Beside all the housing schemes and blocks of flats, there are many unique and
beautiful buildings. These buildings take their inspiration, not from what is the
quickest way to build a house, but from their natural environment.
Fallingwater is such a building. It was designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright, a
renowned American architect, in the 1930s and is considered by many to be a work
well ahead of its time. Fallingwater is situated on a rocky site above a waterfall, and is
surrounded by trees and streams. Its basic construction is from a native stone, with
concrete for the horizontal elements. These two completely different materials, the
smooth pale yellow concrete against the darker, rougher stone, provide a contrast
which helps the house to blend in with its environment, as well as being pleasing to
look at.
Frank Lloyd Wright once said of Fallingwater, ‘Fallingwater is a great blessing —
one of the greatest blessings to be experienced here on earth.’ Some would think that
this may have been rather pretentious of him, but we only have to look at the house to
see what a uniquely astounding building it actually is.
Fallingwater is a prime example of Organic Architecture, which is the term Frank
Lloyd Wright used to describe his approach to architectural design. The basic aim of
Organic Architecture is to set each individual building into its own environment, in
other words, to make it seem as though the building was naturally occurring in its
environment. To do this, Frank Lloyd Wright had to take all the inspiration for his
buildings from the environment in which they were going to be set.
And he could not have found a more interesting or varied environment than he did for
Fallingwater. All the elements of nature are present in that single landscape — water,
stone and wood are all plentiful, and gave Wright the opportunity to design an
amazing building. Fallingwater was born. And we can see that it meets Wright’s
organic ideals perfectly — the stone used in the building is at one with that found by
the stream, the concrete blends in perfectly with the light greens of the trees
surrounding it. Fallingwater sits in perfect harmony with its environment, and almost
compliments the forest, rock and stream surrounding it.
Another building, which is based on the same principles as those which Frank Lloyd
Wright used when designing Fallingwater, is the Maggie’s Centre, by the famous
architect Frank Gehry. The Maggie’s Centre was designed in 2003 as a care home for
those suffering from cancer. The philosophy behind the Maggie’s Centres is that your
immediate environment affects your well-being, and that these intimate buildings will
be the first step in helping many cancer sufferers manage their fears.
Architecture is critical to the concept of the Maggie’s Centre, which is ‘a reaction
against the institutional environment of hospitals and a determination to create a
friendlier place in which sufferers can personally deal with the disease.