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BUCKM INSTER FULLER S IDEAS

FOR TODAY

J. Baldwin

W I L E Y

New York Ch ichester Brisbane Toron to Singapore

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Chap ter 2

The Lightful House

You cant better the w orld by sim ply talking to it.

Philosophy to be effective must be m echanically applied.

Bucky's own 1927 sarcastic sl .- ?

Fig. 2-2

There are three basic ways to cut materials use: First, make the design smaller;

second, use materials in their most efficient form (do more with less); third,

use minimum-surface (hence, minimum materials) geometry. In todays lingo,

wed call it replacing ma terial with in form atio n. Bu cky called th e resu lting

dem aterialization, ephem eralization. W he n a stud ent joking ly asked i f the

ultima te m ore-with-less was to do everything-w ith-nothing, Bucky said yes:

Design is at its best the closer it approaches the purely metaphysical (Fig. 2-1).

Ephem eralization is not som ething you add to a design, it occurs natu rally as

the result o f applied natural p rinciples. Its more o f an a ttitude than a strategy.

Mak ing th e house smaller didnt appeal to him (though it would later). At the

time, th e American way of doing things tend ed towards bigger-is-better. In any

case, his design would work in an y reasonable size. H ed star t with p rop ortion s

that would impress sceptics and appeal to prospective (well-to-do) buyers.

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Bucky knew that people with modest incomes tend to accept and

follow the example of the upper class.

Efficient geom etry was easy: Make the h ouse rou nd to m inimize ro of and

wall area per u nit o f floor area, and stack the room s to minim ize land costs.

Bu cky took p articular delight in m ention ing th at geom etric principles were

pure metaphysics: weightless and free. Nature always does things in the most

econom ical way. By using ideal sur face-to-volu me ratios, 4D designs were ,

surely more natural than conventional houses.

The desire to use durable construction materials in their most efficient form led

him to emp loy metal in tension. From his childh ood experience with sailboats,

and his Navy experience with aircraft, Bucky had come to appreciate the use

o f tension. Steel, for instance, is at its most efficient when used as cable. Th a t is

wh y the longest bridges are suspended from a few towers. At any given m omen t,

a bicycle is actually han ging from a few o f its topm ost, skinn y spokes. O f

course, there have to be compression mem bers as well, bu t they can be m inimized

and optimized by separating them from tensile duties.

Bucky s first crude (n ot very taut) m od el (Fig 2-2) reveals the basic design

that he w ould use until the discovery of geodesics. (In geodesics, he w ould

completely separate tension members from compression members, balancing

them as tensegrity structures (see Chapter 3). The mast and floor perimeterstake the comp ression loads. Nearly everything else is in tension. Wall and ro of

materials are stretched tight. The floors are stretched netting, with pneumatic,

sound -dead ening coverings. If you drop the baby, it will ju st bou nce back.

Beds and furniture are inflated. (Pneum atics are also tensile; und er pow erful

m agn ification, balloons an d tires can be seen as stretched geodesic nets with

apertures small enough to restrain the air molecules.)

Ephemer alization also app lied to energy use. Bu cky regarded his 4D houses

as valves that controlled the flow o f energy, m aterial, and light flowing

between the indoors and ou tdoors wh ile sup porting the daily lives o f the

peop le involved. Thin kin g o f a house as a valve leads to new ways o f prov idingshelter. Bucky said, Ho mes shou ld be thou ght o f as service equip men t, n ot

as mon um ents. Th is concept doesnt sound very inviting, but neither would

your car or your clothes if it they were described in such terms. We have been

subtly trained to th ink o f homes in a way that no longer matches the way

we actually live or wan t to live.

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Dra wn in a style tha t was

late 1920s, this dramatic s

D luxury homes has muc

t om or ro w " v isua l im pa

Buckys contemporarie

-deck houses were t rul

pressed a separation of tonsic

mpression made possible by invisible

etal lurgy.The ir appearance was almost

t i rely a resul t o f the principles involve

t arbi t rary styl ing.The apparatus on t l

of is a Flet tner-type wind turbine drivj

i electr ic gene rator. Bucky insisted tha

r currents induced by bui ldings could t

harnessed for power.

Fig. 2-3

4D Tow ers

Th e 4D towers (Figs.2-3, 2-4) were intended as deluxe apartm ents w ith each

floor dedicated to a specific function. By stacking floors around an elevator,

mu ch less prop erty is needed. A single entrance enhances security. The main

living quarters are near the top, where air is cleaner and the view is more

interesting. Ten stories pu ts the electricity-generating wind tu rbine up w here

the wind is, withou t the expense of a separate tower. At the botto m , the base

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More 10-decker drama.

Because the towers deployed

their materials in the same

way as suspension bridges,

utilizing them as bridge com

ponents seemed natural.

Bucky had exciting drawings

made to help the public

visualize the potential of

his structures, but he didnt let drama degenerate into

magical effects th at hid the

physical principles involved.

Most other architects,

including form-follows -

function modernists, hid the

real supporting structure.

