A.1.

SCULPTURE is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials - typically stone - or marble, metal, glass, or wood. Softer ("plastic") materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals.

The term has been extended to works including sound, text and light.

Found objects may be presented as sculptures. Materials may be worked by removal such as carving; or they may be assembled such as by welding , hardened such as by firing, or molded or cast. Surface decoration such as paint may be applied.[1] Sculpture has been described as one of the plastic arts because it can involve the use of materials that can be moulded or modulated.

Sculpture is an important form of public art. A collection of sculpture in a garden setting may be referred to as a sculpture garden.

A RELIEF is a sculptured artwork where a carved or modelled form is raised (or in the case of a sunken relief, lowered) from a plane from which the main elements of the composition project (or sink). Raising or lowering the plane is achieved by removing material not relevant to the image. In the case of sunken relief, the material composing the central image is carved out.

Reliefs are common throughout the world, for example on the walls of monumental buildings. The frieze in the classical Corinthian order is often enriched with bas-relief (low relief). Alto-relievo (high relief) can be seen in the pediments of classical temples such as the Parthenon. Several panels or sections of relief together may represent a sequence of scenes.

FREE-STANDING sculpture is surrounded on all sides, except the base, by space. It is also known as sculpture "in the round", and is meant to be viewed from any angle.

KINETIC sculptures are examples of kinetic art in the form of sculpture or three dimensions. In common with other types of kinetic art, kinetic sculptures have parts that move or that are in motion. Sound sculpture can also, in some cases, be considered kinetic sculpture. The motion of the work can be provided in many ways: mechanically through electricity, steam or clockwork; by utilizing natural phenomena such as wind or wave power; or by relying on the spectator to provide the motion, by doing something such as cranking a handle.

Bicycle Wheel (1913) by Marcel Duchamp, is said to be the first kinetic sculpture.[2] Besides being an example of kinetic art it is also an example of a readymade, a type of art of which Marcel Duchamp made a number of varieties throughout his life. In Moscow in 1920, kinetic art was recorded by the sculptors Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner in their Realist Manifesto, issued as part of a manifesto of constructivism.

László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), a member of the Bauhaus, and influenced by constructivism can be regarded as one of the fathers of Lumino kinetic art. Light sculpture and moving sculpture are the components of his Light-Space Modulator (1922–30), One of the first Light art pieces which also combines kinetic art. [3] [4]

The 1950s and 1960s are seen as a golden age of kinetic sculpture, during which time Alexander Calder and George Rickey pioneered kinetic sculpture. Other leading exponents include Yaacov Agam, Fletcher Benton, Eduard Bersudsky, Marcel Duchamp, Arthur Ganson, Starr Kempf, Jerome Kirk, Len Lye, Ronald Mallory, Jean Tinguely, and the Zero group (initiated by Otto Piene and Heinz Mack).

Jean Tinguely's kinetic junk sculpture Homage to New York in 1960 destroyed itself in the Museum of Modern Art's outdoor sculpture garden. Metamechanics has a specific meaning in relation to art history, as a description of the kinetic sculpture machines of Jean Tinguely. It is also applied to, and may have its origins in, earlier work of the Dada art movement.

Some kinetic sculptures are wind-powered as are those of Theo Jansen (including beach 'animals')[5], and others are motor driven as are those of Sal Maccarone. The kinetic aspect of the Maccarone sculptures are contained within a fine wood cabinet which itself is stationary. These sculptures turn themselves on and off at pre-determined intervals sometimes catching viewers by surprise. Video.[6]

A mobile is a type of kinetic sculpture constructed to take advantage of the principle of equilibrium. It consists of a number of rods, from which weighted objects or further rods hang. The objects hanging from the rods balance each other, so that the rods remain more or less horizontal. Each rod hangs from only one string, which gives it freedom to rotate about the string. A popular creator of mobile sculptures was Alexander Calder.

