Frank Lloyd Wright, throughout his career, viewed nature as a spiritual reference, yet despite this intense admiration for these natural surroundings, there are at times clashes between the way he valued nature and his actual work. Though Wright's architectural approach required a harmonious relationship with nature, it contradicted his admiration for new technologies such as the car, which harmed the varying environments he sought to build within. To evaluate this contradiction to his work, a dive into his philosophy which is rooted in his concept of organic architecture, where form and function are one, and designing buildings that are appropriate to the place, in his eyes a coffee shop should be built like a Greek temple, in practice this idea looked like a functional yet seamless integration of his building in his natural settings. He harmonized and connected with nature and buildings, being grace to nature and its surroundings rather than a disgrace, almost any natural environment can be improved upon by an appropriate piece of architecture.
An example of this is his famous architectural design, Fallingwater. When Wright designed Fallingwater, he was 70 years old and he was still being discovered as an architect. Back in the late 1920s, he established an architecture school, a place where his apprentices can study and learn his theories and philosophies first-hand, and was called the Taliesin. Fallingwater was commissioned by Edgar Kaufmann Sr, father to Edgar Kaufmann Jr, who was an apprentice of Wright and joined the Taliesin in October 1934. The idea behind the commission was to make a vacation house, that gave the Kaufmann family’s life a balance by taking them away from the chaotic city life and providing a relationship with nature. Originally the site was used as a low-cost alternative vacation house for the workers of Mr. Kaufmann’s family business, however, during the 1930s in America, the nation faced a historic event called the Great Depression, known as the worst economic downturn in history of the industrialized world, resulting in the US economy to plummet, unemployment to rise from 3.2% to 24.9%, average income rates dropping by almost 40%. As a result, of the Great Depression it was hard for people to spend money on a vacation, and soon after Mr. Kauffman decided to purchase the plot.
Fallingwater is known to be one of the best architectural designs in modern history. The site is situated in southwestern Pennsylvania, the site is based around a woodland area with a stream running through it along with a waterfall. In terms of designing the building, the logical tendency would be to situate the building so that it looks towards the waterfall. Nevertheless, Wright felt that despite the building having to serve an aesthetic function, it needed to work well, this is where his idea of ‘form and function being one’ comes into play, so he placed the building on the southern slope, allowing for rooms to have natural sunlight. This led to the building being on top of the waterfall and ultimately, resulting in a very intimate experience with the nature surrounding the building rather than from a viewing standpoint. During the site visit, Wright was told that the Kaufmann’s mainly used the waterfall as a recreational area and a place where friends and family connected with one another and with nature. How the rock ledges cantilevered, allowing water to fall off, and the natural aesthetic of the waterfall inspired Wright, and he saw an opportunity for architecture not only to work with nature but to be a part of nature.
Shortly after the site visit, Wright created the first and final drawings for Fallingwater, and this inclusion of being in nature resonated with Edgar Kaufmann, as he too was fond of nature and its beauty. Wright states: “One should conceive the building in the imagination, not on paper but in the mind, thoroughly – before paper, let it live there gradually, before taking more definitive form before committing it through a draught broad and when the thing lives for you, start to plan it with tools. Not before is the best way to cultivate imagination to construct and complete the building before working with it with a T-square and Triangle”. The idea of cultivating an idea in one’s imagination and taking time to slow down the process of the various elements, issues, and factors revolving around the site is considered for the design and showcases elements of good architecture. This allows for feelings and emotions to process with design ideas, as Wright’s idea of intimacy is one of the core factors that influences his designs, this also allows for better end vision and the ability to plan and construct the building. In contrast to ideas of iterations, testing out what works for the design, the process of cultivating thoughts could help. This idea of Wright is something that stretches his philosophy of organic architecture by situating the site to be in the epicenter of the stream and waterfall enforcing the intimacy he so passionately discussed, and this design idea that he implemented showcases his understanding of his theory and the relationship between nature and architecture.
