Day: February 10, 2012

Return to Fallingwater 3: Guest House and all

Posted on by Inara Pey

Note: this is a personal project only. The finished model is not intended for sale or profit in any way.

My obsession with Fallingwater has continued through the week, with attention turning to the guest house / staff wing. These are a curious mix, as they form an L-shaped building existing on two-and-a-half levels, due to the lay of the land. Facing south (in the original) and overlooking Fallingwater itself, is the single-floor guest house. Linked to this, but facing west, is the estate’s garaging, the floor level of which is raised slightly above the guest house level, with the staff bedrooms over the top.

Reproducing these in-world has been interesting, working from unscaled drawings and a plethora of photos. As the latter don’t show all sides of the building, I’ve made some guesses as to how various parts look as a result, but then, this isn’t supposed to be a 100% accurate replica, so I have my excuse if there are inaccuracies :). That said, however, the overall simplicity of both wings of the building do lend themselves to being reproduced in-world quite well.

Garaging with staff quarters above, complete with a few trees for effect and inset, the real thing

Prim count isn’t particularly light on the build: 305 prims – although this includes some of the interior fittings in the guest house itself and the covered foot path linking the wing to the main house.

Guest house front door area

I’m not sure I’ve scaled the footpath looping up from Fallingwater to the guest house correctly – it makes the overall build pretty huge given there has to be space in front of the house for the river and falls – but I’ll tackle that problem if I ever end up opting to take-up a parcel or land of a suitable size for the place.

Guest house plunge pool with bedroom beyond
Guest house from the footpath, sans plants and landscaping
Fallingwater from the guest house lounge

Overall, I’m pleased with the way the build has come out; I still have a few nips and tucks to take care of: the guest house would benefit perhaps from some lighting effects, and there are a couple of small details by way of handrails that need to be added, and I’ll add these shortly.

If ever I do get to the point were I again have land large enough to rez the house with a decent amount of landscaping, I’ll doubtless follow-up with another piece on my obsession. For now though, I think this marks the end of renovations and updates for Fallingwater where I’m concerned…

Fallingwater with faux landscaping to the rear, and the unadorned guest house, etc behind

Of Prims and Pieces

As people have asked, both on previous articles about the build and directly, here’s a broad breakdown on the build:

  • Total prims, main house, excluding faux landscaping: 428
    • House shell sections (3): 301
    • Additional house segments: 11
    • Doors and opening windows: 38
    • Stairs:8
    • Furnishings: 15
    • Lighting & fires: 11
    • Window frames & interior fixtures (light details, etc): 44
  • Total prims guest house: 305
    • House shell sections (3): 251
    • Window frames: 15
    • Doors: 14
    • Furnishings: 19
    • Stairs: 4
    • Fire: 2

Of the total count, the builds are designed specifically so that the shell sections (552 prims in total) can be converted to convex hull physics shapes, reducing their overall impact by 50%  – these sections are entirely without sculpts, complex prims or script-carrying elements (once the root rezzing scripts have been removed). This can bring the combined build’s overall Land Impact cost from 733 to 453.

Now, if only I could design and create the house using mesh…..

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