Further Research (Week 09 - Studio Tasks)

Site Context - The waterfall being integrated into the building, being built over the river, rather than away from it. Possibly talk about it's history? Why it was built? Does this link to the structural design of the house? How it was built to stay over the waterfall?

Circulation - Why each room was placed where it was, ccan quikcly talk about the uses of the house, before it being a weekend home from 1937-1963, now it's a museum opened to the public as of 1964

Wright said that he wanted them to live with the waterfalls, to make them a part of everyday life, and not just to look at them every now and then.

Before it was a museum in 1964, it was a family vacation house for the Kaufmanns from 1937-1963.

One of Wright's greatest masterpieces both for its dynamisn and for its integration with the striking natural surroundings. Influenced from Wright's passion for Japanese architecture, it is strongly reflected in the design of Fallingwater, particularly in the importance of interpenetrating exterior and interior spaces and the strong emphasis placed on harmony between man and nature. Tadao Ando states that "Wright learned the most important aspect of architecture, the treatment of space, from Japanese architecture." He found that same sensibility of space, but the additional sounds of nature appealed to him the most. Fallingwater is wellknown for it's connection to the site; how it was built on top of an active waterfall which flows beneath the house.

The fireplace hearth in the living room integrates boulders on the site and upon which the house was built - ledge rock which protrudes up to a foot through the living room floor which was left in place to demonstrably link the outside with the inside. Wright intended hat the ledge be cut flush with the floor, but Kaufmann suggested that it be left as it was. Stone floors are waxed, while the hearth is left plain, alluding to the audience that the dry rocks protruding from a steam.

Integration with the setting extends even to small details. For example, where glass meets stone walls there is no metal frame; rather, the glass and its horizontal dividers were run into a caulked recess in the stonework so that the stone walls appear uninterrupted by glazing.

Analytical Concept - Treatment of Form and Materiality in Space.