Dymaxion House Fuller, R Buckminster Richard Buckminster, 1895-1983

Table Of Content

• You Can Still Die From World War I Dangers in France's Red Zones
• Fuller, R. Buckminster (Richard Buckminster), 1895-19831945
• Architect-designed furniture
• Fala Atelier transforms Porto warehouse into "house of many faces"
• Eight home interiors where mezzanines maximise usable space
• Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion world map redesigned

At a time where there is a global housing crisis, many of the world’s greatest minds have brainstormed to find a way to have mass produced homes that are inexpensive, portable, and sustainable. Given the past 70 years of improvements in technology and materials, perhaps the world is finally ready for Buckminster Fuller’s retro-future architecture. This house, his re-thinking of human shelter, was rooted in Fuller's understanding of industrial production -- particularly methods developed in the automobile industry and especially those advocated by Henry Ford for whom Fuller had immense admiration.

You Can Still Die From World War I Dangers in France's Red Zones

Better Living Through Buckminster Fuller's Utopian Designs: Revisit the Dymaxion Car, House, and Map - Open Culture

Better Living Through Buckminster Fuller's Utopian Designs: Revisit the Dymaxion Car, House, and Map.

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For the Fly's Eye Dome – Fuller's final prototype for low-cost portable housing of the future – he aimed to reduce the structural weight of the dwelling. The result comprises transparent bubble windows across a partial sphere made from fibreglass. An exhibit celebrating the work of late American architect-inventor Richard Buckminster Fuller opens in Los Angeles next week. Here's eight of his futuristic designs, including "autonomous" prefab houses with bulging windows, an underwater island and a pared-back rowing boat. Fuller believed human societies would soon rely mainly on renewable sources of energy, such as solar- and wind-derived electricity. He hoped for an age of "omni-successful education and sustenance of all humanity".

Fuller, R. Buckminster (Richard Buckminster), 1895-19831945

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. The Geodesic Dome is a key example of Fuller's ambitions to make the most with minimum resources. A series of triangular elements distribute the stress of weight across the lightweight lattice structures, which are able to withstand heavy loads and harsh conditions, and provide free open space inside. Fuller spent much of his youth on Bear Island, in Penobscot Bay off the coast of Maine.

Architect-designed furniture

Fuller, along with co-cartographer Shoji Sadao, also designed an alternative projection map, called the Dymaxion map. This was designed to show Earth's continents with minimum distortion when projected or printed on a flat surface. Buckminster Fuller was a Unitarian, and, like his grandfather Arthur Buckminster Fuller (brother of Margaret Fuller),[40][41] a Unitarian minister. Fuller adapted the later units of the grain-silo house to use this effect. Weekly updates on the latest design and architecture vacancies advertised on Dezeen Jobs.

Fala Atelier transforms Porto warehouse into "house of many faces"

Earlier this year our conservation staff disassembled a large portion of the house’s floor to repair damage and take measures that will allow the structure to safely accommodate continued heavy traffic. Obviously it is not unusual for museum artifacts to have spent more time in preservation than original use, but it is sobering to realize just how little time Fuller’s concept was prototyped—no more than a few months—and how heavily used it now is. The 4D House was introduced to the public in 1929 when it was featured in a modernist furniture exhibition put on by the Marshall Fields in Chicago. Waldo Warren, a Public Relations specialist for Marshall Fields, seeking a catchier name for the 4D house worked with Fuller to coin a new name which better described  Fuller’s ideas behind his invention. Combining a series of keywords the two came up with the words dynamic, maximum, and tension to describe the tensioned cables which supported the structure.