Fig. 2-4

IEM

W in d tu n n e l e x p e r ir

w i th th is mode l showc

that a buildings heat

p ropor t iona l to i ts a

The streamlined fa it :

reduced or e l iminate

need for insulat ion c

4D 10-decker, and d

cal ly cut structu ral W">

loads. Starling Burge

eng ineer o f the D yr r

car, also enginee red

FiftCLii yc..is latci B

used w hat w as learn

th is experiment in r t

Wichita House (p. 4

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mm m

is stabilized by a swimming pool in a rather geodesic-looking reinforced

container. The 10-d eck towers worked ou t to be light enou gh to carry ben eath

the largest zeppelin, bu t there was no way to make th em in 1928.

The 4D Dymaxion House

The towers evolved into a lower, simpler, more house-like hexagonal arrange

men t that was developed to h ighlight a (long-forgotten) furniture d isplay for

the Marshall Field department store in Chicago. The store named it the 4D

Dym axion Hou se. (Fig. 2-8). Buckys pa tent shows a p articularly hideoussquare version. H is attorney was afraid that a hexagonal or round building

would be too unfamiliar to be credible. The Dymaxion was not the only alumi

num building patented at tha t time, but it was the only one that used the metal

to its full potential.

From the beginning, 4D Dym axion Houses were intended to take advantage

o f the economies of mass prod uction. Bucky hammered hard on the stupidity of

handmaking houses that gained absolutely nothing from the handwork. In fact,

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H and crafting also requires the use of wood and other easily degraded natur al

materials. Tho se m aterials have been regarded as standard for so long th at they

are available only in a form that is impractical for use in nonrectangular buildings.

Bucky was fond o f asking people to imagine w hat it wou ld be like to order

an au tom obile in the same way they order a house. Choose from a selection

o f local car d esigners, or acquire a catalog of standard designs. Choo se from

a lim ited selection o f inapprop riate styles from past centuries (Roman chariot,

Louis 14th royal coach). Procure the necessary perm its from the tow n coun cil.

Permits are awarded on a case-by-case basis.

After m onth s o f design and preparing drawings, the approvals would be signed

by persons with no knowledge o f au tom obile engineering. The bank loan officer

could with hold approval until certain d esign changes were mad e to m eet his or

her taste. Finally, constr u ction wou ld begin on your lot (Fig. 2-6).

Sheet metal workers, welders, foundrymen, upholsterers, tire makers, machin

ists and p ainters each from a different u nion wou ld ply their trades in your

driveway when w eather permitted. Their materials and com ponen ts would sit

piled outd oors for m onth s, vulnerable to vandals, thieves, and exposure to the

elements. There would be union and supplier squabbles. An army of inspectors

wou ld harass the subcontractors at every step o f the process. Th e job would

almost certainly take longer and cost more than you had agreed.

Six months to a year after the project began, your handcrafted car would be

ready for its first run. It m ight, or m ight n ot, perform w ell. It wou ld probably

cost a lot to run and m aintain. Th e bill, in todays d ollars, wou ld come to about

$300 ,000 the going price for a handm ade car fashioned from standard parts.

(A totally handmade car costs millions.) With the current usurious interest rate,

you would pay almost three-quarters of a million dollars for the made-on-your-

premises car. Obviously, this is not a good way to make and sell cars. To Bucky,

it was obviously n ot a good w ay to m ake an d sell houses.

Mass production had, and has, its detractors. In 1928, the American Instituteo f Ar chitects (AIA) passed a resolu tion: Be it resolved th at th e American

Institu te o f Architects establish itself on record as inheren tly opposed to any

peas-in-a-pod -like rep rodu cible designs.

Bucky retorted that nature com m only m akes use of rep etition in cells, crystals,

and eggs. Evolu tion t ends to standardize design you d ont see anim al noses in

the m idd le o f their backs. Noses are logically placed by th eir fun ction.

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People accept and emp loy standardized designs, too: They have no ob jection

to cars or books being essentially the same, for instance, an d advertising often

brags about a prod uct being the best seller. W hy should houses be any

different? And what most people call individuality in houses is actually just

superficial decor. Their so-called individuality is actually conformity to

images manipu lated by others.

All Dym axion Hou ses o f similar d esign wou ld have to be essentially identical

in order to benefit from the economies and precision of mass production. The

installers wou ld n ot need drawings properly designed, h igh-precision parts

could on ly fit in on e correct way. (Deviations from the standard design would

soon lead back to h and crafting.)

Buckys houses would express their owners ind ividu ality by nu rtu ring

them and encouraging contemp lation and innovation. Th e occup ants would

interact with a Dym axion H ouse in m uch the same way they do with a musical

instrument. A piano articulates the music; a Dymaxion House articulates the

desires and ideas of the people in it. It is able to change and evolve with the

inhabitan ts. It is a place of action. Therefore, like a blank p iece o f drawing

paper, it should be free of perm anent or nam ent and faddish arbitrary style.

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