Fallingwater, An American Masterpiece
The fact that the relationship between men and nature is less than ideal is no news, due to our unsustainable lifestyle that has been damaging the environment for decades. This, however, doesn’t always necessarily have to be true and can be proven wrong by demonstrating that harmony can indeed be found between the two: Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright, a World Heritage Site, is a clear example of this.
Fallingwater, located in Pennsylvania, is a house brought to life by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Commissioned by the Kaufmann family in 1935 as a weekend retreat, it was completed in 1937. The building surely marked a turning point in Wright’s career, transforming him from an almost retired architect to what we would now call a “starchitect”. The house is, in fact, still an absolute architectural masterpiece. Its relationship with the surrounding environment, which is structurally part of it, is what makes it so special.
Photo via Frank LLoyd Wright Foundation
Located in the woods, Wright succeeded in making what could have been just a regular remote vacation house, into one of the purest examples of his beloved “organic architecture”. However, many wonder, what makes the latter so special? The secret is in its name: it is organic, since it directly streams from the living nature surrounding one building. According to the philosophy of the organic architecture movement, a building has to go hand in hand with the natural world around it, creating harmony and integration between the two. The buildings themselves are considered as unified organisms, in a way such that every element is connected and in order.
F.L.Wright wasn’t the first to come up with the theory, but he was the one who coined the name and expressed it to its fullest with Fallingwater.
The architect got himself into the challenge: he had the freedom to pick whatever spot on the piece of land, but he chose one exactly around a fall. Here comes the surprise: the fall was not just to be looked at from a window of the house in a regular and, let me say, a little boring way, but was structurally part of the house being built on top of it. In this way, the natural element is not relegated to pure “decoration”, but is included in the life of the house – it cannot be seen, but constantly heard through the noise of its water and its movements. Our beloved architect didn’t for sure stop here, he stepped everything up a notch by nestling the three-story house into the rock found around the waterfall. Looking at it, the building really gives the feeling of naturally growing from the stones.
Photo via Building Design and Construction network
If the exteriors of Fallingwater are dramatic, we can for sure say the same for the interiors. Wright took care of all the design, from the division of spaces to the exquisite furniture. The main characteristic is, again, the relationship with the wood around the house and exactly for this reason windows play an important role: most of the surface of the walls consists of glass, so that people enjoying time indoors can always get a glimpse of the surrounding nature. Moreover, the styling was deeply influenced by Japanese architecture, as well as by the usual interconnection between the outside and the inside: the heart of the living room, the fireplace, is built around a boulder that was left completely intact, while the floors are made out of the natural local stone.
The colors also play a big role: Wright only used neutral colours which come from the materials he used. These were directly extracted from a quarry on the piece of land. Even the concrete shares the same ochre shade of the rock, overall making the structure and the stones around the fall one whole thing. The architect, however, decided to add a pop of color: some bright red can be spotted, standing out from the neutrality of the rest. This is a gem added by Wright, and his signature too. We’re talking about his famous Cherokee red that he uses for the steel, and of which many versions exist.
Photo via Anthony Poon