Gene and Nancy Bavinger House: Plan of Lower Level Showing Water Garden

Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, architecture Bruce Goff eschewed a traditional education in architecture and went on to create some of the most original and iconoclastic designs of modern organic architecture, from futuristic drawings to complex biomorphic environments. The Bavinger House is one of Goff’s most famous projects, designed for two artists who flaunted the conventions of postwar suburbia. Goff designed the house on the model of a logarithmic spiral, a geometric progression that often appears in natural forms, including nautilus shells and galaxies. Although the design appears to be an elaborate garden in this floor plan, the spiral-shaped structure was built in rough rock masonry, sheet metal, and tension cables. The house featured a single open interior space with a series of terraced platforms suspended over a landscape of wading pools and indoor plantings. His creative exploration of natural forms and three-dimensional geometries for the Bavingers was an important milestone in Goff’s mature career.