http://www.hfmgv.org/dymaxion/
Henry Ford Museum Buckminster Fuller Dymaxion House Exhibit
FAQ:
Why is the Dymaxion House made of aluminum?
This was the newest of the alloys at the time and was strong and light enough to be easily disassembled and moved. Bucky wanted his houses to be mass-produced, easily shipped, hygienic, and able to stand up to a Kansas tornado. Aluminum provided for all of these criteria and was already used on the aircraft assembly lines, allowing for easy transition after the war from airplane production to Dymaxion House production.
Why is the Dymaxion House round?
This shape minimizes the amount of materials needed and heat lost, while maintaining maximum strength and mobility.
What features do you find inside the Dymaxion House?
Some of the features you might find are: two bedrooms, foyer, living room, dining room, kitchen, kitchen storage, stainless steel fireplace, optional folding stairs to the balcony, accordion doors, O-Volving shelves, revolving shoe and clothes rack, tie and hat rack, and the Dymaxion bathroom.
What are "O-Volving" shelves and how do they work?
These are bins that rotate at a touch of a button behind the Dymaxion House wall bringing the desired bin to a chest-high opening in wall. These shelves are a way to store things out of sight and prevent children from getting a hold of items.
Where at Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village is the house be erected?
The house is erected inside of Henry Ford Museum, where it will be safe from the elements. The house construction was on view from October 1999 to Fall 2001.
Why did it take so long to restore the Dymaxion House?
Restoring the Dymaxion House involves many separate activities. Every piece salvaged from the Graham family house in Wichita has to be examined and cleaned. While all the pieces get conserved, many have to be repaired or, if deteriorated beyond repair, replacements have to be made. Buckminster Fuller had not completed all the specifications for a successful building when the project was abandoned in 1946. The Grahams did not even follow Fuller's incomplete plan in all its details. Thus, we are required to re-engineer and design elements of the building as closely as possible to Fuller's intentions and then make any missing parts. Finally, we have to install the structure inside of a museum building and plan for over half a million people a year to visit it.
What was it like living in the Dymaxion House?
A Dymaxion House was designed to be about 1,100 square feet or about the size of a small Cape Cod-style bungalow. It was supposed to cost about $6,500 in 1946, approximately the cost of a high-end automobile. With just two bedrooms, it was most convenient for a single family of no more than four people. Members of the Graham family remember the Dymaxion House as simply a round area at the end of their ranch-style home. The children enjoyed running around the circular floor plan. No one has ever lived in a complete Dymaxion House, so we can only imagine what it would have been like to have panoramic views of the neighborhood, hear the low rumble of the ventilator rotating in the wind, and take showers in a fine water mist.
Has there ever been a community of Dymaxion Houses?
Dymaxion Houses never went into production and none were ever sold as originally envisioned. The prototype Dymaxion House that was part of the Graham family home is the only Dymaxion House ever to have been occupied. The closest thing to a neighborhood of Dymaxion Houses like that illustrated in the model of a Dymaxion community were the Dymaxion Deployment Units manufactured during World War II by Buckminster Fuller for the U. S. Army. Hundreds of the deployment units, which were made of corrugated steel and looked like grain bins, were used to house troops in Alaska, the Middle East, and Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.
Where did the word 'Dymaxion' come from?
In 1929, Marshall Field & Co., the Chicago department store, asked Buckminster Fuller to demonstrate his "4-D house" design as part of a home interior decorating display. The Marshall Field manager thought the house needed a title and hired Waldo Warren, an advertising "wordsmith," to come up with a name. Warren followed Fuller around for several days, making a list of words he commonly used. Noting Fuller's penchant for complex language, Warren decided the name had to be a four-syllable word and it ought to evoke Fuller's distinctive personality. Stringing together such Fuller favorites as 'dynamic', 'maximum', and 'tension' lead Warren to create the word 'Dymaxion'. Fuller liked it.
What can I read to learn more about Buckminster Fuller and the Dymaxion House?
Visit the Buckminster Fuller Institute web site at www.bfi.org
J. Baldwin, BuckyWorks: Buckminster Fuller's Ideas for Today. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1996.
Joachim Krausse and Claude Lichenstein, editors, Your Private Sky, R. Buckminster Fuller, The Art of Design Science. Zurich: Lars Muller Publications, 1999.
Robert W. Marks, The Dymaxion World of Buckminster Fuller. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1960.
Martin Pawley, Buckminster Fuller. London: Taplinger Publishing Company, 1990.
Chris Zelow and Phil Cousineau, editors, Design Outlaws on the Ecological Frontier. Philadelphia: Knossus Publishing, 1997.
