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Space-Age Houses 230

Posted by michael from the forecast-calls-for-snow dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The dream of building the Jetson's Skypad Apartment may come to true because technology designed for space could become the basis of the new German Antarctic station. The same ultra-light composites that ESA uses onboard its spacecraft for antennas and solar panels, will be used to make a self-supporting lightweight shell-like structure able to withstand severe earthquakes. This approach is in sharp contrast to many contemporary design solutions that use ever more steel and concrete..."
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Space-Age Houses

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  • Space Age Refrigerator (Score:5, Funny)

    by teiresias ( 101481 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:42PM (#10090618)
    as long as my Space Age House has a Space Age refrigerator thats connected to the internet so it can order my groceries for me........

  • Sounds perfect for Florida... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by BerntB ( 584621 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:42PM (#10090624)
    Should be perfect for Florida and other places with "high winds", using ultra-light composites... :-)
    • How often does Florida get winds that exceed 220KM/h? That pretty much requires a Category 4 hurricane, not very often, and these are probably more resistant than mobile homes.
      • "these are probably more resistant than mobile homes"
        Oh that is a good baseline! Not.

        Actually the safty of the those buildings in Florida would have more to do with how well they are tied to a good foundation. 3 meters of flooding is a lot of water. There are two problems with them for normal houses.
        1. Cost Carbon fiber is expensive compaired to concret block and wood trusses. Not to mention no one knows how well they will stand up to UV for the long term. Houses should last for at least 100 years.
        2. Looks

        • Re:Sounds perfect for Florida... (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Rei ( 128717 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @03:27PM (#10091507) Homepage
          I agree that they'd probably handle storms quite well. And I agree about the cost issue. However, as for "length of lifespan", you don't get much less durable than wood and concrete. I'd be incredibly surprised if carbon fiber was somehow less durable. Not to mention that this is carbon fiber reinforced *plastic* - plastics have notoriously long lifespans. You'd probably have more of a concern with making the house recyclable so that it need not last forever as it might in normal circumstances.

          I think "Looks" is the number one problem. People have been predicting plastic houses for ages; few have touched them. People feel comfortable in a shelter that "breathes", that feels "solid" and "heavy", etc. It just makes you feem more comfortable. Even people who opt for "nontraditional" houses (such as dome houses, like my aunt owns) have them built out of conventional materials. Plastic in general feels a bit too alien to live in; perhaps the carbon fiber reinforced plastic isn't as bad - I don't know.

          Not to mention, imagine how much static electricty you'd build up scuffing along the floor/walls... ;)
          • You are right, because old wood tools [iwebland.com] and concrete structures [romanconcrete.com] are impossible to find.

            The main problem with most plastics is that they have no part in the natural recycling process. That doesn't mean they are structurally intact for ages. Just take a peek at an old car with a cracked plastic dashboard if you think that all plastic is always long lived. Mind you, when you get specific, there are plastics that have a long life - but in and of itself, "as used in construction, plastic is more durable than wood

          • "Not to mention that this is carbon fiber reinforced *plastic* - plastics have notoriously long lifespans"
            In landfills they do. If you live anywhere in the south take a piece of plastic and set it outside in the sun for several months. A lot of them will get brittle and discolor.

            As making a carbon-fiber house recycleable... Reuseable is better than recycleable. A house is a house is a house. You need walls, a roof, windows, and doors. Someone pointed out that dry wall and plywood only last so long. Well pl

        • Re:Sounds perfect for Florida... (Score:5, Informative)

          by SatanicPuppy ( 611928 ) <Satanicpuppy@nosPAm.gmail.com> on Friday August 27, 2004 @03:37PM (#10091563) Journal
          It's no dumber than a lot of the stuff they do in coastal areas to try and make houses "hurricane proof". I used to build them, so I know more about it than I ever wanted to.

          First, three meters of water is no big deal. Three meters of water hitting your house as a storm surge is a big fucking deal. Most houses on the coast are build on sand, under the cement. Sand is good. Makes a nice foundation...Until hurricane driven tides wash it and your heavy ass house away.

          As for durability...Most modern houses aren't set to last anywhere near 100 years. Sheetrock and plywood only go so far.