2. Examples

a.) Sculpture

Title: Moses

Artist: Michelangelo Buonarroti

Year: ca. between 1513 and 1515

Medium: marble

Dimensions: 235 cm (92.52 in)

Current location: San Pietro in Vincoli Rome

Title: The Bronco Buster

Artist: Frederic Remington

Medium: bronze sculpture

Year: 1909

Dimensions: 31-1/8" x 13" x 17-1/2"

b.) Relief

Title: Amor Caritas

Artist: Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Medium: Gilded-Bronze Relief

Year: 1880-98

Title: Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment Memorial

Artist: Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Medium: Patinated Plaster

Year: 1897-1900

c.) Free-Standing

Title: Not A Prayer In The South

Artist: Deborah Burge

Year: 2000

Title: Female Form

Artist: Jake Shaw

Medium: Marble

d.) Kinetics

Title: "The Twister Star Huge"

Artist: Lyman Whitaker

A type of Whirligig, Kinetic art, Public Library, O'Fallon, Illinois

Year: 2006

Title: "Wings to the Heavens"

Artist: David Ascalon with designer Brad Ascalon and assistance by Eric Ascalon.

Year: 2008

Medium Used: Fabricated and brazed aluminum

Temple Israel, Memphis, Tennessee, Kinetic Mobile

3.) Common Media used by Sculptors

The materials used in sculpture are diverse, changing throughout history. Sculptors have generally sought to produce works of art that are as permanent as possible, working in durable and frequently expensive materials such as bronze and stone: marble, limestone, porphyry, and granite. More rarely, precious materials such as gold, silver, jade, and ivory were used for chryselephantine works. More common and less expensive materials were used for sculpture for wider consumption, including glass, hardwoods (such as oak, box/boxwood, and lime/linden); terracotta and other ceramics, and cast metals such as pewter and zinc (spelter).

Sculptures are often painted, but commonly lose their paint to time, or restorers. Many different painting techniques have been used in making sculpture, including tempera, [oil painting], gilding, house paint, aerosol, enamel and sandblasting.

Many sculptors seek new ways and materials to make art. Jim Gary used stained glass and automobile parts, tools, machine parts, and hardware. One of Pablo Picasso's most famous sculptures included bicycle parts. Alexander Calder and other modernists made spectacular use of painted steel. Since the 1960s, acrylics and other plastics have been used as well. Andy Goldsworthy makes his unusually ephemeral sculptures from almost entirely natural materials in natural settings. Some sculpture, such as ice sculpture, sand sculpture, and gas sculpture, is deliberately short-lived.

Sculptors often build small preliminary works called maquettes of ephemeral materials such as plaster of Paris, wax, clay, or plasticine, as Alfred Gilbert did for 'Eros' at Piccadilly Circus, London. In Retroarchaeology, these materials are generally the end product.

Sculptors sometimes use found objects.

4.) Media used by Painters

Different types of paint are usually identified by the medium that the pigment is suspended or embedded in, which determines the general working characteristics of the paint, such as viscosity, miscibility, solubility, drying time, etc.

Oil, Pastel, Acrylic, Watercolor, Ink, Hot wax, Fresco, Gouache, Enamel, Spray paint, Tempera, Water miscible oil paint

Title: Deutsch: Der Maler Artist: Honoré Daumier Medium: Oil on wood

Year: Deutsch: 2. Drittel 19. Jh.

English: 2nd third of 19th century

Dimensions: 26 × 34 cm (10.24 × 13.39 in)

Current location: Musée des Beaux Arts Reims

Title: Deutsch: Fresken in der Kirche von Mileseva, Szene: Höllenfahrt Christi

English: Fresco in the monastery church of Mileseva, Scene: Resurrection of Christ

Artist: Meister von Mileseva Medium: Fresco Year: Deutsch: um 1235 English: c. 1235

Current location: Deutsch: Kirche von MilesevaEnglish: Church at MilesevaDeutsch: Milesev (Jugoslawien)English: Milesev (Yugoslavia)

B.

