HUM106: Experience of Modern Art
Week 8 Discussion
Preparation
To prepare for this discussion:
· Read Chapter 21 in your text, “Architecture and Engineering,” pages 556–557, to learn about architect Richard Buckminster Fuller and the Dymaxion House.
· Urban Planning and Airports
· City planning has been a dream of architects since antiquity, and has only occasionally been realized, as in the Hellenistic cities built after the conquests by Alexander the Great, Roman forums, Renaissance and Baroque piazzas, the Imperial Forbidden City of Peking, and Baron Haussmann’s rebuilding of Paris in the nineteenth century. Although Le Corbusier was one of the visionaries of European planning in his designs for a new Paris, it was only at Chandigarh (see fig. 21.10 ) that he was able to realize some of his ideas. Brasília was perhaps the most complete realization of a new city plan in the twentieth century (see fig. 21.31 ).
· One opportunity for a distinctly modern kind of urban planning was offered by the airports that proliferated in the 1950s and 60s. Unfortunately, very few of these were successfully realized. With some exceptions, the architecture proved routine and its solutions for such problems as circulation were found to be inadequate. New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport is a vast mix of miscellaneous architectural styles illustrating the clichés of modern architecture. A few individual buildings rise above the norm. One is Eero Saarinen’s (1910–61) TWA Terminal ( fig. 21.49 ), with its striking airplane-wing profile and interior spaces, clearly suggestive of the ideal of flight. In 1961–62, Saarinen had the opportunity to design a complete terminal at the Dulles Airport near Washington, D.C. ( fig. 21.50 ). The main building—with its upturned floating roof and the adjoining related traffic tower—incorporates an exciting and unified design concept. Saarinen here also resolved practical problems, such as transporting passengers directly to the plane through mobile lounges. Because of the increase in air traffic, Dulles was expanded in the mid-1990s to more than double its original size, reminding us that architectural form often derives from changing functions. In the 1960s Saarinen had predicted such an expansion, and hence left behind explicit architectural plans for future use. The final design, completed by the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, remained loyal to Saarinen’s original plans; the building’s design was extended by 320 feet (97.5 m) at either end, thereby altering the airport’s proportions but leaving the basic form undisturbed.
· 21.50
· Eero Saarinen, Dulles Airport, 1961–62. Chantilly, Virginia.
· Architecture and Engineering
· To many students of urban design, the solutions for the future seemed to lie less in the hands of the architects than in those of the engineers. Architects themselves were closely following new engineering experiments, particularly such new principles of construction as those advanced by Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983). Fuller was the universal man of modern engineering. As early as 1929 he designed a Dymaxion House, literally a machine for living that realized Le Corbusier’s earlier concept in its use of automobile and aircraft construction techniques (see The Dymaxion House, below). In the early 1930s he built a practical three-wheeled automobile, which was recognized as one of the few rational steps toward solving the problem of city traffic congestion, but which was never put into production. These and many other inventions led ultimately to his geodesic dome structures, based on tetrahedrons, octahedrons, or icosahedrons. These domes, which can be created in almost any material and built to any dimensions, have been used for greenhouses, covers for industrial shops, and mobile, easily assembled living units for the American Army. Although Fuller’s genius had long been widely recognized, it was only in the second half of the twentieth century that he had an opportunity to demonstrate the tremendous flexibility, low cost, and ease of construction of his domes. Many innovative structures were constructed for Expo ’67, including Safdie’s Habitat (see fig. 21.39 ), but Fuller’s geodesic dome ( fig. 21.51 ) dominated the whole exposition. The structure was a prototype of what he called an “environmental valve,” which encloses sufficient space for whole communities to live within a physical microcosm. The American Pavilion at Expo ’67 was a triumphant vindication of this engineer-architect, whose ideas of construction and design promised to make most modern architecture obsolete.
· Technique The Dymaxion House
· Visionary designer R. Buckminster Fuller proposed a new type of prefabricated structure as an answer to widespread housing shortages, especially among families with low incomes, in the 1920s. It was called the Dymaxion House, its name derived from three terms associated with his design philosophy: dynamic maximum tension. Dynamism relates to Fuller’s interest in energy, especially a maximum use of energy that eliminates waste. The notion of tension related to his interest in the suspension principles used in the construction of modern bridges and radio towers. Fuller harnessed these ideas in the design of the Dymaxion House, a round structure with a domed roof surmounted by a passive ventilator that would provide fresh, cool air year-round. The shell of the hive-like house was constructed of lightweight aluminum and the whole structure was suspended on a central core, what Fuller called a “mast,” which not only provided the main support but also enclosed all plumbing and wiring, allowing for flexible, modular spaces around it. The interior of the house was segmented into four or five pie-shaped wedges to accommodate different domestic activities: cooking, socializing, sleeping, hygiene, etc. The house was estimated to cost $6,500, then the price of a luxury Cadillac automobile and considerably less than conventional houses. It could be shipped easily in an aluminum tube, then assembled by its owner. No single component weighed over 10 lb., making it possible for two persons of moderate strength to erect it. Although the house first appeared in 1929—shown in Chicago’s Marshall Field department store (see fig. 8.1 )—it was never mass-produced as Fuller envisioned it would be.