The Great Depression left an imposing issue for Wright as he would need to make the houses. Wright believed that materials should be used in a simple way, showcasing the character and nature of the material in the raw form, not disguised behind another material, but in the forefront, Wright only used a few materials used for the construction of Fallingwater those are stone, concrete, steel, and glass. The stones were cut from an old local quarry and the labor was done by local workers. Sourcing materials for the building locally is not only good for the environment, but it also evokes a sense of sustainability and will contribute to saving money for the overall cost of the building, and involvement of local laborers allows for the local area to benefit from this. However, some of the local experts questioned the design of the building and claimed that the design on top of the stream wouldn’t hold and would destroy the natural landscape and that Edgar Kaufmann is ultimately wasting his money and time by investing in this building. Edgar Kaufmann acted by asking for a further detailed report on such claims and forwarded it to Wright. Wright addressed this issue to Kaufmann in a firm manner by saying that “You’re not worthy to have a house of mine if you believe in this junk”, and Mr. Kaufmann believed in Wright. How Wright designed the building is based on cantilevers, he built a foundation and placed a beam that extended over the foundations and then placed more structure over the beam that sandwiched the beam between structures, he used this method four times in Fallingwater.
Wright in his desire to make a strong feeling of continuity between indoor and outdoor space was extremely important, as the whole house had to feel open to the outside, so emphasizing a designated spot for people to enter the building was contrary and, as a result, he made the front doors discreetly, allowing for multiple ways of entering the building and, in essence, paying homage to the idea of equilibrium between indoor and outdoor spaces, allowing for connectivity to those spaces via different entrances. Another design factor Wright designed that connotes his philosophy through the means of his architecture is the stair that leads right onto the stream and is situated in the living room, and the design idea behind it was simple, and the space in the living room should consist of a way where there is immediate contact to the surrounding environment. This connection with the outdoors is something that Wright used as a driving force within his design. He wanted people to be living harmoniously with the surrounding natural environment and sourced local materials for building the design and tried to enforce the design to have big windows, as well as orientating the building for the right amount of sunlight, which can help heat, cool, and be sustainable design. Wright’s idea of indoor and outdoor spaces is based on the idea that both shouldn’t be apart from one another and that they need to be in a state of equilibrium, meaning that a room should be seen as ‘architecture’ and that there aren’t two separate entities of an indoor and outdoor space. This ideology comes through when he talks about glass, and how glass ‘liberates’ an interior space, he refers to ‘false mass’ sufficiently insulting and oppressive to our intelligence as people, meaning that by allowing a material like glass in an architectural form as a window, would allow for the room to breathe and connect with nature allowing for inspiration, changing the atmosphere and enhancing a user’s experience with the architecture, yet maintaining that connection with nature. With this ideology there are various benefits and being exposed to nature reduces things such as type ii diabetes, blood pressure, stress, depression, anxiety, and premature death.
In contrast, if we investigate the available interior and exterior space from a building in an urban setting compared to the interior and exterior space of a building like Fallingwater, which is set in a rural area, as well as the ideology behind the equilibrium of indoor and outdoor spaces. The urban area is restricted by the amount of nature and outdoors it could bring in, also the location is densely populated, further increasing restrictions in architectural expression, potentially some places wouldn’t have green spaces available. In comparison to Wright’s Guggenheim Museum, he designed for nature to be inclusive through elements such as light, water, natural materials, and plants. The building situates near Central Park in New York, and as a result, this is as close as one could get to nature in the densely populated, crowded city. However, not everyone is exposed to such luxuries as being close to nature like that. The issue remains that the city including Wright’s ideology of interlinking the indoor and outdoor space is restricted on a vast scale, it’s one of the major reasons for Kaufmann’s building Fallingwater, to escape the city and city lifestyle. In 1932, Frank Lloyd Wright came up with a solution to the city, via a concept called Broadacre City. A city that is decentralized and abandoned the crowded machined aged city, but avoided a rural community. Everyone had one acre of land that would be theirs to own and grow their food on their land, which led to the creation of decentralized farms throughout the city. Wright did not like centralization and designed the city to be widespread homes factories and municipal buildings were separated by large parks. The concept involved adults working at home, and goods being manufactured in small local factories. Wright designed the city and different house types to accommodate how many cars a household would own, the automobile is a crucial design concept that Wright embodied whilst designing this city concept. Wright quotes: “Here architecture is landscape, and landscape takes on the character of architecture by way of the simple process of cultivation”. Wright believed that cars are an ‘advance agent of decentralization’, he kept mass transit at a minimum, and believed that each person had a right to own a car, with no limit on the number of fuels one could utilize, the car created a new way of thinking about communities, everything was spread out and connected using highways and motorways. Wright’s ideas may have come off as weird and strange, but it has become the norm, and people rely on cars to go to places such as work, school, and shopping. In terms of pedestrians, there isn’t much for them, and the city is designed more so for cars. This concept of Wright is interesting as it shows his awareness for years to come, futureproofing his design concepts with technological advancements.