1.) ARCHITECTURE (Latin architectura, from the Greek ἀ ρχιτέκτων – arkhitekton, from ἀ ρχι- "chief" and τέκτων "builder, carpenter, mason") can mean:

The art and science of designing and erecting buildings and other physical structures.

The practice of an architect, where architecture means to offer or render professional services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings, that have as their principal purpose human occupancy or use.[1]

A general term to describe buildings and other structures.

A style and method of design and construction of buildings and other physical structures.

A wider definition may comprise all design activity, from the macro-level (urban design, landscape architecture) to the micro-level (construction details and furniture). Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and constructing form, space and ambience that reflect functional, technical, social, and aesthetic considerations. It requires the creative manipulation and coordination of material, technology, light and shadow. Architecture also encompasses the pragmatic aspects of realizing buildings and structures, including scheduling, cost estimating and construction administration. As documentation produced by architects, typically drawings, plans and technical specifications, architecture defines the structure and/or behavior of a building or any other kind of system that is to be or has been constructed.

Architectural works are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art. Historical civilizations are often identified with their surviving architectural achievements.

Architecture sometimes refers to the activity of designing any kind of system and the term is common in the information technology world.

THIN-SHELL STRUCTURES are light weight constructions using shell elements. These elements are typically curved and are assembled to large structures. Typical applications are fuselages of aeroplanes, boat hulls and roof structures in some buildings.

A thin shell is defined as a shell with a thickness which is small compared to its other dimensions and in which deformations are not large compared to thickness. A primary difference between a shell structure and a plate structure is that, in the unstressed state, the shell structure has curvature as opposed to plates structures which are flat. Membrane action in a shell is primarily caused by in-plane forces (plane stress), though there may be secondary forces resulting from flexural deformations. Where a flat plate acts similar to a beam with bending and shear stresses, shells are analogous to a cable which resists loads through tensile stresses. Though the ideal thin shell must be capable of developing both tension and compression.

SKELETON-AND-SKIN skeleton is the core such as the materials that set the foundation and skin is like the walls and such, it's the outer part that covers the skeleton

Almost everything constructed in nature, and constructed by us, is built on the skeleton and skin principal: a generally internal, supportive frame surrounded by an outer skin or layer.

2.) Two Factors to Consider when Designing a Structure

Weight

Tensile strength is a basic indicator of relative strength. It is fundamental for architectural fabrics that function primarily in tension.

3.) Kinds of Architecture Systems

3.1) Post and lintel (or Post and beam) is a simple architrave where a horizontal member (the lintel—or header) is supported by two vertical posts at either end. This form is commonly used to support the weight of the structure located above the openings in a bearing wall created by windows and doors.

In classical architecture, a colonnade denotes a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building.

The Pantheon

Artist: commissioned by Marcus Agrippa and rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian

Year Built: 126 AD

Location: Regione IX Circus Flaminius

3.2) Round Arch & Vault

An arch is a structure that spans a space while supporting weight (e.g. a doorway in a stone wall). Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.

The semicircular arch/round arch was followed in Europe by the pointed Gothic arch or ogive whose centreline more closely followed the forces of compression and which was therefore stronger. The semicircular arch can be flattened to make an elliptical arch as in the Ponte Santa Trinita.

A Vault (French. voûte, Italian. volta,) is an architectural term for an arched form used to provide a space with a ceiling or roof.[1] The parts of a vault exert lateral thrust that require a counter resistance. When vaults are built underground, the ground gives all the resistance required. However, when the vault is built above ground, various replacements are employed to supply the needed resistance. An example are the thicker walls used in the case of barrel or continuous vaults. Buttresses are used to supply resistance when intersecting vaults are employed.

