Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1333960
34 e design process Understanding the space Understanding building structures Organising the space e human interface Sustainable design Communicating design Understanding the project inking point Question the brief What is arguably one of the most iconic buildings in the world owes its form and success to an architect who didn't hesitate to question the brief. e building is Fallingwater, by Frank Lloyd Wright at Bear Run, Pennsylvania, USA. e client, Edgar J Kaufmann, took Wright to his site at Bear Run where he wanted to build a summer house. With broadleaf trees and rhododendron bushes all around, the site overlooked the river at a point where it cascades over a waterfall. At the same time, Kaufmann also gave Wright a survey of the site which he had commissioned some time earlier. is site survey drawing showed the river towards the northern part of the site, the waterfall, and the hillside to the south of the waterfall. It was clear from the way that the site plan had been laid out that Kaufmann expected to build his house on the hillside south of the river. From this situation, there would be a view of the waterfall to the north. However, Wright wasn't content with this interpretation of the landscape. Instead, without any consultation with the client and using the new technology of reinforced concrete, he proposed a design for the house that integrated it completely into the site by using a cantilever construction to launch the house out over the river, above the waterfall, from the northern hillside. Wright said to Kaufmann 'I want you to live with the waterfall, not just look at it, but for it to become an integral part of your lives.' In so doing he created the building for which he is probably best known, and he gave his client an experience of and an involvement with the site far beyond what was originally anticipated. For one of his most iconic buildings – Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, USA – Frank Lloyd Wright proposed a design that boldly questioned his client's brief. Rather than situate the house away from the waterfall, he decided to integrate it completely into the site.