          Considering what a subdivision of stilt-houses looks like now, I don't see what the difference is. What looks weirder, a normal house on stilts or a house that looks like it's SUPPOSED to be on stilts?

          Seems like a perfectly decent idea to me. Solar power is way underutilized on the coast, and god knows regular housing doesn't fare all that well.
      • you mean like the category 4 hurricane that just hit us like 2, 3 weeks ago? (charley)
    • RTFA - SpaceHouse can withstand vibrations from earthquakes of up to 7 on the Richter scale, wind speeds of up to 220 km/h and up to 3 metres of flooding

      Should handle a nice combination of the worst weather of Florida, L.A., and New Orleans.

      • Re:Sounds perfect for Florida... (Score:4, Funny)

        by BerntB ( 584621 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @02:00PM (#10090815)
        RTFA - SpaceHouse can withstand [..] wind speeds of up to 220 km/h
        Sorry. I did read an article earlier today, but not that one. The one I read didn't say anything about wind speed.

        What nitwits voted my stupid article to 5, btw? :-)

      • 165 mph = 265.54176 kph

        Cat 5 hurricanes can have wind speeds above 165 MPH.

        That only 45 kph over the max rated wind speed.

        • Re:Sounds perfect for Florida... (Score:4, Informative)

          by MalaclypseTheYounger ( 726934 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @02:30PM (#10091060) Journal
          True, but with only 7 Cat 5 Hurricanes in the past 50 years or so (and not all in Florida), and the actual definition of a CAT 5 hurricane is total destruction, with very few structures (if any) being able to withstand the full-force onslaught of a CAT 5 hurricane, I'd certainly live in this SpaceHouse... my Florida home is concrete top to bottom, and only rated to withstand a Category 3-4 hurricane.

          History of Cat 5 hurricanes:

          Hurricane Carla: This hurricane hit on September 10, 1961. It struck the Texas coast. About 500,000 people were evacuated from the area. Winds near the center of the hurricane were estimated at 150 miles per hour. Damage was about $2 billion (adjusted to 1990 dollars) and 46 people died.

          Hurricane Betsy: This hurricane hit on September 8, 1965. It hit Florida first and then turned and hit the Louisiana coast. A total of 75 people lost their lives. The hurricane had winds as high as 160 miles per hour. In 1990 dollars, Betsy caused $6.5 billion of damage -- making it the third most costly hurricane in the U.S.

          Hurricane Camille: This hurricane began on August 17, 1969. It was a Category 5 hurricane -- the most powerful rating, with winds as high as 200 miles per hour. The hurricane hit the U.S. Gulf Coast, but also caused flooding in Virginia. About 250 people died because of the hurricane and the flooding. It was the fifth most costly disaster in U.S. history, with damage of $5.2 billion (in 1990 dollars).

          Hurricane Celia: This hurricane hit Texas on August 3, 1970 and caused $1.6 billion in damage (in 1990 dollars). Very high winds damaged an airport and demolished a nearby mobile home park, fortunately, only 11 people died.

          Hurricane Gilbert: This hurricane hit on September 16, 1988. It was a Category 5 hurricane with winds as high as 160 miles per hour. It went through Jamaica, over the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico and came to the U.S. (Texas and Oklahoma) as a heavy rain storm. Damage in Mexico was many billions of dollars, and 318 people died.

          Hurricane Andrew: This hurricane hit on August 24, 1992 in southern Florida. It then turned and hit Louisiana. More than a million people had to leave the area due to the storm. Heavy rains and tornadoes were part of the hurricane's destructive power. Andrew was the most expensive hurricane in the history of the U.S.

          Hurricane Floyd: This hurricane, which struck in September 1999, brought so much rain that 13 states were issued federal disaster declarations -- more declarations for a single event than ever before. More than $500 million of federal money was spent on helping states recover. North Carolina was hit the hardest of any state.


          • I'd certainly live in this SpaceHouse... my Florida home is concrete top to bottom, and only rated to withstand a Category 3-4 hurricane.

            Not much difference. This concept is rated at winds of 220 km/h, or 137 mph, means this should survive the upper limit of Cat 3, and possibly Cat 4 if you are lucky [lsu.edu].
          • Wow, I must be really unlucky. I've survived three of the seven on this list:

            Hurricane Carla: This hurricane hit on September 10, 1961. It struck the Texas coast.