The simplest kind of vault is the barrel vault (also called a wagon or tunnel vault) which is generally semicircular in shape. The barrel vault is a continuous arch, the length being greater than its diameter. As in building an arch, a temporary support is needed while rings of voussoirs are constructed and the rings placed in position. Until the topmost voussoir, the keystone, is positioned the vault is not self-supporting. Where timber is easily obtained, this temporary support is provided by centering consisting of a framed truss with a semicircular or segmental head, which supports the voussoirs until the ring of the whole arch is completed. With a barrel vault, the centering can then be shifted on to support the next rings.

3.3) Pointed Arch & Vault

3.4) Dome

A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory.

Corbel domes and true domes have been found in the ancient Middle East in modest buildings and tombs. The construction of the first technically advanced true domes in Europe began in the Roman Architectural Revolution,[1] when they were frequently used by the Romans to shape large interior spaces of temples and public buildings, such as the Pantheon. This tradition continued unabated after the adoption of Christianity in the Byzantine (East Roman) religious and secular architecture, culminating in the revolutionary pendentive dome of the 6th century church Hagia Sophia. Squinches, the technique of making a transition from a square shaped room to a circular dome, was most likely invented by the ancient Persians. The Sassanid Empire initiated the construction of the first large-scale domes in Persia, with such royal buildings as the Palace of Ardashir, Sarvestan and Ghal'eh Dokhtar. With the Muslim conquest of the Sassanid Empire, the Persian architectural style became a major influence on Muslim societies. Indeed the use of domes as a feature of Islamic architecture has got its roots from Persia (see gonbad, gongbei).

An original tradition of using multiple domes was developed in the church architecture in Russia, which had adopted Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium. Russian domes are often gilded or brightly painted, and typically have a carcass and an outer shell made of wood or metal. The onion dome became another distinctive feature in the Russian architecture, often in combination with the tented roof.

Domes in Western Europe became popular again during the Renaissance period, reaching a zenith in popularity during the early 18th century Baroque period. Reminiscent of the Roman senate, during the 19th century they became a feature of grand civic architecture. As a domestic feature the dome is less common, tending only to be a feature of the grandest houses and palaces during the Baroque period.

Construction of domes in the Muslim world reached its peak during the 16th – 18th centuries, when the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires, ruling an area of the World compromising North Africa, the Middle East and South- and Central Asia, applied lofty domes to their religious buildings to create a sense of heavenly transcendence. The Sultan Ahmed Mosque, the Shah Mosque and the Badshahi Mosque are primary examples of this style of architecture.

Many domes, particularly those from the Renaissance and Baroque periods of architecture, are crowned by a lantern or cupola, a Medieval innovation which not only serves to admit light and vent air, but gives an extra dimension to the decorated interior of the dome.

An Oculus or circular window is a feature of Classical architecture since the 16th century. They are often denoted by their French name, oeil de boeuf, or "bull's-eye". Such circular or oval windows express the presence of a mezzanine on a building's façade without competing for attention with the major fenestration. Circular windows set in dormers have been a feature of French Classical architecture since the beginning of the seventeenth century. For structural reasons, they are also found as the portholes of ships.

Oculus (plural oculi) is the Latin word for eye,[1] and the word remains in use in certain contexts, as the name of the round opening in the top of the dome of the Pantheon in Rome,[2] and in reference to other round windows, openings, and skylights.

Drums, also called tholobates or tambours, are cylindrical or polygonal walls supporting a dome which may contain windows.

A pendentive is a constructive device permitting the placing of a circular dome over a square room or an elliptical dome over a rectangular room. The pendentives, which are triangular segments of a sphere, taper to points at the bottom and spread at the top to establish the continuous circular or elliptical base needed for the dome. In masonry the pendentives thus receive the weight of the dome, concentrating it at the four corners where it can be received by the piers beneath.

Prior to the pendentive's development, the device of corbelling or the use of the squinch in the corners of a room had been employed. Pendentives were commonly used in Orthodox, Renaissance, and Baroque churches, with a drum with windows often inserted between the pendentives and the dome. The first experimentation with pendentives were made in Roman dome construction beginning in the 2nd–3rd century AD, while full development of the form was achieved in the 6th century Eastern Roman Hagia Sophia at Constantinople. The diameter of its central dome remained unsurpassed anywhere in the world until the Renaissance Florence Cathedral, itself not a pendentive dome.