The first issue of Broadacre City comes with the idea of owning one acre of land and the practicality to farm your food, not many households would be adjusted to that manner of lifestyle, and not every conventional family will consist of traditional family members, what of the single parent with several kids or even the single parent and single child do. Space would be too big of a stretch for Wright’s philosophy, it depends on the users' needs and situation for what they desire. Could people even afford that amount of land the cost of maintaining the farm would certainly be of concern, despite the incentive being approached sustainably and economically, the cost of machinery is high, and people are already suffering from the Great Depression, so people would be cautious with their spending. However, despite this being a concept, the philosophy behind the incentives strongly showcases Wright’s values as a theorist and architect, and it potentially overlooks certain factors that he may not have considered. Another issue with Broadacre City is the use of automobiles, claiming that each household should have a car and where automobiles should be the main use of transportation, it defeats the purpose of being in nature. The use of automobiles is harmful to the environment, in comparison to other cities, the use is limited, yes. However, are the emissions of fossil fuels from automobiles and small factories compared to the green spaces available in Broadacre City justifiable? Looking into modern-day technology, most automobiles/cars are now electric or hybrid and can recharge their batteries, resulting in emitting fewer greenhouse gasses. So, Wright’s interest in the automobile could prove to be fruitful as technology advances and solve issues that are harming our environment in the modern-day. Thirdly, the idea of designing for automobiles, rather than pedestrians, contradicts Wright’s idea of intimacy with nature and user experience with the built environment. Movement is a major concept within a city, and each person has a different approach to a destination through different means of transport. As previously mentioned, cars cause emissions that are harmful to the environment, whereas walking or even cycling from destination A to B not only is good for the environment but also good for health. However, creating a vast separation between areas to enforce users to use automobiles for travel could be problematic, considering that every resident should have a car, an alternative could be using a bus.
The claims that Wright makes through his theories and architecture, comes across as imaginative and creative, a person who is confident with his vision through a stubborn approach. But could this stubbornness be his weakness? In terms of Fallingwater, there are many issues and problems associated with the building, one being the growth of excessive amount of mold due to the waterfall, and the other issue being the cantilever not having enough steel used to support the first floor’s concrete skeleton. As mentioned earlier, Kaufmann did question Wright’s decision of cantilevers and it not being viable, and due to Wright’s stubbornness, he disclaimed the idea of additional reinforcement and continued with his design, unfortunately, over time, the effect of gravity resulted in the first-floor cantilever to drop, and as a result, in 2002 a restoration procedure was carried out to reinforce the structure's foundation, resulting in the stone floor and furniture of the second floor to be discarded of. This gets to show how despite how beautiful and well awarded the piece of architecture Fallingwater is, it isn’t perfect. Frank Lloyd Wright once mentioned that “a doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines”; in comparison to the issue with Fallingwater’s cantilevers, this humorous approach to Wright’s imperfections and mistakes ultimately showcases that Wright knows that thing associated with architecture can be fixed. But is this stubbornness due to Wright having to prove himself as an architect and that Fallingwater is his comeback piece after years of being out of the architectural forefront?
In conclusion, Frank Lloyd Wright’s understanding of nature as a theorist and as a practicing architect through Fallingwater does resonate. The aspects of form and function, cultivation of imagination, sustainability, mass equilibrium, building and site, proportions and space, nature, and simplicity run through thick and thin within the project. The fact that Wright drew up the drawings of Fallingwater in such a short amount of time really shows how intertwined he was with his method and values as an architect, and what he believed to be good organic architecture. Even in the modern-day, these design aspects are considered by architects and consideration of how the environment and climate are arising to be a bigger issue. Wright believed in and dedicated his life to this notion of sustainable ecosystems, architectural environments, and elements that support each other to thrive off of each other. To think that he actually hypothesized such ideas and developed them into theory and put it into practice through his architectural works shows that he is a relevant person. His design with Fallingwater is one that contrasts with the environment but also works well by reefing to form and function, he used new technologies that improved the surrounding landscape and the inhabitants’ lifestyles, this requires seamlessly incorporating the structure with nature, as well as celebrating the natural world, and there’s somewhat of a nod to its natural surroundings, such as the waterfall. Wright straddled the line between incorporating new technologies and respect for the site in the natural world, at times he leaned towards one side of the other. But that’s what makes his buildings captivating, a constant surge of the middle ground between comfort, technology, and reverence of the natural world.