The Dymaxion house was an
attempt to create a living place for the cost of an automobile, using assembly
line cost effective production. It was intended for mass production and to be
an environmentally efficient house.
The house contains two
mirror imaged bedrooms with individual bathrooms and revolving closets.
Bathrooms are automatically temperature controlled. Beds are pneumatically
controlled or inflatable to desired firmness. Each bedroom also contains a
built-in table. Revolving shelves and rotating closets are other attributes of
this house.
The library encourages the
individual development of children through self-education with an identity, via
built in radio-TV, maps, globes, revolving book shelves, drawings boards,
typewriter etc…
Hexagonal in plan form,
primarily supported by tension and compression struts, the roof and floor are
suspended by a central aluminum mast that carries the elevator. The shaft also
acts as a duct for services such as power, air, light, heat and other mechanical
equipment. The base of the mast contains septic tank and fuel tanks. This house
was to be heated and cooled using natural means, make its own power and to be
earthquake and storm proof and was made from permanent engineered materials.
The exterior envelope
consists of triangular “non-shattering” double panels of vacuumed, plate glass.
A duralumin hood protects the play deck at the top level. The rain drains
through a central down-pipe via the heated mast, which is used to collect heat
and light from the sun at the top. The lowest level under the house contains
the garage which can be closed using metallic Venetian blinds. Utility units
are independently connected to the mast for ease of replacement with improved
units. The utility room contains an automated laundry and grill area containing
refrigerator and dishwashing units as well as a cloth storage area.
The living room is approximately 40x20ft in size containing a 15ft
pneumatic built-in couch. A hexagonal divan, Bakelite floor, hanging dining table,
wall indicators for grill which opens to the living room completes it. All furniture items are built in to their
respective units. The pneumatic doors are controlled with a wave of hand across
a beam of photo-electric cells. The doors are found at acute angles that
terminates each room. The floors and partitions are sound proofed.
R. Buckminster Fuller, The Artifacts of R. Buckminster Fuller-A comprehensive collection of his designs and drawings Volume ? (New York: Garland, 1985.)
R. Buckminster Fuller & Robert Marks, The Dymaxion world of Buckminster Fuller (Garden City, N.Y: Anchor Books, 1973.)
Loretta Lorance, Becoming Bucky Fuller (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2009.)
The Changing of the Avant-garde: Visionary Architectural Drawings from the Howard Gilman Collection (New York: Museum of Modern Art : D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, 2002.)
Dymaxion House: An entry from Gale's American Decades: Primary Sources [HTML]
Federico Neder, Les maisons de Fuller ; la Dymaxion House de R. Buckminster Fuller et autres machines à habiter
http://hpef.us/publications/preserving-the-recent-past-publications/preserving-a-prototype
http://www.bfi.org/about-bucky/buckys-big-ideas/dymaxion-world/dymaxion-house
http://archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=4672
http://cva.ap.buffalo.edu/20x20/?page_id=2
http://www.off-grid.net/2004/07/22/the-dymaxion-house/
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