All must begin there where they stand … In the stone bonework of the earth, the principles that shaped stone as it lies, or as it rises and remains to be sculpted by winds and tide – there sleep forms enough for all the ages, for all of man” (Wright cited in McCarter, 1997). It was this basic belief in the importance of nature to the final design that lay at the core of many of his designs, especially Fallingwater. “[Wright] saw human life as one of the processes of nature, not as some exceptional form of creation. Within nature people are active adopting nature to suit their wants; they contribute feedback within the natural system. Similarly, he saw architecture as a natural process of human life, in turn nourishing its parent system. Thus, to Wright, architecture, humankind, and nature were joined in a grand dynamic continuity, and continuity within architecture indicated that people were aligning themselves – as he believed they should – with the natural forces of life” (Edgar Kaufmann Jr. cited in DeLong, 1996, p. 118). The house itself is built upon the extreme edge of the streambank at Bear Run in Pennsylvania, with a good portion of the house cantilevered over the waterfall and river to seemingly float in space. http://www.design.cmu.edu/show_news.php?id=102&m=2006 Wright himself described the house as “an extension of the cliff” (Weston, 2004, p. 78). Its basic organization is that of a cruciform interpenetrating a square, however, he deviates from the symmetrical aspect of his earlier Prairie House to provide asymmetrical, spiraling perimeter movement and hidden entrances (McCarter, 1997, p. 207). http://coolboom.net/architecture/the-classics-fallingwater-house/ The house is so fully integrated into its natural surroundings that it is almost indistinguishable from them as one drives up its lonely driveway. “As we are introduced to the character and natural features of the landscape during our winding approach, we are not aware of the house ahead … When the house first comes into view, we are somewhat surprised to see across the stream from us a series of horizontal terraces that float without visible means of support.” (McCarter, 1997, p. 210). Although these terraces are definitely not of natural construction, they nevertheless serve to mimic the natural surroundings, becoming both part of and separate from God’s natural setting. http://www.flickr.com/photos/zaru/1199736866/in/set-72157600077122013/ Fallingwater’s “fame as a masterpiece of architectural design seems strangely at odds with the feature for which it is famous, namely its discretion … the fact that the house not only comes to rest in its environment but also embodies an extension of the foundation upon which it rests” (Harrison, 1992). This is a universally held view of the home, as it is also mentioned by DeLong: “At Fallingwater, he demonstrated how building, roadway, earth and water could be shaped as one integrated landscape that enhanced underlying qualities of place (1996, p. 117). The exterior of the building is such that it tends to melt into its surroundings while also managing to remain separate from them. http://www.peterbeers.net/interests/flw_rt/Pennsylvania/Falling_Water/falling_water.htm “As we move around the house, our vantage point changes dramatically in height, from above the house, to even with it, to below it; the horizontal concrete planes and vertical rock walls constantly change position relative to one another, not allowing us to establish any static image of its exterior form (McCarter, 1997, p. 212). This shifting nature of the totality of the exterior is in concert with the constantly shifting waters and patterns of the stream and waterfall as well as with the shifting, changing seasons in the Pennsylvania woods even as it stands firm and rooted in place like the trees growing up all around it. Neil Levine, in his work, questions the true nature of this site in relation to the final construction: “In reference to the most salient feature of the site, and the one for which the house is named, we ask if it is really ‘falling water,’ as certain impressions would support. Or is it ‘water in suspension,’ like the dew on leaves? Or is it perhaps even ‘rising water,’ like mist in the air? The actual experience of Fallingwater supports all theses readings. . .” (Levine, 1996, p.250). The reason all of these interpretations have equal weight is because of the way in which Wright created this building, constantly allowing tension between all of these motions – down, up and static. The interior of the home equally reflects this symbiosis with nature with the purposeful use of gray flagstones to pave the main living area floors and other material usages that serve to mimic or suggest natural forms. http://coolboom.net/architecture/the-classics-fallingwater-house/ The flagstones are polished and waxed to give them a lustrous sheen that closely parallels the reflecting, shimmering, uneven surface of the water below and the dark gray bedrock of the streambed that can be seen