How did Fallingwater use cantilevers to create its distinctive design?

In the context of Western architecture, Fallingwater is a quintessential example of organic architecture that utilizes cantilevers to achieve its dramatic, floating appearance.1

Rather than being supported at their outer ends, the house’s expansive concrete terraces are anchored to the building’s central stone chimney. By employing this structural technique, Frank Lloyd Wright allowed the residence to project horizontally over the waterfall, effectively integrating the structure into the natural landscape.12

These cantilevered terraces serve a dual purpose: they create a sense of expansion as one moves toward the outdoors and mimic the horizontal forms of the natural boulders below. While the design creates the illusion that the terraces hover weightlessly above the water, the reliance on these structural projections was so ambitious that the main terrace eventually required reinforcement with steel cables to correct sagging caused by insufficient steel in the original design.1