3.5) Frame Construction (cast-iron, balloon frame, steel frame)

Cast iron usually refers to grey iron, but also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys, which solidify with a eutectic.

Cast iron columns enabled architects to build tall buildings without the enormously thick walls required to construct masonry buildings of any height. Such flexibility allowed tall buildings to have large windows. In urban centres like SoHo Cast Iron Historic District in New York City, manufacturing buildings and early department stores were built with cast iron columns to allow daylight to enter. Slender cast iron columns could also support the weight that would otherwise require thick masonry columns or piers, opening up floor spaces in factories, and sight lines in churches and auditoriums. The historic Iron Building in Watervliet, New York, is a cast iron building.

Cast iron was also widely used for frame and other fixed parts of machinery, including spinning and later weaving machines in textile mills.

Balloon framing is a method of wood construction—also known as "Chicago construction" in the 19th century—used primarily in Scandinavia, Canada and the United States (up until the mid-1950s). It utilizes long continuous framing members (studs) that run from sill plate to eave line with intermediate floor structures nailed to them,[9] with the heights of window sills, headers and next floor height marked out on the studs with a storey pole. Once popular when long lumber was plentiful, balloon framing has been largely replaced by platform framing.

Steel frame usually refers to a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The development of this technique made the construction of the skyscraper possible.

3.6) Truss

A truss is a structure comprising one or more triangular units constructed with straight members whose ends are connected at joints referred to as nodes. External forces and reactions to those forces are considered to act only at the nodes and result in forces in the members which are either tensile or compressive forces. Moments (torques) are explicitly excluded because, and only because, all the joints in a truss are treated as revolutes.

A planar truss is one where all the members and nodes lie within a two dimensional plane, while a space truss has members and nodes extending into three dimensions.

3.7) Cantilever

A cantilever is a beam supported on only one end. The beam carries the load to the support where it is resisted by moment and shear stress.[1] Cantilever construction allows for overhanging structures without external bracing. Cantilevers can also be constructed with trusses or slabs.

This is in contrast to a simply supported beam such as those found in a post and lintel system. A simply supported beam is supported at both ends with loads applied between the supports.

4.) Fallingwater

Location: Mill Run, Pennsylvania

Nearest city: Pittsburgh

Coordinates:

39°54′23″N 79°27′54″W / 39.90639°N

79.465°W Coordinates : 39°54′23″N 79°27′54″W / 39.90639°N 79.465°W

Built: 1936 - 1939

Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright

Architectural style(s): Organic architecture

Visitation: about 135,000 ()

Governing body:Western Pennsylvania Conservancy

Added to NRHP: July 23, 1974

Designated NHL: May 23, 1966[2]

Fallingwater or Kaufmann Residence is a house designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. The home was built partly over a waterfall on Bear Run in the Mill Run section of Stewart Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, in the Laurel Highlands of the Allegheny Mountains.

Hailed by Time shortly after its completion as Wright's "most beautiful job",[3] it is also listed among Smithsonian's Life List of 28 places "to visit before you die."[4] It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.[2] In 1991, members of the American Institute of Architects named the house the "best all-time work of American architecture" and in 2007, it was ranked twenty-ninth on the list of America's Favorite Architecture according to the AIA.

History

Edgar Kaufmann Sr. was a successful Pittsburgh businessman and president of Kaufmann's Department Store. His son, Edgar Kaufmann, jr., studied architecture briefly under Wright.

Edgar Sr. had been prevailed upon by his son and Wright to itemize the cost of Wright's utopian model city. When completed, it was displayed at Kaufmann’s Department Store and Wright was a guest in the Kaufmann home, “La Tourelle”, a French Norman estate designed by celebrated Pittsburgh architect Benno Janssen (1874–1964) in the stylish Fox Chapel suburb in 1923 for Edgar J. Kaufmann.

