Fallingwater Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Fallingwater - Essay Example In order to prove this thesis I visited Fallingwater and now I want to share my experience and substantiate my point of view. Fallingwater, also known as the Edgar Kaufmann house, is a building on the Bear Run at the address P.O. Box R, Mill Run, Pennsylvania 15464, in southwestern Pennsylvania in the Appalachians. Edgar Kaufmann Sr. was a successful Pittsburgh businessman and an owner of some property in the countryside with a waterfall and some cabins. When the small houses at their camp had been destroyed to the point that something had to be rebuilt, Edgar Jr. persuaded his father to hire the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Fallingwater is famous; from all over the world lots of visitors come each year to its faraway site. Fallingwater has taken pleasure to many people over the years; as an energizing weekend retreat for the Kaufmann himself and his relatives, as a source of pride to Wright and his assistants, and now--cared for by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy--as an remarkable experience for visitors from near and far.... When Wright came to the site he enjoyed the powerful sound of the falls, the vital verdure of the young forest, the dramatic rock ledges and boulders; these were elements to be reconstituted with the tenderly soaring spaces of his structure. But Wright's insight cameto the depths. He realized that people were creatures of nature, thus an architecture which suited nature would conform to what was basic in people. Forinstance, though all of Fallingwater is opened by wide bands of windows, people inside are 'safe' as in a deep cave, secure in the sense of hill behind them.The attention is paid to the outside by constructing low ceilings; no luxury in the hall but, instead, the light textures of the woodland, enframed in a great harmony. The colour of the building reminds the colorings of trees and rocks.'Occasional accents are provided by bright furnishings, like wildflowers or birds outside. The paths within the house, stairs and passages, meander without formality or urgency, and the house hardly has a main entrance; there are many ways in and out'(Fallingwater,2004 The official site of Fallingwater). Communication and privacy are both possible, as are the properties of home and the adventures of the seasons. So the trip was refreshing and I felt relaxed and calm. The active watercourse, immediate surroundings and cantilevered design of the house are considered to be in harmony, in line with Wright's interest in making buildings that were more "natural" and which therefore seemed to be more connected with their surroundings. It is important and significant as it has a large historical and aesthetic value and is an example of Modernist trends in architecture. The house represents the culture of American Modernism, and it was very interesting to dive into the epoch of the first half of 20th century. The building is connected with nature, which surrounds it and its significance is determined by symbolic meaning of eternal connection between human and nature. People who lived there or spent there weekends felt really refreshed, and as, for me, I really felt that spirit of