· Fuller’s projects demonstrate as clearly as any that modern architecture involved diverse styles and philosophies, showing that there is no single form to answer a particular function. The same political, economic, and cultural influences that contributed to the heterogeneity of responses to World War II, the Cold War, and the expansion of industrialism around the world by visual artists express themselves through the utopian projects of Le Corbusier, the triumphant purity of Mies’s skyscrapers, and the optimistic dynamism of Fuller’s geodesic dome.
· 21.51
· Buckminster Fuller, American Pavilion, Expo ’67, 1967. Montreal, Canada
Read the article titled, “Future Man From Venus,”
Future Man from Venus
by Wayne Mayhall II
Jacque Fresco in a laboratory constructed of concrete and steel. Once completed, the structure will contain built-in furniture and bubble windows.
Seventy-four-year-old inventor Jacque Fresco aims to change the world — by building a city of the future.The first thing everyone notices about Jacque Fresco is that it’s impossible to keep up with him. Tan from his bald head to his bare feet, sporting a goatee and wearing only shorts, he dresses for comfort but his mind thrives on work. Victim of 74 years of gravity, his 5 foot, 4 inch frame remains slightly hunched as he scurries furiously around his 22-acre model city of the future at 21 Valley Lane, outside the Central Florida town of Venus.
Fresco discusses sketches for his movie, Welcome to the Future, such as these space-age aircraft.
He rises at 5:30 a.m. and adds a few more sketches to the hundreds he’s drawn over the years —sketches of a car with only 32 movable parts or a futuristic train that travels around the world at 3,000 miles per hour by magnetic propulsion. Afterwords, he steps outside he small, streamlined concrete dome and calls he’s gators to the edge of a pond to say, “Good morning.” He likes this quite time when the steam is still rising off the water, before the rest of the world awakens.
“That’s when I get my thinking done,” he says.
When the sun finally climbs and hangs itself in the sky, he rides his lawnmower, cutting paths through the tropical underbrush a blade’s width, from one geodesic dome buried in the woods to the next — there are no sidewalks in this natural setting. Or he confers with the welder to be sure he’s putting a certain piece of metal in it’s proper place, at the correct angle. The welder welcomes his coaching. He’s never worked on such a unique architectural design in a 50-year career he thought had seen it all.
A workshop, soon to be completed, is one component of Fresco’s future city.
These dome shapes, the circular concrete pier that juts out over the pond, the swimming pool with a miniature mountain range as a backdrop, the dozens of models — from space vehicles and a bathroom of the future to universities that float on the ocean — they are all components Fresco had constructed in Venus for his most ambitious project to date: creating the city of the future.
It will be built around the environment and have a circular theme, holding up to 2 million people. Everyone will use everything but no one will own anything. There will be no money, lawyers, businessmen, or crime. Instead, people will work in their chosen field and education will be tailor-made to suit each individual’s pace.
Space Shuttle
Cities around the world will be linked by other communication systems such as teleportation and teletactile (place your hand in a projected waterfall and feel the wetness), as well as a transportation system circling the globe 24 hours a day. Living environments will be controlled by a central, voice-activated computer built into the walls of each home. In tern, entire cities will be controlled by a central correlation computer. Old age will not longer be a stigma because people will live fuller, longer lives and surgery will be performed telescopically by the best surgeons around the world.
Friends and colleagues have a shorthand way of acknowledging Fresco’s prodigious Energy for his project. “Oh, you know Jacque,” they say.
Fresco and his assistant Roxanne Meadows on a bridge built to last. Behind them is Fresco’s home in Venus, Florida.
Through his years, the multi-disciplinarian has harnessed this never-ending supply of energy to produce results in several fields. He work with noted behaviorist B.F. Skinner and psychologist Donald Powell Wilson, author of My Six Convicts, to reveal information responsible for rearranging popular thought on why people act and react to social stimuli.
Models, like this home and helicopter created by Roxanne Meadows, transform Fresco’s ideas into 3-D. The center of the helicopter remains stationary wild outside spins.
A workshop, soon to be completed, is one component of Fresco’s future city.
He also did some experimenting of his own, having once tied horns to the head of a dog to prove behavior is learned. He was right. After several days with horns, the dog was charging like a bull.
