RESEARCH WORK No.

3
CASE STUDY
TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE

Timeline, method and materials of construction……………………………………1

Falling water……………………………………………………………………………1
Leaning Tower of Pisa………………………………………………………………...2
Problems Encountered………………………………………………………………..2
Falling water……………………………………………………………………………2
Leaning Tower of Pisa………………………………………………………………...3
Present Conditions…………………………………………………………………….3
TIMELINE AND METHOD & MATERIALS OF CONSTRUCTION

FALLING WATER
1935
Edgar Kaufmann commissions Frank Lloyd Wright to design a weekend house for his
family near Bear Run.
1936
First working drawings of Fallingwater completed (January). Construction of
Fallingwater begins (April); foundations completed (July); living room cantilever ready to
pour (August).
1937
Construction begins on Wright’s design for Edgar Kaufmann’s corner office on the tenth
floor of Kaufmann’s Department Store. A one-room interior executed primarily of
cypress wood, the office included louvered windows and built-in storage cabinets
designed on a two-foot-square module. The focal point was an abstract mural formed of
six layers of cypress in a geometric design, based on 60- and 120-degree shapes.
Taliesin apprentice Manuel Sandoval constructed the mural and installed the office.
Fallingwater's construction is completed. The Kaufmanns move in (December).
DESIGN
It was designed in two parts: the main house (5,330 sq.ft) and the guest house(1,700
sq.ft). It is centre around the fireplace, cut into by a rock which brings the waterfall
physically inside. The natural surroundings incorporated throughout the house, such as
the living room which includes steps that lead directly to the water below.
Wright designed the ceilings to be relatively low – only 6'4” in some places, to direct the
eye to the outside.
Externally, the chimney is extended upwards to make it the highest point on the house.
Long cantilevered terraces made of reinforced concrete protrude in a series of right
angles to add an element of sculpture as well as a strong horizontal emphasis. Wright
allowed nature to determine the building's elements, including a trellis beam, bent to
accommodate a pre-existing tree.

The house uses a large amount of glass, with no exterior wall facing the waterfalls.
Instead there is only a central stone core for the fireplaces and stone columns. Wright
used 'corner-turning windows' without mullions to 'break the box of the house and cause
the corners to vanish'.
Despite suggesting that the house's concrete surfaces be coated in gold leaf, Wright
only used two colours throughout the house – a light ochre for the concrete and a
Cherokee red for the steel. This limited colour palette created a unified and organic
composition.

LEANING TOWER OF PISA

PROBLEM ENCOUNTERED

FALLING WATER
 Its skylights leak, the waterfall promotes mold growth, and—even worse—the
builders didn’t use enough reinforcing steel to support the first floor’s concrete
skeleton.
 They discovered that the main floor's girders needed additional reinforcement, but
Wright dismissed this claim and forged ahead with construction.
 Over time, gravity caused the home's first floor cantilever to sag, and in 2002, the
structure’s foundation was reinforced to prevent a future collapse. In the process,
the first level’s stone floor and furniture had to be ripped out.
LEANING TOWER OF PISA
 Because of soft ground, it had begun to lean by the time its builders got to the third
story, in 1178. Shifting soil had destabilized the tower’s foundations.
 Over the next 800 years, it became clear the 55-metre tower wasn’t just learning but
was actually falling at a rate of one to two millimeters per year.
 Today, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is more than five meters off perpendicular.
 Its architect and engineer tried to correct this by making the remaining stories
shorter on the uphill side – but to no avail. It kept leaning more and more.
 The next stories were built slightly taller on the short side of the tower in an attempt
to compensate for the lean. However, the weight of the extra floors caused the
edifice to sink further and lean more.

PRESENT CONDITIONS

FALLING WATER
 The structure was repaired permanently using post-tensioning.
 The living room flagstone floor blocks were individually tagged and removed.
 Blocks were joined to the concrete cantilever beams and floor joists, high-strength
steel cables were fed through the blocks and exterior concrete walls and tightened
using jacks.
 The floors and walls were then restored, leaving Fallingwater’s interior and exterior
appearance unchanged.
 The cantilevers have sufficient support, and the deflection stopped. The
Conservancy continues to monitor movement in the cantilevers.

LEANING TOWER OF PISA

 The tower of Pisa has been leaning so long that it's natural to assume it will defy
gravity forever.
 But the famous structure has been in danger of collapsing almost since its first brick
was laid.
 But it is continuing its slow but steady return to “straightness.”