Falling Water

Frank Lloyd Wright is one of the most influential and greatest architects in history. His home life was anything but stable as was his career. His early career was successful but not defining. Next, he went through a period of depression and his career greatly suffered because it became hard for him to find work. Finally, Edgar Kaufmann asked Wright to design a weekend house in Bear Run, PA over the waterfall of Bear Run. The family had a favorite picnic spot which became the focal point of the home. Falling Water turned Wright's career around and put him in the spotlight and the best period of his career picked up until his death.

Falling Water was the first success of the new style of architecture created by Frank Lloyd Wright himself; often called Naturalism. He sought to unify architecture and its structures with nature surrounding it and not destroy nature in order to create a structure. Perhaps as a result of the time, he valued preservation and strove to preserve as much as possible. However, he also strove to preserve the feel and style of the area he was working in. He was aware of and not want to take away or damage the mood of a site with his structures. Instead, he wanted to incorporate them and make them part of the site and compliment the area and not take away from it or alter it. His drive for preservation fit in with the time of disillusionment and awareness of the time between wars.

Falling Water is constructed as a fortress and a family oriented home. It represents a fortress because it is secluded and built among the cliffs. Also, it is built out of stone and the entrances are hidden. The cantilevered balconies overlaying each other give the feeling of impenetrability. However, inside the home has been completely designed around the family. The focal point of the living room is a large stone near the hearth. Falling Water is built around this stone; where the Kaufmann family had their picnics with their grandfather who had previously passed away. The ceilings are low and effectively use "the romance of the horizontal." This means that homes built horizontally instead of vertically tend to be more homely, personal and romantic.

Falling Water was designed with awareness of its surroundings and the family that would be living within it. Wright's awareness and new naturalistic style evident in Falling Water was characteristic of the age and continues to marvel us today.