through the shallow water. This smooth floor surface is only broken occasionally, once for the hatch to descend to the actual water below and again to make way for the huge boulder anchored in the stream itself, predating the house and now serving as a hearth for the large fireplace. “Wright had apparently intended to cut the boulder off flat, even with the slate floor, but – much to Wright’s delight – Kaufmann suggested it remain as it was when his family used to picnic upon it before the house was built” (McCarter, 1997, p. 214). The boulder remains as natural as it was found, rising out of the polished flagstones “like the dry top of a boulder peering above the stream waters” (Harrison, 1992). The fireplace itself is not so much a cut from the wall as it is the wall of the house, naturally formed by the same rock that forms the vertical spine of the house and providing a central gathering place for the family and serving as a closing contrast to the openness of the terraces and windows. The room itself is designed to provide the essential elements of a weekend home. The south end is designed for easy conversation and affords spectacular views of the surrounding forest while the northwest corner is given over to the enjoyment of food, complete with a built-in table designed by Wright to work with the structure of the house in much the same way as the house was designed to work with nature. Intimate conversations could be held in a small area just opposite the hearth while the southeast corner housed the library and the hatch steps going down to the stream. Although the impression is that of a square or rectangle, “depending on how you count, it has about a dozen major corners and another dozen minor ones” (Toker, 2003, p. 234). The perception of the square is carried out through the careful treatment of the ceiling combined with the visual effects of the stone support beams. Most of the underlying piers and walls used for cantilevering support are repeated in the floors above to provide a sense of stability and security, much like the trunks of the surrounding trees. These piers, as they traverse through the living room in the form of stone columns, are part of what provide the visitor with the sense that they are standing in a rectangular room despite the many angles and turns that are actually present. Thus, it is not only through his extensive use of natural local material to construct the exterior environment of the Kaufmann house, it is through a complex web of design concerns meshed with human comfort concerns and artistic concerns that Fallingwater emerges as an extension of nature carefully customized for its human creature rather than the modern work of art, with the cold connotations that term has come to imply, that it is. “Fallingwater appears to us to have grown out of the ground and into the light, making present the latent power of the boulder on which it sits above the waterfall – the same boulder which emerges from the rippling ‘water’ of the flagstone living-room floor to provide a place of stability in front of the fireplace” (McCarter, 1997, p. 220). Through its use of local natural material and purposeful mimicking of elements, such as the gray flagstones, Wright provides an abstract impression of the natural beauty of the site while maintaining a necessary stability and sense of permanence. This permanence is offset by the careful balancing act of the entire structure, not only over the stream, but also as each level is carefully balanced and juxtaposed over the other. With its floating steps descending to the water and its large fire reaching into the heavens from the comforting level of the bedrock, the house seems to sit solidly in a balanced center of being. With the solid, shadowy walls of its cavelike interior it is able to provide a deep sense of comfort and refuge even while its large windows and sweeping vistas provide a necessary sense of reaching out and openness. Through it all, the power and sound of the stream at its base continuously reminds one of the elements of motion and continuity, representing and refuting the concept of time and leaving instead the ephemeral sense of the nature of Nature herself. Works Cited Curtis, William J. R.. Modern Architecture Since 1900. London: Phaidon Press, 1996. DeLong, David G. (Ed.). Frank Lloyd Wright: Designs for an American Landscape 1922-1932. Montreal: Harry N. Abrams, 1996. Harrison, Robert P. “Fallingwater.” Forests: The Shadow of Civilization. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1992. Iverson, L.R. “Land-use Changes in Illinois, USA: The Influence of Landscape Attributes on Current and Historical Land Use.” Landscape Ecology. Vol.. 2, N. 1, (1988): 45-61. Levine, Neil. The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. McCarter, Robert. Frank Lloyd Wright. New York: Phaidon Press, 1997. Toker, Franklin. Fallingwater Rising. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. Weston, Richard. Key Buildings of the 20th Century. New York: 2004. Read More