            I in Corpus Christi, but was too young to remember it. The rest of my family remembers that we were without power for a couple of weeks.

            Hurricane Celia: This hurricane hit Texas on August 3, 1970 and caused $1.6 billion in damage (in 1990 dollars).

            Still living in Corpus Christi, I was a teenager. We were without power for 10 days. No

          • Re:Sounds perfect for Florida... (Score:5, Interesting)

            by Uggy ( 99326 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @04:31PM (#10091998) Homepage
            What kind of poor concrete house do you live in that can only withstand a category 3-4? When Georges passed over Puerto Rico in 1998, we didn't lose a single concrete house. Not a one (well except for mud slides in mountainous regions, but there's no helping that).

            The winds that hit my house were 140+ and in other areas in a direct path with the eye got even worse. San Juan metro area looked like Hiroshima afterwards. I never realized how many buildings there were with all the trees gone. But we don't have mobile homes where, and very little wood construction. Everything is concrete boxes.

            Don't know what sort of building codes you have over there, but I'd pit my house against a category 5. Not like I'd like it, but I think we could handle it.

            I guess since we live on an island, there's no place to evacuate to, so we've got build our houses tough.

    • Oh, please! (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Hooptie ( 10094 )
      That is same as complaining that the the Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, are worthless because they wont carry a family of four. Look at the application for which this structure is designed. How often do they get 220+kph winds in Antarctica? How often do they get 7.0 quakes?

      TFA does not say that they advocate replacing ALL current building methods with this. If you did RTFA you would have noticed this:

      In its current design the SpaceHouse can withstand vibrations from earthquakes of up to 7 on the

    • Although mass is important in resisting disturbances like high winds through sustained and impulsive bursts, it is also important to have a strong structure that resists fracture.

      Also, somewhat resignedly, once a home does get shattered, it would be a little better to have shards that are light than those that are heavy, to avoid the shrapnel effect from these cyclonic storms.

    • Should be perfect for Florida and other places with "high winds"[....]

      They could make them streamlined with a vertical axis that swivels like the Dymaxion House [hfmgv.org]. (Here's a couple [thefreedictionary.com] of links [thirteen.org] that discuss more with less pictures).

      Then it'd probably withstand pretty much any level of wind--until something that wasn't streamlined (e.g., palm tree, SS Minnow, old lady on bicycle) slammed into it . . . .

      Maybe advanced materials are what's needed to finally achieve Old Bucky's [worldtrans.org] goals (even though they suppo

  • What's cooler? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bobhagopian ( 681765 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:45PM (#10090657)
    "The house is designed to be autonomous. It uses energy-efficient solar power as well as advanced systems for recycling and cleaning water. Another idea, now on the drawing board, is to include a system to remove pathogenic particles in the sub-micron range from the air."

    I think this is the coolest part about the house, not the ultra-light composites. Think about never having to pay an utility bill again! Sure, you can do that for just about any house, but one that's built with self-sufficiency in mind is nice.

    • Re:What's cooler? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by garcia ( 6573 ) *
      Think about never having to pay an utility bill again!

      Just like our empty dreams of VoIP causing the untimely death of the telcos I have a feeling that the utility companies would have nothing better to do than find a way to charge us for harnessing the sun's energy and recycling our drinking water.

      • Re:What's cooler? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Woody77 ( 118089 )
        California and PG&E have programs for net-0 houses. Houses which pull from the grid at night/in the winter, and feed back into the grid during the day.

        It helps the utilities by lowering their production costs, and it helps the home-owners by decreasing their usage.

        The deal is that if you produce as much in a month as you consume, you pay nothing for service. Over the year, this is very unlikely, due to cloudy days and wintertime lack of sun.

        Houses with electro-mechanical meters will literally spin

    • Re:What's cooler? (Score:4, Funny)

      by llevity ( 776014 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:56PM (#10090778)
      "Think about never having to pay an utility bill again!"

      I thought about this so much, I even tried it. It was great until they shut my power off.

  • Space age? (Score:4, Funny)

    by vuvewux ( 792756 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:45PM (#10090658)
    Wasn't the 1960s the "space age"? If so, I live in a space age house!