Fallingwater with falls

The Kaufmanns and Wright were enjoying refreshments at La Tourelle when Wright, who never missed an opportunity to charm a potential client, said to Edgar Jr. in tones that the elder Kaufmanns were intended to overhear, “Edgar, this house is not worthy of your parents...” The remark spurred the Kaufmanns' interest in something worthier. Fallingwater would become the end result.

The Kaufmanns owned some property outside Pittsburgh with a waterfall and some cabins they used as a rural retreat. When the cabins there deteriorated to the point that something had to be rebuilt, Mr. Kaufmann contacted Wright.

In November 1934, Wright visited Bear Run and asked for a survey of the area around the waterfall. One was prepared by Fayette Engineering Company of Uniontown, Pennsylvania including all the site's boulders, trees and topography, and forwarded to Wright in March 1935. It took nine months for his ideas to crystallize into a design, quickly sketched up in time for a visit by Kaufmann to Taliesin in September 1935.[5][6] It was then that Kaufmann first became aware that Wright intended to site the home above the falls,[7] rather than below them to afford a view of the cascades as he had expected.[8]

[edit] Design and construction

The structural design for Fallingwater was undertaken by Wright in association with staff engineers Mendel Glickman and William Wesley Peters, who had been responsible for the columns featured in Wright’s revolutionary design for the Johnson Wax Headquarters.

Preliminary plans were issued to Kaufmann for approval on October 15, 1935,[9] 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.[9] 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, Kaufmann, and the construction contractor. Uncomfortable with what he perceived as Wright's insufficient experience using reinforced concrete Kaufmann had the architect's daring cantilever design reviewed by a firm of consulting engineers. Upon receiving their report Wright took offense and immediately requested Kaufmann to return his drawings and indicated he was withdrawing from the project. Kaufmann relented to Wright's gambit and the engineer’s report was subsequently buried within a stone wall of the house.[9]

After a visit to the site in June 1936, Wright rejected the stone masonry for the bridge, which had to be rebuilt.[citation needed]

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. The contractor, Walter Hall, also an engineer, produced independent computations and argued for increasing the reinforcing steel in the first floor’s slab. Wright rebuffed the contractor. While some sources state that it was the contractor who quietly doubled the amount of reinforcement,[10] according to others,[9] 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.[citation needed] In addition, the contractor did not build in a slight upward incline in the formwork for the cantilever to compensate for the settling and deflection of the cantilever once the concrete formwork was removed. As a result, the cantilever developed a noticeable sag. Upon learning of the steel addition without his approval Wright recalled Mosher.[11]

With Kaufmann’s approval, the consulting engineers arranged for the contractor to install a supporting wall under the main supporting beam for the west terrace. When Wright discovered it on a site visit he had Mosher discreetly remove the top course of stones. When Kaufmann later confessed to what had been done, Wright showed him what Mosher had done and pointed out that the cantilever had held up for the past month under test loads without the wall’s support.[12]

In October 1937, the main house was completed.

Cost

The home and guest house cost a total of $155,000,[5][13] broken down as follows: house $75,000, finishing and furnishing $22,000, guest house, garage and servants' quarters $50,000, architect's fee $8,000.

According to the westegg.com inflation calculator, the total project price of $155,000.00 is the equivalent of approximately $2.4 million in 2009. A more accurate reflection of the relative cost of the project in its time is that the cost of restoration alone in 2002 was reported at $11.4 million.

