1. Select one project of your interest – something that you would like to visit or discover how it works and prepare a report.
Why is this project interesting from an operations management perspective?
- How long it took to design it, plan it and build it?
- How many people were involved in its design, planning and operationalization?
- How much material and what types of material were needed?
- What were the main phases of the project?
- What were the main problems in project realisation?
The project that I chose is a very unique American house called Falling Water. Falling Water is built over the top of a waterfall, and is suggested to be the most well-known private house in America not belonging to someone of royal blood (Storrer, 2002). I would love to visit this house as I like waterfalls and I think the way this house has incorporated the waterfall into its design is fascinating. The house was designed by a famous American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, in 1935 for the Kaufmann family. The house was completed in 1939 and covered an impressive 5330 square feet and the additional guest house was an additional 1700 square feet.
The house is located in south western Pennsylvania approximately 40 miles south east of Pittsburgh. The Kauffmann family originally had a cabin on the land surrounding the Bear Run waterfall that they used as an urban retreat, which was in dire need of being replaced. Initially Kauffmann had wanted the replacement house to be built on the southern bank of the Bear Run facing the waterfall; however Wright had decided that the house was to be positioned above the waterfall in the side of a steep hill, this gave him the southern exposure e preferred and the creative tools he needed (Lind, 1996).
Frank Lloyd Wright was the main architect that worked on the Falling water’s project design, helped by his apprentices. Wright waited until just before Kauffman was meant to arrive before