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Colin C. Njemanze. Fallingwater. Fallingwater. Artist Biography.
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Colin C. Njemanze Fallingwater
Artist Biography • Considered the most influential architect of his time, Frank Lloyd Wright designed about 1,000 structures, some 400 of which were built. He described his "organic architecture" as one that "proceeds, persists, creates, according to the nature of man and his circumstances as they both change." As a pioneer whose ideas were well ahead of his time, Wright had to fight for acceptance of every new design. The famous American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, was the son of William C. Wright and Anna Lloyd Jones in the United States in the small rural community of Richland Center, Wisconsin on June 8, 1867. His early influences were his clergyman father's playing of Bach and Beethoven and his mother's gift of geometric blocks. He entered the University of Wisconsin at 15 as a special student, studying engineering because the school had no course in architecture. Wright left Madison in 1887 to work as a draftsman in Chicago.
Artist Biography • In order to study architecture and learn the traditional, classical language, Wright, the country boy, had to go to Chicago. Wright worked for several architectural offices until he finally found a job with the most cultured architect of the Mid-West, Louis Sullivan, soon becoming Sullivan's chief assistant. That same year, in 1887, Wright carried out his first design, in a wooden version of the eclectic, Queen Anne Style, the Hillside Home School. His Charnley House of 1891 is a perfect amalgamation of these sources into his own version of Free Style Classicism.
Visual Analysis • Preliminary plans were approved on October 15, 1935, after which Wright made a further visit to the site and provided a cost estimate for the job. In December 1935 an old rock quarry was reopened to the west of the site to provide the stones needed for the house’s walls. Wright only made periodic visits during construction, instead assigning his apprentice Robert Mosher as his permanent on-site representative.The final working drawings were issued by Wright in March 1936 with work beginning on the bridge and main house in April 1936. • The strong horizontal and vertical lines are a distinctive feature of Fallingwater • The construction was plagued by conflicts between Wright and the construction contractor
Visual Analysis • For the cantilevered floors Wright and his team used upside down T-shaped beams integrated into a monolithic concrete slab which both formed the ceiling of the space below and provided resistance against compression. It was at Kaufmann’s request that his consulting engineers redrew Wright’s reinforcing drawings and doubled the amount of steel specified by Wright. This additional steel not only added weight to the slab but was set so close together that the concrete often could not properly fill in between the steel, which weakened the slab.As a result, the cantilever developed a noticeable sag. Upon learning of this, Wright temporarily replaced Mosher with Edgar Tafel. • In October 1937 the main house was completed.
Historical and Contextual Analysis • Wright designed Fallingwater in 1935. The design of the home promotes a harmony between man and nature, so that the buildings, walls and structures within the home are extensions of the exterior world. • Fallingwater was designed for the Edgar J. Kaufmann family of Pittsburgh, the founders of a prominent department store in the city called Kaufmann's. Construction on the project began in 1936 and was completed in 1939. In designing the house, Wright mimicked the natural pattern of rock ledges over the waterfall and cantilevered the house over the falls in a series of concrete ledges, anchored to masonry walls made of the same sandstone as the rock ledges. This view of the home is perhaps the most famous of all.
Historical and Contextual Analysis • The house hovers right over the rushing mountain stream in perfect harmony. The house extends 30 feet in height above the rock ledges, although strong horizontal lines and low ceilings help maintain an overall sheltering feeling. The outdoor ledges of the home are complete with terraces that overlook the streams and the wilderness surrounding the home. In fact, there is nearly as much floor space taken up by outdoor terraces as there is in the indoor rooms. Inside the home, spaces drift into an array of wooden furnishings, constructed as extensions of the home, rather than furniture place inside a home. The low ceilings curve to nature, not upward to a grandeur interior. Light from the outdoors is designed to naturally illuminate the home. • When the construction of the home was completed in 1939, the Kaufmann family used the home for vacations in all seasons. Also in the home are objects of artistic value and other accouterments left by the Kaufmann family.
Significance • The natural beauty of the surrounding area. • Ability to embrace the natural world physically and spiritually • People being engaged actively with the environment
