Fallingwater: A midcentury-modern dream
How can a home designed in the 1930s continue to make powerful impact across many creative fields and be considered relatable to its enthusiasts 90-years later?
During his 70-year career as an architect, Frank Lloyd Wright has designed over 1,000 buildings and has been known as one of the greatest American architects. After dropping out of University of Wisconsin at Madison in the late 1880s, Wright moved to Chicago to pursue his passion for architecture and design without any training in the field, adamantly believing that him and the rest of the midwestern architectural scene were going to be respected in the near future. These young architects from Chicago rejuvenated the “Prairie school” of architecture with their progressive approach in designing modern homes for families. Even in small spaces, Wright and other Prairie school architects economically attained both comfort and functionality in their design by using naturally-found materials and emphasizing the home’s width over its height.
Located inside the Allegheny mountains near Pittsburgh, Fallingwater is a home built by Wright in 1935 for Liliane and Edgar Kaufmann, who owned a successful department store in Downtown Pittsburgh. This house, designed as a summer vacation home for a family of three, sits on top of a creek that flows into a long series of waterfalls that fall right underneath the house. As if its idyllic location in the mountains isn’t enough to satisfy its viewers, Fallingwater’s shape as a house harmonizes with the nature with both elegance and simplicity. Wide sandstones and limestones are not only all around the house in the creek and the mountains, but are also used as materials for the house’s construction. Other materials used, such as reinforced concrete and steel, also contribute to the tan, beige exterior color of Fallingwater, which warmly reflects the sunlight shining in between the tall trees that surround this beautiful home.
Along with its color, Fallingwater’s vertical and horizontal structures also mimic the qualities of its surrounding nature. The vertical pillars that support the structure of the house are made from sandstones and limestones that can be found all around the house. The use of these organically-found materials depict Wright’s belief that a piece of architecture should harmonize with its surrounding environment as much as possible; there are even four large natural rock boulders inside the house that makes its residents feel as if they are outdoors in the nature even inside. Complimenting the vertical stone structures of Fallingwater, the layers of wide and horizontal structures of the house show similarities with the flat rock beds that lay underneath the home. Wright uses one large structure for each of the three floors that make up the main part of the house to accentuate the house’s horizontal qualities, which gives the house its contemporary and timeless undertone. The balconies of each floor stick out from the core of the house, and these shapes somewhat mimic how water flows over the rocks in the waterfalls under the house. As a result, these horizontal forms make the qualities of its surrounding nature much more dramatic. Each of the three floors in the main house are layered on top of each other in a democratic way that allows sunlight to shine onto each floor. This asymmetric layout of floors also lets its residents enjoy different views of its surroundings from every floor. Despite its horizontal emphasis, Fallingwater still feels grand and tall as these floors and the vertical rock pillars come together to present unique experiences for its residents from every angle of the house.
My favorite part of Fallingwater is the staircase that starts from the main living area and goes down to the river that the house sits on top of. Once the wide door that separates the staircase from the living area is opened, the river breathes its cool air into the home, acting as a natural air conditioning system for the house. Although the staircase uses the same materials that are used for the main part of the house, its see-through qualities make this part of the house completely different from other the main part of the house. Due to its hollow and thin shape, the staircase emphasizes the river and the nature more than any other parts of the house. This lowest point of the house feels almost playful and youthful, as I could effortless imagine the Kaufmann family coming down from its living area to feel the cold water flowing in between their toes on a hot summer day when standing above the staircase. When compared to a typical basement that tends to be enclosed by four walls, the lowest part of this home is arguably the most open part of the house and plays a very important role for the house’s atmosphere. Without this staircase, Fallingwater definitely would not have been as liberating and as integrated into its nature, which is what makes this midcentury-modern home both functional and poetic.