  • The structure, ok, but... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Solder Fumes ( 797270 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:45PM (#10090660)
    So a light, shell-like structure would just ride the earthquake, as it does not have enough inertia to generate destructive internal stresses. But does this mean that anyone and anything inside the building would be shaken like beans in a maraca?

  • Wow, Europe sounds great. (Score:5, Funny)

    by funny-jack ( 741994 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:45PM (#10090661) Homepage
    In its current design the SpaceHouse can withstand vibrations from earthquakes of up to 7 on the Richter scale, wind speeds of up to 220 km/h and up to 3 metres of flooding - specifications that came out of discussions with the insurance industry for a typical European location.

    Wha-aah? Wow, that backpacking trip through Europe is looking a lot less attractive than I thought. No wonder they tried so hard to discover new worlds!

  • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:Antartic...Space? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by l4m3z0r ( 799504 )
      Because that technology was designed by there space program, doesn't mean that the space program has to waste time manufacturering it or using resources in order to put it in antartica. For instance, I doubt NASA is currently involved in the manufacture of Tang even though they developed the stuff. This won't waste any money of the space programs its just using technologies they developed(plans, documentation and practices on how to make that etc etc.)

      • Re:Antartic...Space? (Score:2, Interesting)

        by IvoryRing ( 1708 )
        NASA developed Tang? That's funny, I thought General Foods developed Tang in 1957 [about.com] (original USPTO trademark registration #0670697, filed Oct 16, 1957, renewal [current?] #1974439), and NASA [wikipedia.org] was signed into law in 1958.

  • the best feature... (Score:3, Funny)

    by mmmmmhotpants ( 800341 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:47PM (#10090671)
    All new SpaceHouses come with the band Kraftwerk.
  • Now that the money is available an independent group will be set up to examine the requirements for the building and to decide whether to use the SpaceHouse concept as a basis.

    Sounds like a waste of more resources than what they are trying to protect.

  • A problem I see. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Moocowsia ( 589092 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:47PM (#10090678)
    As a ferniture deliverer I see a problem. How the heck do you get large things like couches in it? A crane?

    • Re:A problem I see. (Score:5, Funny)

      by Wireless Joe ( 604314 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:54PM (#10090753) Homepage
      If it's really like the Jetson's house, you just press the button on the side of the couch, and it folds up like a briefcase. Then you just pick it up by it's handle, step onto the moving sidewalk and wait for the clear tube to suck you up into the living room.
    • As a ferniture deliverer I see a problem

      For just a second I read the above line and wondered how a /. reader could be a furniture delivery person... then I looked at his spelling..

      ---
      Collaboration, n.:
      A literary partnership based on the false assumption that the other fellow can spell.

  • Space Tubes (Score:5, Funny)

    by Doesn't_Comment_Code ( 692510 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:48PM (#10090681)
    All I want in my space aged buildings is a pneumatic tube for transportation - like a big version of what they have at the bank. Need to go to work? Jump in the pod and push SEND. Want to go the store? Jump in the pod and push SEND. Convenient and fun.

    Give me that, and I can die happy.
    • Give me that, and I can die happy.

      Or, at the very least, stuck in the tube between McDonKFCWendyKingBell's and Wal-K-Tar-Depot-Bucks.

    • Re:Space Tubes (Score:3, Funny)

      by maynard ( 3337 )
      All I want ... a pneumatic tube for transportation - like a big version of what they have at the bank."

      "Give me that, and I can die happy."

      As you most assuredly will, after exiting the tube at high speeds and smashing head first into a wall. I've seen Futurama and know the pitfalls. Be warned! --M
    • Tsk! Tsk I say!

      Where's your imagination?

      Pneumatic tubes? Pshaw!

      Matter transporters!

      "Scotty,2 Big Macs, large fries, and a chocolate shake to beam up!"

      Scotty: "Me transportters kenna stand the strain!"

    • Ever seen a Futurama episode?
    • >10 out of 10 Terrorists agree - Anybody but Bush in 2004

      A troll, because it's so easy to find out what the terrorists have to say about the man who let bin Laden get away.

      For example, from the June 3 2004 issue of The Economist:

      "A communiqué from a Saudi jihadi group expresses the hope that George Bush will be re-elected because his "haste to use force, his lack of wisdom and religious fanaticism have roused the Islamic nation"."

