Wayne SchaapOctober 5, 2010

Diagramming Form: The Appliance House

Alison and Peter Smithson designed The Appliance House for the Daily Mail's "Jubilee Ideal Home Exhibition" in London in March of 1956 (Smith & Lewi, 2008). The Smithson's Appliance House was an exploration of the future, an example of a house envisioned 25 years into the future. The form created and the vision explored definitely illustrates a connection to the spirit of the age and the beliefs

of an unknown future.

What was the age of 1956? Less than 10 years after the end of World War II, the atomic age had begun and the space race was in full swing. The 1950's saw the invention of the colour television and in 1956 the first television remote, the "Zenith Space Commander" was introduced (Bellis, 2010). The advertising age was in full swing and consumerism had become a new way of life in North America. The introduction and prolific use

of technology in the house in the form of appliances, promoted a world of convenience, while pushing the agenda of consumerism. Appliances were streamlined and marketed for their, "simplicity of form and naked materiality" (Smith & Lewi, 2008), that today invoke images of white Formica counter tops and glossy surfaces of moulded plastic chairs. How does all of this translate into form? The result of the programmatic elements was the creation of a flowing space where, "walls, furniture and appliances appeared and disappeared as needed" (Smith & Lewi, 2008).

The program behind the creation of the Appliance House explored the modernist ideals of simplicity while integrating the use of new technologies into the form. The exercise of creating form from an idea of: technology, object desire, ownership, mould-ability, mobility, delight, concealment, display, transformation, austerity, cleanliness, smoothness translated into an antiseptic architecture that in its starkness could be mistaken for futuristic. The following diagrams are an exploration of form connected to the above-mentioned list of words and are an attempt to understand the form of the Appliance House.

The above diagram explores the idea of plastic mould-ability seen in the smooth pod-like forms found inside the Appliance house. By replicating the flowing form of a line, structure begins to emerge creating smoothness and density, not unlike the surfaces seen in the Appliance House.

The next diagram is about structural understanding, exploring the relationship between structure and form. By diagramming major structural elements, spatial relationships will begin to inform surface creation, the creation of the cellular walls and hidden spaces that flow throughout the Appliance House.

The Appliance House is about technology, about the relationship between what is visible, and what is invisible beneath. At the time, the Appliance House explored the latest in technology, particularly the idea that, "technologies...made housework disappear" (Colomina, 2004). The final diagram about form explores the idea of seeing and not seeing.

The Appliance House explored the limits of the imagination in 1956, and was displayed like a sculptural installation, admired but not touched. The exploration of real and imagined technology created a physical form similar to the flowing surfaces we can create and build today using computer-modeling software that creates plastic, mouldable forms; perhaps the Smithson's Appliance House was an interestingly accurate glimpse into the future from 1956. Could we not repeat the experiment on explore form 25 years from today in the same way?

BibliographyBellis, M. (2010). The Invention of the Television. Retrieved 10 04, 2010, from About.com: http://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventions/a/Television_Time_4.htm

Colomina, B. (2004). Unbreathed Air 1956. Grey Room , 28-59.

Smith, W., & Lewi, H. (2008). The Magic of Machines in the House. The Journal of Architecture , 633-660.