VIDEO: Coolest Houses in the World

Out of the millions of houses that exist in the world, only a very small fraction of those are truly special. Watch the video to see the coolest ones! You might be surprised to see that the most expensive places aren’t always the most amazing and awe-inspiring.

Here are some further details on the most fascinating house on this list – Waterfall Home (Fallingwater), provided by Wikipedia.

Fallingwater or the Kaufmann Residence is a house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 43 miles (69 km) southeast of Pittsburgh.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s three works of the late 1930s—Fallingwater, the Johnson Wax Building in Racine, Wisconsin, and the Herbert Jacobs house in Madison, Wisconsin—brought him back into prominence in the architectural community.

Edgar Kaufmann, Sr., was a Pittsburgh businessman and president of Kaufmann’s Department Store. His son, Edgar Kaufmann, jr., studied architecture briefly under Wright.

Edgar Sr. had been prevailed upon by his son and Wright to subsidize the cost of a 12-foot-square model of Wright’s Broadacre City. The model was initially displayed at an Industrial Arts Exposition in the Forum at the Rockefeller Center starting on April 15, 1935. After the New York exposition, Kaufmann Sr. arranged to have the model displayed in Pittsburgh at an exposition titled “New Homes for Old”, sponsored by the Federal Housing Administration. The exposition opened on June 18 on the 11th floor of Kaufmann’s store.

The Kaufmanns lived in “La Tourelle”, a French Norman estate designed by Pittsburgh architect Benno Janssen (1874–1964) in the Fox Chapel suburb in 1923 for Edgar J. Kaufmann.

The Kaufmanns owned property outside Pittsburgh with a waterfall and cabins they used as a rural retreat. When these cabins deteriorated, Mr. Kaufmann contacted Wright.

On December 18, 1934, Wright visited Bear Run and asked for a survey of the area around the waterfall. One was prepared by Fayette Engineering Company of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, including all the site’s boulders, trees, and topography, and forwarded to Wright in March 1935.

As reported by Wright’s apprentices at Taliesin, Kaufmann Sr. was in Milwaukee on September 22, nine months after their initial meeting, and called Wright at home early Sunday morning to surprise him with the news that he would be visiting Wright that day before lunch. He could not wait to see Wright’s plans. Wright had told Kaufmann in earlier communication that he had been working on the plans, but had not actually drawn anything. After breakfast that morning, amid a group of very nervous apprentices, Wright calmly drew the plans in the two hours in which it took Kaufmann to drive to the Taliesin.

Wright intended to build the home above the falls, rather than below them to afford a view of the cascades as he had expected. It is said that Kaufmann was initially very upset that Wright had designed the house to sit atop the falls. He had wanted the house located on the southern bank of Bear Run, directly facing the falls. He had told Wright that was his favorite aspect of the Bear Run property.

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