      If that sig were a legitimate political statement instead of a tro

  • Insurance industry (Score:3, Funny)

    by Yokaze ( 70883 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:50PM (#10090713)

    In its current design the SpaceHouse can withstand earthquakes of up to 7 on the Richter scale, wind speeds of up to 220 km/h and up to 3 metres of flooding - specifications that came out of discussions with the insurance industry for a typical European location.


    It seems to me, living in a typical European location is a dangerous thing to do :).

  • Good idea (Score:5, Interesting)

    by macshune ( 628296 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:52PM (#10090731) Journal
    These houses totally look cool and the design is awesome, but they use exotic materials that are probably only produced in huge quantities when large institutions have the money to get someone to cook up a batch. Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (more commonly, just Carbon Fiber [wikipedia.org])? Can't buy that at Home Depot, last time I checked:)

    It's a great exercise and it's exciting to the see the future take shape (literally!), but until regular folks can buy up some of this stuff to build homes out of, that's all it's gonna be.

    • Re:Good idea (Score:2, Insightful)

      by ColoradoAuthor ( 682295 )
      And where do you get repair materials, when the roof is punctured (by hail, or space debris, or whatever)?

      Sounds like geodesic domes, hyperbolic parabaloid roofs, etc. These structures work okay in places like Antarctica, but for typical residential use they fail three important tests: 1) Will my local building inspector--who only understands sticks-n-stones construction--approve the thing without a ton of paperwork and appeals? 2) Will my rectangular furniture fit? and 3) Can I repair it when it breaks
      • Good points, plus you need to worry about repair techniques. Break a conventional wooden house and medium-skilled people can usually fix it with basic tools. Compare that to lightweight composites, some of which need to be cured in an autoclave.

        Building codes need to be reformed anyway.
  • The Space House [esa.int]: Good in space, good in Europe, good at the South pole, AND good at the bottom of the sea [purdue.edu]!

  • Earthquakes, sure... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) * on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:55PM (#10090774) Homepage Journal
    will be used to make a self-supporting lightweight shell-like structure able to withstand severe earthquakes.

    How about typhoons and hurricanes?

    There's some housing in the Florida keys built on concrete pilars which look a bit like this, except they're square, built to withstand trailer shreading winds and stay above the water.

    I wonder how durable in extreme cold this stuff would be, particularly in cold climates, as much aluminum developes stress fractures. More surface area on the outside means more area to insulate, too.

    BTW, if you've ever considered living in a geodesic home, consider that the roofing costs about 3x what a regular house does. I wonder what mantenance would be like on these in the long term.

  • snow (Score:2, Interesting)

    by spectrokid ( 660550 )
    They say they want to use it in Antartica. As far as I know, a fresh layer of snow falls each year so that every building eventually gets snowed under. This is solved now by making 1 storage buildings which once a year can be moved on top of the new snow. How the hell will they be able to dig out these big leggs and move such a big structure? Anybody any experience with this?
  • ...that should be played within:

    Esquivel's "Space Age Batchelor Pad Music"! [amazon.com]

  • Sounds familiar (Score:5, Interesting)

    by nytes ( 231372 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @02:06PM (#10090861) Homepage
    Of course, you could also jump into your time machine and visit the house of the future [yesterland.com] at Disneyland, circa 1957.

    It was made so well that the wrecking ball just bounced off of it when they tried to demolish it. They had to bring in a crew with saws.
  • And they can get there in their flying cars. slashdot.org [slashdot.org]

  • the ESA hard at work (Score:3, Funny)

    by j1mmy ( 43634 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @02:12PM (#10090917) Journal
    Maybe they'll name this one the Beagle III. I hope the residents enjoy disappearing into the Martian wasteland.

  • no stairs? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ColonBlow ( 120356 )
    It's going to be tough moving in with just a ladder. How am I supposed to get my waterbed up there?

    It would be cool to park under your house though. Then you can just slide down a pole to your car every morning, batman style.

  • revolutionary thinking, indeed (Score:3, Funny)

    by karb ( 66692 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @02:21PM (#10090995)
    Scientist 1 : Can you think of any problems with residential housing that sits 15 feet in the air?

