...ure of the house is very different from that of a normal house. A local rock outcropping and stream inspired falling Water design. Wright decided he wanted to use a naturalistic approach to his design of the building. The surrounding nature was not disturbed in the construction of Falling Water, and the stream the house is placed on was not altered in any way. (The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy/ www.savewright.org )
The house may appear to consist of massive stone piers anchoring reinforced concrete projections, but this is misleadingly simple. Wright established a core, a sturdy stonewalled enclosure containing a kitchen and one bedroom above another, while also carrying flues, pipes, and wiring up to the various floors. Other stonewalls, however, are divided into discontinuous segments - the concrete slabs continue intact right through the stonework. As the slabs extend outward, the pull on one side, in many places, counteracts the pull on the other. In addition, the main house is massed high at the back, and the accumulated weight counters the great projection over the stream. Thus Falling water utilizes and combines three kinds of cantilevering: extension from an anchorage (as in the iron arm suspending a kettle over the living room fire grate); counterbalancing (like simple scales); and loaded extension that permits limited anchorage. Another unobvious aspect of the construction is that each floor level has its own support system. The main level is carried on four stub walls rising at the edge of the streambed; the slab extends far beyond them. The next level is supported from a central square of reinforced concrete beams, with corners resting on stone masses; from this square the second slab or tray, is cantilevered. The narrow top level is set along the rear edge of the house, bearing down on the whole.
Construction began in 1936, and ended with the completion of the guesthouse in 1939. The Kaufmann family used Falling water in all seasons as a weekend or vacation home until the 1950's, when their son inherited it. Edgar Kaufmann, jr., by then a Curator at New York's Museum of Modern Art, continued to use Falling water until he entrusted it to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in 1963. Building Falling water was a complicated and detailed operation, yet the resulting house seems to belong quietly in its setting. It fits into the hillside and exte...