Unusual designs created in the 1920-ies.
Imagine a house with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a spacious living room, with auto temperature regulation and self-cleaning of the premises, and that he had not had any negative impact on the environment, and cost less than the Cadillac. So myself and imagined homes of the future futurists of the 1920s years – they even had plans and layouts work. About them will tell.
The Henry Ford Museum
House Dymaxion was developed by Buckminster fuller, famous inventor of the geodesic dome. Fuller, ever the perfectionist, wanted to create a perfect and versatile house that could be built cheaply and quickly.
“Dymaxion” is the collective word “dynamic,” “maximum” and “tension” (pressure, tension – approx. translator). The free space in the house was used to the maximum, and the house itself was relatively small, just 102 square meter, but with a very flexible and layout. The walls are kept due to the generated by design pressure and tension.
House Dymaxion in the magazine Modern Mecanix in 1932
The house was made of aluminum, very durable and low maintenance metal, so its even not need to paint it, and the roof was never worn.
Buckminster fuller with the first model Home Dimension in 1927
Originally the house was planned in the form of a hexagon, but later prototypes were already round. The last prototypes looked like a giant truffle or a metal as a circus tent.
American pilots stand next to the prototype Houses Dymaxion for the needs of the US army,1944
Electrical cables ran from the stands in the middle of the house, like the spokes in a Bicycle wheel, so the walls didn’t have anything to mount, making the building safer in case of earthquakes, tornadoes, storms, and even in the event of war.
The middle of the room was also a dressing room and bathroom, all utilities (water, electricity) also came from the center. This allowed us to easily change the layout and expand or narrow room, for example to increase the size of your living room, reducing the size of the bedroom, in order to accommodate more people.
House Dymaxion was also designed for self-cleaning of the dust using a downdraft of air that went into the filters in the floor, thus allowing less time to spend on cleaning the house from dust and debris on the floor. Ceiling fan captures fresh air from outside and could heat it immediately if the house was cold, and did not allow wind to penetrate the building, reducing heating costs in winter and in summer for cooling.
Fuller designed his home so that each part of the used energy resources and available space as efficiently as possible, from automatically spinning round the shelves to the bathrooms, where the shower used steam – just one Cup of hot water was sufficient for complete water treatment, and toilets, in which water was not used at all. The house also had its own wind turbine that generated electricity for the house, and the house had a system to reuse wastewater.
These homes wanted to put into mass production and sell them flat Packed, putting everything in a metal pipe. Thus, the house could easily assemble on the spot after receiving. Each part of the structure does not exceed their weight 450 grams, whereas the total weight of the building amounted to 3 tons (relatively few, when compared to conventional single-family homes, their weight ranged from 150 tons).
What is most remarkable is the fact that the price of the house does not exceed the price of a new Cadillac.
The great Depression and the outbreak of the Second World War forced fuller for some time distracted from the idea of the perfect home, but he returned to it in 1940, the year when, in light of the boom in demand for housing, the idea of cheap, easily transported and mass-produced homes began to look very attractive. Fuller signed a contract to conduct scientific-research works with the airline, which was enough aluminum (the main material to build Houses Dymaxion) just after the war, and created two prototype Homes Dymaxion, “Barwise” and “Danbury”.
Home Dymaxion has had good economic potential, and in April of 1946, Fortune Magazine made a prediction that these houses will affect society much more than it affected the car. Unfortunately, the concept ultimately had to be abandoned. Fuller just did not want to compromise.
A picture of the third house of Dymaxion, 1932
4D tower prototype, 1928
Fuller did not suit either one of the prototypes, he had a claim to, and to the other, this led to disagreements within the company, and eventually in the mass production of Home Dymaxion never came out.
In 1948 a former investor purchased both the prototype and put them together in the same house, which later became known as the House of Wichita. The Wichita house was modeled to satisfy the needs of entire families. He was not hinged like the original Dymaxion, and around the house were added various outbuildings.
The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan
The house of Wichita ultimately was dismantled and shipped to the Henry Ford Museum where it was reassembled and exhibited as a Museum exhibit.
Buckminster Fuller was one of the most, and maybe even the eccentric inventor of the 20th century. In addition to Home Dimension he gave life to many other inventions. One of these was, of course, Dymaxion (it is, incidentally, considered one of the 50 ugliest cars of all time). Reward for effort was the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which Ronald Reagan gave fuller in 1983. Deservedly so, considering how progressive and fantastic were his ideas, and the impact they have had on the development of the genre of science fiction.
© 2017, paradox. All rights reserved.