    Scientist 2 : Why, no! Brilliant! Maybe if humanity comes together we could build standard residential housing that sits hundreds of feet in the air for no reason!

    Scientist 1 and 2 : (imagine where they will make space in their office for the Nobel prizes)

  • Sounds like a maintenance nightmare. What if it cracks? And putting on an addition would be pretty tough.
    The "autonomous" idea is mega-cool, however.
  • as an article on the ESA website dated November 13th 2001, already talk about the spacehouse [esa.int], on earth, with a "true" picture of it!

  • Deja vu (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ptomblin ( 1378 ) <ptomblin@xcski.com> on Friday August 27, 2004 @02:32PM (#10091081) Homepage Journal
    It looks so much like a Buckminister Fuller Dymaxion House that it's scary. Not the one that's in the Henry Ford Museum, but a different design that suspended the whole structure from a central pole. It was also designed to be as self-sufficient as possible, and designed from light-weight materials so it could be air-lifted into place.

    • Re:Deja vu (Score:5, Interesting)

      by shis-ka-bob ( 595298 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @02:44PM (#10091177)
      Yup, I was thinking that too. I never really understood why Bucky was so concerned about the weight of a house. For compressive loads, a good cheap concrete seems quite reasonable. If you are talking about an aircraft, then cost is a function of weight. But I don't buy that arguement for a house. You can already drive a mobile home to a lot and install it an afternoon, but mobile homes are not considered 'premium' because of their mobility. Can any Slashdotter explain why lightweight is an asset in a house?

      I can understand the 'money as function of weight' argument for an Antartic station that is air lifted, but that is rather exceptional. I'm wanting to understand why Bucky's design never took off (pun intented.)

      • One of the factors that Bucky put a lot of weight on was air-portability. He thought that if the house was self-sufficient enough to not need to be on the grid, then it should be light enough that you could drop if off in the wilderness somewhere without roads.

        Bucky was a bit of a loon, but I happen to agree with him in a some ways. I don't care what my suburban home weighs as long as the utility bills are low, but if I were building a cottage, building with native materials (rock, wood, etc) or light we

      • Re:Deja vu (Score:4, Interesting)

        by BelugaParty ( 684507 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @03:36PM (#10091562)
        As the other poster pointed out, Buck was concerned with air dropping, if not the entire structure, then the materials. Also, one of his more wild eyed theories was to have geodesic spheres and domes held up by poles, like veggies on a skewer (or a sky city). He felt such vertical construction would limit the suburban sprawl of the time and still allow each family to have their own 'house'.

        His designs never really 'took off' because they required a lot of change in habits and expectations from the consumer eg: his houses included water misters instead of water faucets and showers; and his target market was, in his own mind, people who need very basic shelter and very basic sanitary utilities, so he paid little attention to decor or style of the time. His designs also did not allow for easy expansion or remodeling.

        I visited a geodesic dome, built on the same lightweight principles as the dymaxion house, and found it to be very elegant in design. From the living room and kitchen at the bottom floor, there was a beautiful spiral staircase that went to the top (about 4 stories up). The various rooms of the house were vertically staggerred along the walls, with the master bedroom overlooking it all. When you looked down from here, it was like being in cloud city or something. Three things to note though: its not a good place for privacy, it could get noisy, and the temperature at the top was considerably warmer than at the bottom. Still, I like some of his designs, but they are really for the spartan/stoic among us.

  • Skip the real life stuff... I just want one of the models to play with. That would make the ultimate dollhouse/GI Joe fort. Unfortunately, it's not exactly Barbie sized, so my six-year-old sister might refuse to give me an excuse to play with it.... Darn that "I only want to play with Barbies" age....

  • The Problem With Housing Innovation in the USA (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The problem with housing innovation in the USA is not a lack of ideas for cheaper and better ways of doing things, it is local and municipal building codes and the multitude of construction trade unions that support their enforcement and expansion. In many areas, housing construction work will -not- get the building inspector's apporval unless he is certain that it was done by union laborers, and they are not interested in anything [pre-fab] that drastically cuts down on their earnings.
  • Shake: So do you got any of those.. space age.. tube.. thingies?

  • oblig. video game reference (Score:4, Funny)

    by LiquidMind ( 150126 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @04:08PM (#10091827)
    All your Antarctic spage-age house are belong to us.

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