Dymaxion house
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The Dymaxion House was developed by inventor and architect Buckminster Fuller to address several perceived shortcomings with existing homebuilding techniques. Fuller designed several versions of the house at different times—all of them factory manufactured kits, assembled on site, intended to be suitable for any site or environment and to use resources efficiently. A key design consideration was ease of shipment and assembly.
As he did when naming many of his inventions, Fuller combined the words dynamic, maximum, and tension to arrive at the term Dymaxion.[1]
History
The Dymaxion House was completed in 1930 after two years of development, and redesigned in 1945. Buckminster Fuller wanted to mass-produce a bathroom and a house. His first "Dymaxion" design was based on the design of a grain bin. During
The Siberian grain-silo house was the first system in which Fuller noted the "urban dust dome" effect: many installations have reported that a dome induces a local vertical heat-driven vortex that sucks cooler air downward into a dome, if the dome is vented properly—a single overhead vent, and peripheral vents. Fuller adapted the later units of the grain-silo house to use this effect.
The final design of the Dymaxion house used a central vertical stainless-steel
It was a prototype proposed to use a
Description
Since there was no evidence of the crucial internal rain-gutter system, some elements of the rain collecting system were omitted from the restored exhibit. The roof was designed to wick water inside and drip into the rain-gutter and then to the cistern, rather than have a difficult-to-fit, perfectly waterproof roof.
There was to be a waterless packaging toilet that deftly shrink-wrapped the waste for pickup for later composting. During the prototyping process, the idea for the packaging toilet was quickly replaced by a conventional septic system because the packaging plastic was not available. Other features worked as advertised, notably the heating, and the passive air conditioning system, based on the "dome effect".
The inhabitants of the much-modified version of the house said that the bathroom[4] was a particular delight. The bathroom consisted of two connected stamped copper bubbles, built as four nesting pieces. The bottom piece is fully plated in tin/antimony alloy and the top half is painted. Each bubble had a drain. No area had a radius of less than four inches (10 cm), to aid cleaning. The commode, shower, bathtub and sink were molded into the structural shell in one piece. One bubble contained a step-up ergonomic bathtub and shower, high enough to wash children without stooping, but just two steps (16 inches / 40 cm) up. The oval tub had the controls mounted on the inside left of the entrance to the oval tub. The other bubble was the bathroom proper with commode and sink. The ventilation for the bathroom was a large silent fan under the main sink, which kept odors away from people's noses. All lighting was totally enclosed. To prevent fogging, the mirror faced into the medicine chest, which was ventilated by the fan. A plastic version of the bathroom was available intermittently until the 1980s.[5]
The large wrap-around windows and lightweight structures were popular with the children, who crawled on the windowsill, and twanged the bicycle-wheel-style main struts.[6]
Fuller also designed a 10-story variant which was to have been dropped in place by the Graf Zeppelin.[7]
Criticism
Criticisms of the Dymaxion Houses include its supposed inflexible design which completely disregarded local site and architectural idiom, and its use of energy-intensive materials such as aluminum,[8] rather than low-energy materials, such as adobe or tile. Fuller chose aluminium for its light weight, great strength, and long-term durability, arguably factors that compensate for the initial production cost. Aluminum was also a logical choice if the homes were to be built in aircraft factories, which, since World War II had ended, had substantial excess capacity.
The Wichita House was a project Fuller accepted during World War II as an attempt to produce cost-effective dwellings for everyone. The project continued to develop the technological concept of the Dymaxion House, now incorporating a round floor plan instead of a hexagonal one. The reactions to the prototype were extraordinarily positive; nevertheless it was not produced industrially because of (re-)tooling costs.[9] Fuller, a consummate perfectionist, felt he could improve the design and was dissatisfied with the prototype. He refused to begin production rather than allowing the "unfinished" design to be used.[10]
See also
- Dymaxion car
- Dymaxion map
- Fly's Eye Dome
- Futuro house
- Geodesic dome
- Lustron house
- Monsanto House of the Future
- Prefabricated home
- Yurt (similar dwelling shape)
References
- ]
- ^ "Buckminster Fuller: Dymaxion Deployment Unit". 2009-04-16. Archived from the original on April 16, 2009. Retrieved 2013-08-25.
- ISBN 0-7653-1960-8
- ^ U.S. patent 2,220,482 Prefabricated Bathroom, Richard Buckminster Fuller, Issued Nov. 5, 1940
- ^ Dymaxion Bathroom
- ^
Baldwin, J. (1996). BuckyWorks Buckminster Fuller's Ideas for Today. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 56. ISBN 0-471-19812-9. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
- ISBN 0-15-503769-2.
- ^ Advanced Manufacturing Office: Aluminum
- ^ "Dymaxion House". Users.design.ucla.edu. Archived from the original on 2012-06-16. Retrieved 2013-08-25.
- ^ "Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center - IDEAS + INVENTIONS: Buckminster Fuller and Black Mountain College". 2009-01-15. Archived from the original on January 15, 2009. Retrieved 2013-08-25.
External links
- The Dymaxion House on ArchDaily
- Henry Ford Museum has restored the prototype and installed it in the museum.
- Chu, Hsiao-Yun (2009). New Views on R. Buckminster Fuller. ISBN 978-0-8047-6279-3.
- Dymaxion Deployment Units at InfoAge