Automobile
As an inventor, he developed a three-wheel automobile consisting of only 32 moving parts. He designed a pre-fabricated aluminum house in conjunction with the Aluminum Co. of America in 1945 that was the prototype for thousands to follow and developed dozens of medical tools and devices. And in 1969, he co-authored a book, Looking Forward, about his utopia of tomorrow.
Helicopter
As an industrial engineer, he developed systems for noiseless and pollution-free aircraft and electro-dynamic methods for de-icing aircraft wings. He was one of the first research engineers to develop a technique for reviewing three-dimensional motion pictures without special glasses.
His speech is nonstop and filled with references to technical components, determinants, and antisocial restructuring. He interrupts and disagrees constantly because one idea triggers an avalanche of others.
He likes to make daring statements such as, “All politicians are corrupt and therefore useless.” “That’s propaganda” in his way of dismissing dogma, which he hates. He is restless, passionately curious, irreverent, blatantly honest, and very sharp. He is also one of the few living scientist whose ideas and philosophies threaten to shift scientific paradigms on a regular basis.
Meadows works on a technical drawing of a central computer that will control entire cities.
“Everything in this country is incorrect. Psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologists, and scientists try to adjust people to this culture,” says Fresco. “But to be adjusted to this mess we are in is to turn out worse then we began. That’s why I have always attacked our basic system of values.”
Despite his accomplished, Fresco remains controversial. His, after all, are not the kind of views with which the scientific community can simply agree to disagree.
For instance, he once worked with prisoners and inner-city gangsters and determined that politicians, church goers, and even Mother Teresa were to blame for their problems; everyone but the gangsters and prisoners themselves.
“It’s a question of changing your religion,” he says. “We have a society of ‘do-gooders.’ No one wants to get down to the real problem. No one wants to believe the least of these is a true reflection of us all.”
Unlike some authorities on a particular subject, Fresco has no acronyms soup following his name. He never attended college; doesn’t even have a high school diploma. He was born in 1916 and grew up in California. His dad was an agronomist, his mom a housewife. Intellectually precocious, he found school boring at an early age, even though the teacher roped off a section of the classroom exclusively for him to learn at his own accelerated pace.
The blinds hang outside the windows of Fresco’s dome-shaped home to cool the residents inside.
“It was the late ‘30s and I hadn’t been to school in almost four months when the truant officer finally caught up with me,” he recalls. “The principal told me I had to go to school so I could become a doctor or a lawyer and pledge allegiance to my country. I asked him to questions: ‘Why do I have to be what you or society dictates?’ and ‘Why do I have to pledge allegiance to a country before I have seen the rest of the world?’ Maybe I want to pledge allegiance to all countries, to world democracy.”
Following his dissertation, the 14-year-old promptly stormed out of the office, went home and built his first radio controlled flying saucer. He never returned to school.
As might be expected from someone who thrives on combating the states quo, Fresco hasn’t been content to rest on past laurels. His latest endeavor, besides building a city of the future, is to get a movie made about the project.
“How long will it take to change human values? 90 days,” he says. “If we can get this movie out there, in 90 days people will realize what it will take to build the first model city. Then others will follow.”
History may prove him wrong, but Fresco doesn’t care. What he cares about is stripping the rugs off the evolutionary ladder, puncturing the anthropocentric view of life.
He admits the odds are stacked against him. But “consider Pasteur,” he says. “He was no doctor. He was a chemist. The Wright brothers were bicycle mechanics and Edison had three months of formal schooling.”
As for those who continue to question his direction, Fresco views their doubt as “added motivation to bring (his) utopian world of tomorrow into today.
“Fuel for my fire,” Fresco says. “Fuel for my fire.”
· to learn about Jacque Fresco, inventor, artist, futurist, and his life’s work building the city of the future. (See Below)
Fuller and Fresco were artistic visionaries.
Please respond to the following in a post of 150 to 200 words:
· Describe the political, economic, and cultural influences at work in Fuller’s and Fresco’s architecture.
· Based on your reading about modern architecture and two of its visionaries, identify and explain the most important characteristics modern architects employ in their designs and innovations.
In a post of 60 to 75 words, please respond to at least one other post. Choose to respond to those who have few or no responses.
Part 2: Student Response (Respond To Student Below)
Bridgette Flowers
RE: Week 8 Discussion
Hello professor and class,
Modern architecture structures are meant to focus more on materials than charm. Most modern structures may seem uninteresting to some. But they focus more on a futuristic look using glass, steel, and concrete. These buildings or houses were created with basic shapes and forms in rectangular shapes. Modern doesn’t have to mean current and it does save you more money in a way because the products are cheaper. I actually like looking at modern work that stands out to me more than anything.
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