R. Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House was inspired by a desire to create widely available low cost housing. Fuller believed that by adopting the efficient and cost-effective assembly-line production methods used for the automobile he could produce a home at the same price as a car. The unusual hexagonal-shaped house was clad with double-panel vacuum-glazed walls and was fully air-conditioned. Its central aluminum core housed all mechanical equipment and provided the support structure for the roof and floor. Fuller's goal, "maximum gain of advantage from minimal energy input," was never realized, but his concept introduced a radical new way of living to the general public. Despite numerous early orders, only one modified postwar version of the house was ever built.
Publication excerpt from an essay by Bevin Cline and Tina di Carlo, in Terence Riley, ed., The Changing of the Avant-Garde: Visionary Architectural Drawings from the Howard Gilman Collection, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2002, p. 16.
