In Search of Maslow’s Transcendence of Binary Oppositions at Fallingwater

Close to the end of his life, in the spring of 1969, the American psychologist Abraham Maslow replaced “self-actualization” at the top of his well-known hierarchy of human needs with the notion of “transcendence,” which was focused in particular on moving beyond simplistic dichotomies. In search of clues for how architecture could potentially demonstrate the resolution of such binary oppositions, this article analyzes a structure known for subverting conventions: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. It is argued that the house actively addresses a range of binary oppositions, from inside and out to nature and culture, and the past and future, and that a few match Maslow’s description of opposites coexisting in the same element. It is suggested that objects spanning the glass line, dressed natural stone, natural phenomena mediated by building surfaces, and the house as a bridge between the past and future all fit that description. Where natural features appear only inside the house, however, as in the hearth stone, rather than coexisting in the same elements, nature and culture are simply juxtaposed. Similarly, in the loggias and pergolas of the house, partial characteristics of indoor and outdoor are merged, but neither is present in its entirety, and perceptions of the cantilevered concrete terraces as seemingly light but actually heavy reinforce rather than resolve this particular dichotomy. While only some of these strategies conform to Maslow’s description of transcendence, however, it is argued that each effectively serves to call into question the mutual exclusivity of a binary opposition.