CRAFT: This past week-end we took a trip to Falling Water in southwest Pennsylvania's Laurel Heights. Here we visited the house that Frank Lloyd Wright built for the Edgar Kaufman family in 1936-37. This house was built on a small waterfall in a wood mountainous area fo Laurel Heights, Pennsylvania. It was exciting to see how this house was crafted out of the natural landscape part of the juting mountain became part of the houses structure. I notice that the stone fireplace in the living room was part of the outside rock cliff. I really enjoyed every bit of seeing Falling Water. Wright has even crafted the funishings in the bedrooms, living rooms, cabinets, and furniture. This house is constructed of verticals and hoizontals. The verticals being the supporting walls, which are made of gray lime stone. and the horizontals cantilevers are cast in reinforced concrete. Wright wanted to cover the cantelevers with gold left or a thin layer of aluminum but Kaufman rejected both ideas. They decided on ware earth tones. The craft in the home and furnishing are as geometric as the house itself making for more spaceious area. Windows everywhere made for a fresh spectacular veiw.
Although we had visited Monticello first, in Virginia home of Thomas Jefferson. This house was built on the Palladian, Classical style home. Thomas Jefferson was also an inventer. He had made clocks and pulleys for opening and closing door. Monticello is a lovely looking home but I wonder how cramped it might have been with all the people who resided there. Thomas Jefferson was constantly finding ways to craft new inventions into his home, such as double payne windows in the dinning room. In the entranceway a clock that told the time of day and month of the year as well. Jefferson had sky lights nearly in every room of the house to bring in more daylight. One of the most unusual things about this house are the eliptical archways through out the house. This was my second trip to Monticello I remember visiting here as a child in Jr. High school.
The grounds were beautiful and I learned something new I did not know then that Jefferson hid his slaves underground as well as his servants. Thomas Jefferson was the 3rd US president. He is the author of the Declaration of Independence. He considered himself a yeomen farmer, promoted republicanism. He was also a horticulturist and inventor, also founder of the University of Virginia. He was also known as a lover of books. He is considered by some the greatest of US Presidents.
Public/Private: Falling Water was suppose to be a country retreat for the Kaufman family but so many people came to visit they had to build another out of the way home six miles away.
Thomas Jefferson keep his personal life private it is believed he sired many children by a house servant slave. Although Wrights son lived with his parents he had his own personal private quarters. The outside and inside stair wells provided a privacy to the Falling Water house.
Jefferson's bedroom was the only private room in the house at Monticello even though there were windows all around the room. The Portico in the Monticello home is considered a public place, here Jefferson like to show off artifacts from his travels and interest in his life.
The guest house at Falling Water was above the main house giving the guest a private area and as well as the Kaufmans.
Technique: One of the techniques used in architecture of Falling Water was compression and release. Where Wright felt that a stair well was a waste of architectural space so he made these areas narrow and then when one finally reached a room, this area was open wide. Jefferson used a series of pulleys to operate the Great Clock he made and had place in the portico of his home.
Jefferson also actually had an underground subway so to speak were slaves and servants went about their daily tasked unnoticed. The Arts and Crafts technique was to hand craft furnishes to the best quality rather than the new automated way with nearly no quality controls in place.
The Arts and Crafts of American would use innovation of machines to make furishings one due to lack of workers but a high demand for furnishings for the middle class homes.
Language: Thomas Jefferson would speak seven different languages fluently. The language of the home at Falling Water was congruent with the environment it was built from. There is a horizontal and vertical congruentcy in the structual form of the house at Falling Water.
Monticello was comprized of the elements surrounding the house, it was made in harmony with its surroundings. The windows and sky light let the out doors in all around Monticello the same is true for Falling Water as well. The elements to build the house were found locally except for the wood floor which came from North Carolina, North Carolina Walnut. Hardward for the doors and cabinets most likely came from local sources. Jefferson believed in separation of church and state and freedom of religion this is why quakers settled in this area. They believe in self sufficiency and making most the items needed for daily living. They craft furnishings for the home themselves and clothing, cook ware as well and utilities for cooking. We could see many of the old time hand crafts still available today as we stayed at the inn outside of Pennsylvania.
Virtual: One thing that I noticed in Falling Water was that everything was virtually proportional the furnishing fit exactly in the rooms. The closets were flush against the walls everywhere in the house everything had a specific place where it belonged. Wright did not like clutter and refuse to make room for it. The windows gave the illusion of not being incased as it was built to let more of nature in and not block light or fresh air of the mountain side and sounds from coming into the house. When the windows were opened at Falling Water it gave the feeling and sounding of virtual running falls into the house this was a beautiful sound to me I could really enjoy living at Falling Water. Mirrors and wall paper patterns gave a room a virtual sense of enlargement or closeness depending on the technique used. Mirrors can make the room seem larger while wall paper can make a room cozy and smaller depending on the pattern use.
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