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Housing

A painstaking process was used to conserve as many original component parts and systems as possible and restore the rest using original documentation from the Fuller prototyping process. It was installed indoors in the Henry Ford Museum in 2001 with a full exhibit. Inspired by his 1927 idea for a mass produced house, the Dymaxion House built in 1946 in Wichita, Kansas, was meant to be easily shipped and constructed. It utilized surplus material from World War II, namely aluminum, and could withstand a Kansas tornado. It’s considered one of the most cost-effective houses ever designed as its 1,100 square feet with two bedrooms had a greywater system to reduce water use, and was heated and cooled naturally, all costing about the same as a nice car. Due to its material it required little maintenance, and a downdraft ventilation from the central support even cut down the need for vacuuming.

The nude model on the model bed in this model Dymaxion House was considered a bit scandalous in 1929, as she demonstrated the precise climate control of the Dymaxion House while also attracting attention to the model house. From historic images to vivid descriptions, a record of rich detail is bundled inside a single card. In 2012, an inspection of Dymaxion House revealed cracking in the floor beams, the result of thousands of visitors traipsing through it annually. “This meant we had to close the house to the public,” said Clara Deck, senior conservator at The Henry Ford.

With the war coming to an end, the U.S. was facing a serious housing crisis. These new houses needed to be constructed cheaply (a few dollars per square foot), quickly, and most importantly needed to be light enough to be shipped across the country en masse by airplane. The most common material in the Dymaxion House, and the one that poses the greatest conservation challenges, is aluminum. The lightweight material was used in every possible application, from the floor’s structure to the roof panels, even the closets.

Concepts and buildings

[3] The AIA did not share his dream of a replicable mass-produced housing system. Like his Lightful Towers concept, the 4D house was comprised of an elevated hexagonal structure surrounding a central umbrella-like mast supported by cables anchored to the ground. The structure weighed around 6000 lbs and was entered into by an elevator located in the mast. The walls of the structure were constructed from casein, a type of vegetable waste.

It then underwent an eight year restoration before going on display in 2001, and in 2013 another conservation project was started to maintain Fuller’s vision of a better designed world. Fuller never, however, resolved certain engineering challenges and abandoned the project. For decades, the architectural wonderments of Dymaxion were only iconic to architects and historians.

Daily updates on the latest design and architecture vacancies advertised on Dezeen Jobs. Fuller's interpretation of the rowing boat sees the vessel pared back to two streamlined and lightweight hulls, known as needles. The design positions the oarsman in an elevated seat, which can be accessed without any aid.

A crew was needed to dig the hole, sink the mast, and raise the frame, but after that, the rest of the house could be completed by a two person team in less than a day. The modular design meant that the interiors were incredibly customizable; with all of the utilities built into the mast, the homeowners were free to transform the interior living space to suit their needs on the fly. The painstaking process required close analysis of more than 3,600 parts related to Fuller’s design within The Henry Ford’s collection.

Innovator and thinker Buckminster Fuller had a vision for a future where housing would be affordable, sturdy, and self-sufficient. His prototype for this future was the Dymaxion House, part of his “dymaxion” line of inventions. Arguably the first Space Age designer, Buckminster Fuller imagined shining, aluminum, assembly line-produced suburbs. The circular house was designed to be easily transportable and shipped in a metal tube.

Domes up to three stories tall built with this method proved to be remarkably strong. Other shapes such as cones, pyramids, and arches proved equally adaptable. Over his career, Fuller designed a series of prefabricated residences called Dymaxion Houses – a term that merges the words dynamic, maximum, and tension.

By grouping all permanent utilities in the central pole, and letting the rest of the interior space remain modular, Fuller created a flexible plan that would allow tenants to transform the space according to their needs. The design also shows wind turbines on the roof and an extensive system of cisterns to collect and recycle water. For the bathing unit Fuller patented the “Dymaxion Bathroom” - a shower that required only one cup of hot water, and a toilet that consumed no water at all. R. Buckminster Fuller thought this house, which he called the Dymaxion House, was just what the American public wanted. Fuller, an engineer, philosopher and innovative designer, conceived the house in 1927 and partnered with the Beech Aircraft Corporation in Wichita, Kansas, to produce prototypes in 1945. Although Fuller designed his house so that it could be mass-produced, only one was ever built and lived in.