It’s pretty neat to see a friend featured in the New York Times. This February, NYT reporter Steven Kurutz interviewed Tim Sakamoto, my long-time friend and fellow alum from the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design (CED). The interview focused on his latest product, the Frank Lloyd Wright–Fallingwater mobile app.
The What: Let’s call it an interactive ‘coffee table’ book filled with multimedia content. The Fallingwater mobile app brings a unique and compelling experience that made me feel like I was right there at Fallingwater in Bear Run, Pennsylvania. The photographs presented are so much better than those in the average printed book—clearer, sharper, and more vibrant.
Fallingwater is the name of the house that was commissioned by Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Kaufman and designed by Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935. Often cited as one of the most famous American architectural pieces in the 20th century, Fallingwater is nestled among a forest of trees and sits above a waterfall, enveloped by natural beauty and respectful of its surroundings. For many people, including myself, it’s a must-see destination.
The Fallingwater app is no substitution for an actual visit to the historical landmark, but it does come very close to it and allows you to tour the building at your own pace with the touch of your finger. The app’s easy-to-use interface allows you to move between photos, videos, floor plans and drawings from the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, and written text that includes a short biography of Frank Lloyd Wright. The descriptions of each major space gives insight into the architectural details and the architect’s design intentions.
There is an extensive collection of photographs taken throughout the winter, summer, and fall seasons. My favorite feature is the virtual reality panoramas that allowed me to experience a 360-degree view of the various interior and exterior spaces, look up at the ceilings and the sky, look down at the floors and the stream, and get a good feel for the many indoor/outdoor connections for which the house is so famous.
The Frank Lloyd Wright–Fallingwater mobile app is available for the Apple and Android phones and tablets. It can be purchased on Planet Architecture’s website, the iTunes Store (iPhone and iPad), and Google Play (Android phones and tablets). Planet Architecture also offers iPad apps for Zaha Hadid’s Contemporary Arts Center and Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House #22. The iPad and iPhone apps for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West will be released in the coming weeks.
The Who: In 1998, Tim Sakamoto (UC Berkeley CED ’95 M.Arch. A) and his wife Su-Fei Sakamoto (UC Berkeley CED ’93 B.A. A, ’95 M.Arch A) founded in-D Media LLC to specialize in the production of documentary films and interactive tours of contemporary and modern architecture on DVDs and CD-ROMs. To keep up with the times and in response to mobile technologies, in-D Media has partnered with Jochen Repolust of T-sign Studios to launch Planet Architecture, the company’s series of interactive tours for mobile devices such as the Fallingwater app. E-books are also currently in the works.
I can see myself buying interactive mobile apps in the future instead of traditional architectural coffee table books. Mobile apps would help me save space, save paper, minimize my carbon footprint, and the enhance the architectural experience. For those of us who can’t get to Fallingwater anytime soon, the Fallingwater app is a great way to learn about and experience it and it costs a fraction of a coffee table book. Congratulations to my friend Tim for creating such an awesome product.
The most important thing about Fallingwater (for me, anyway) has to be the blurring of the distinction between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’. Yeah, that was the biggest thing to smack me in the face.