Use of the house

Fallingwater was the family's weekend home from 1937 to 1963. In 1963, Kaufmann, Jr. donated the property to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. In 1964, it was opened to the public as a museum. Nearly six million people have visited the house since (as of January 2008). It currently hosts more than 120,000 visitors each year.[13]

Style

Interior of Fallingwater depicting a sitting area with furnishings designed by Wright

Fallingwater stands as one of Wright's greatest masterpieces both for its dynamism and for its integration with the striking natural surroundings. Wright's passion for Japanese architecture was 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 once stated: "I think Wright learned the most important aspect of architecture, the treatment of space, from Japanese architecture. When I visited Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, I found that same sensibility of space. But there was the additional sounds of nature that appealed to me."[14]

The extent of Wright's genius in integrating every detail of his design can only be hinted at in photographs. This organically designed private residence was intended to be a nature retreat for its owners. The house is well-known for its connection to the site; it is built on top of an active waterfall which flows beneath the house. The fireplace hearth in the living room integrates boulders found on the site and upon which the house was built — ledge rock which protrudes up to a foot through the living room floor was left in place to demonstrably link the outside with the inside. Wright had initially intended that the ledge be cut flush with the floor, but this had been one of the Kaufmann family's favorite sunning spots, so Mr. Kaufmann suggested that it be left as it was.[citation needed] The stone floors are waxed, while the hearth is left plain, giving the impression of dry rocks protruding from a stream.

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. There are stairways leading directly down to the stream, below the house, and in a connecting space which transitions from the main house to the guest and servant level, a natural spring drips water inside, which is then channeled back out. Bedrooms are small, some with low ceilings to encourage people outward toward the open social areas, decks, and outdoors.

Driveway leading to the entrance of Fallingwater

Bear Run and the sound of its water permeating the house, the home's immediate surroundings, and locally quarried stone walls and cantilevered terraces resembling the nearby rock formations are meant to be in harmony. The design incorporates broad expanses of windows and balconies which reach out into their surroundings. A glass-encased interior staircase leads down from the living room and allows direct access to the rushing stream below. In conformance with Wright's views the main entry door is away from the falls.

On the hillside above the main house stands a three-bay carport, servants' quarters, and a guest bedroom. These attached outbuildings were built two years later using the same quality of materials and attention to detail as the main house. The guest quarters feature a spring-fed swimming pool which overflows to the river below. After Fallingwater was deeded to the public, the carport was enclosed at the direction of Kaufmann, Jr., to be used by museum visitors to view a presentation at the end of their guided tours on the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (to which the home was entrusted). Kaufmann, Jr. designed its interior himself, to specifications found in other Fallingwater interiors by Wright.

Repair work

The cantilevers at Fallingwater

Fallingwater's structural system includes a series of very bold reinforced concrete cantilevered balconies; however, the house had problems from the beginning. Pronounced deflection of the concrete cantilevers was noticed as soon as formwork was removed at the construction stage.[15]

The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy conducted an intensive program to preserve and restore Fallingwater. From 1988, a New York City-based architecture and engineering firm was responsible for the materials conservation of Fallingwater. During this time the firm reviewed original construction documents and subsequent repair reports; evaluated conditions and probes; analyzed select materials; designed the re-roofing and re-waterproofing of roofs and terraces; specified the restoration for original steel casement windows and doors; reconstructed failed concrete reconstructions; restored the masonry; analyzed interior paint finishes; specified interior paint removal methods and re-painting; designed repair methods for concrete and stucco; and developed a new coating system for the concrete.

Given the humid environment directly over running water, mold had proven a problem. The elder Kaufmann called Fallingwater "a seven-bucket building" for its leaks, and nicknamed it "Rising Mildew".[16] Condensation under roofing membranes was also an issue, due to the lack of a thermal break.[17] However, with the completion of re-roofing and re-waterproofing, the building is comparatively leak-free for the first time in its history.

Interior

 

The Living Area

 

 

 

fireplace

 

the warming sphere(for water or wine)

 

 

view of the stream from the living area

the Dining area

 

 

 

Bedrooms

 

 

 

 

 

 

the bath

 

Wright designed built-in linen closet

the Kitchen

 

outside of the kitchen windows

 

kitchen windows from the inside

 

the stove

Kaufman's Desk

 

 

detail of corner window

(note that one pane is open)