Henry Ford Museum Buckminster Fuller Dymaxion House Exhibit
FAQ:
Why is the Dymaxion House made of aluminum?
This was the newest of the alloys at the time and was strong and light enough to be easily disassembled and moved. Bucky wanted his houses to be mass-produced, easily shipped, hygienic, and able to stand up to a Kansas tornado. Aluminum provided for all of these criteria and was already used on the aircraft assembly lines, allowing for easy transition after the war from airplane production to Dymaxion House production.
Why is the Dymaxion House round?
This shape minimizes the amount of materials needed and heat lost, while maintaining maximum strength and mobility.
What features do you find inside the Dymaxion House?
Some of the features you might find are: two bedrooms, foyer, living room, dining room, kitchen, kitchen storage, stainless steel fireplace, optional folding stairs to the balcony, accordion doors, O-Volving shelves, revolving shoe and clothes rack, tie and hat rack, and the Dymaxion bathroom.
What are "O-Volving" shelves and how do they work?
These are bins that rotate at a touch of a button behind the Dymaxion House wall bringing the desired bin to a chest-high opening in wall. These shelves are a way to store things out of sight and prevent children from getting a hold of items.
Where at Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village is the house be erected?
The house is erected inside of Henry Ford Museum, where it will be safe from the elements. The house construction was on view from October 1999 to Fall 2001.
Why did it take so long to restore the Dymaxion House?
Restoring the Dymaxion House involves many separate activities. Every piece salvaged from the Graham family house in Wichita has to be examined and cleaned. While all the pieces get conserved, many have to be repaired or, if deteriorated beyond repair, replacements have to be made. Buckminster Fuller had not completed all the specifications for a successful building when the project was abandoned in 1946. The Grahams did not even follow Fuller's incomplete plan in all its details. Thus, we are required to re-engineer and design elements of the building as closely as possible to Fuller's intentions and then make any missing parts. Finally, we have to install the structure inside of a museum building and plan for over half a million people a year to visit it.
What was it like living in the Dymaxion House?
A Dymaxion House was designed to be about 1,100 square feet or about the size of a small Cape Cod-style bungalow. It was supposed to cost about $6,500 in 1946, approximately the cost of a high-end automobile. With just two bedrooms, it was most convenient for a single family of no more than four people. Members of the Graham family remember the Dymaxion House as simply a round area at the end of their ranch-style home. The children enjoyed running around the circular floor plan. No one has ever lived in a complete Dymaxion House, so we can only imagine what it would have been like to have panoramic views of the neighborhood, hear the low rumble of the ventilator rotating in the wind, and take showers in a fine water mist.
Has there ever been a community of Dymaxion Houses?
Dymaxion Houses never went into production and none were ever sold as originally envisioned. The prototype Dymaxion House that was part of the Graham family home is the only Dymaxion House ever to have been occupied. The closest thing to a neighborhood of Dymaxion Houses like that illustrated in the model of a Dymaxion community were the Dymaxion Deployment Units manufactured during World War II by Buckminster Fuller for the U. S. Army. Hundreds of the deployment units, which were made of corrugated steel and looked like grain bins, were used to house troops in Alaska, the Middle East, and Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.
Where did the word 'Dymaxion' come from?
In 1929, Marshall Field & Co., the Chicago department store, asked Buckminster Fuller to demonstrate his "4-D house" design as part of a home interior decorating display. The Marshall Field manager thought the house needed a title and hired Waldo Warren, an advertising "wordsmith," to come up with a name. Warren followed Fuller around for several days, making a list of words he commonly used. Noting Fuller's penchant for complex language, Warren decided the name had to be a four-syllable word and it ought to evoke Fuller's distinctive personality. Stringing together such Fuller favorites as 'dynamic', 'maximum', and 'tension' lead Warren to create the word 'Dymaxion'. Fuller liked it.
What can I read to learn more about Buckminster Fuller and the Dymaxion House?
Visit the Buckminster Fuller Institute web site at www.bfi.org
J. Baldwin, BuckyWorks: Buckminster Fuller's Ideas for Today. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1996.
Joachim Krausse and Claude Lichenstein, editors, Your Private Sky, R. Buckminster Fuller, The Art of Design Science. Zurich: Lars Muller Publications, 1999.
Robert W. Marks, The Dymaxion World of Buckminster Fuller. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1960.
Martin Pawley, Buckminster Fuller. London: Taplinger Publishing Company, 1990.
Chris Zelow and Phil Cousineau, editors, Design Outlaws on the Ecological Frontier. Philadelphia: Knossus Publishing, 1997.