BIG ROCKS
I was looking through some photos of Fallingwater on flickr for my Conversation Pit ideabook the other day and remembered my favorite elementary school day, Art Day. People came in and pretended to be different artists from all disciplines, and we learned about them all day. This was the first time I heard about Frank Lloyd Wright, and what stuck in my 8-year-old brain for good was the rock INSIDE the house (and that he had wanted to build a mile-high skyscraper). I was hooked.
Boulders and smaller rocks can be a brilliant addition to design. Japanese meditation gardens take their placement and arrangement very seriously, and use them to create a sense of peace. Many of the architects here have used rocks in their original forms to play off cut stone walls, patios, pools and views. Others have used large cut slab rock sculptures that announce man's intervention on the site; making us consider the ledges that are beneath all of us all the time, whether we can see an outcropping peeking through the dirt or not.
Side Note: I'd like to give a shout out to MS. Sarah Jane Bellamy, the most creative and inspiring teacher in the world. The phenomenal Art Days you put together still mean something very special to me decades later. Thank you!
Boulders and smaller rocks can be a brilliant addition to design. Japanese meditation gardens take their placement and arrangement very seriously, and use them to create a sense of peace. Many of the architects here have used rocks in their original forms to play off cut stone walls, patios, pools and views. Others have used large cut slab rock sculptures that announce man's intervention on the site; making us consider the ledges that are beneath all of us all the time, whether we can see an outcropping peeking through the dirt or not.
Side Note: I'd like to give a shout out to MS. Sarah Jane Bellamy, the most creative and inspiring teacher in the world. The phenomenal Art Days you put together still mean something very special to me decades later. Thank you!
Here's the original living room rock at Fallingwater, which I loved as an 8-year old and still love today.
These rocks emerge from the cut slate and mimic the mountain view in the background.
These boulders help ease the transition from the built work to its natural setting.
From this angle they guide one's perspective out to the spectacular ocean view.
As soon as I saw this house I thought of Fallingwater. I love that the house hovers over the ledge and allows it to poke right through the floor.
Let's check this out from another angle.
This bluestone sculpture is an interesting object in a field of wildflowers. I love the way it dances on the line between natural and man-made.
This sculpture of tall cut rock gives a grand sense of entry.
Here it is from another angle.
Again, the boulders help blur the line of the built edge.
In case you've forgotten your surroundings, there's a big, fat, round boulder at the base of the stairs.
Here rock is held behind wire to form gabion walls. Gabions were first used in jetty and dam design, but have become very popular today. Just beware when using them that snakes like them...eweewewew