The Dymaxion House

The Dymaxion House was designed by revolutionary architect Buckminster Fuller as “the house of the future”. It was earthquake-proof, used minimal materials, made its own electricity, collected its own water, and weighed only 1.5 tons.

The Dymaxion House, on display at the Henry Ford Museum

In 1928 the United States was in the midst of boom times. The First World War had made the country an economic powerhouse, and post-war prosperity had produced the Roaring Twenties. Fuller decided that he would come up with a new and radical home design that would suit these optimistic and future-looking times.

He called it the Dymaxion (standing for “Dynamic Maximum Tension”). Based on a Russian grain silo that he had studied, the Dymaxion was far ahead of its time. Instead of a traditional frame house, the Dymaxion would be based on a central pillar which would contain all the utilities, including a cistern to store water and a wind turbine to generate power. The outer shell of the house would be hexagonal, 33 feet in diameter, and would be supported by a series of metal wires that extended from the central hub, like the spokes on a bicycle wheel. The whole assembly would be made from flat wooden panels that could be easily shipped. Since the walls did not bear any weight, they could sport enormously large windows for a panoramic view of the outside. And the interior walls would be movable to allow the floor plan to be changed and rooms to be enlarged at will.

Fuller tinkered with his design for several years, but never completely finished it. When the Second World War broke out, the US Army became interested in the design and placed an order for several of the buildings for use in the Middle East, where they could withstand sandstorms and heavy winds.

During the war, production methods for aircraft improved tremendously, however, and Fuller realized that this would be an enormous boost for his Dymaxion House. The airplane industry was based on aluminum, a material that was lightweight, durable, flexible, and could easily be mass-produced on an assembly line. With a few tweaks and improvements, Fuller thought, his Dymaxion could offer a cheap and effective solution to America’s post-war housing crunch. A brand-new Dymaxion House would cost about as much as a high-end automobile.

Fuller changed the floor plan from a hexagon to a circle, which would be stronger, lighter, and use less materials. The outer shell would be made from aluminum panels and plexiglas windows, which would not rust, didn’t need painting or roof tiles, and would last virtually forever. It was shipped flat and was easily assembled at the site into wedge-shaped sections. In between the panels would be a system of gutters and pipes which would collect rainwater and store it in a central cistern. As with the earlier design, a wind turbine would generate enough electricity for a family’s needs.

The house was also designed to use a “dome effect” for internal temperature control. Vents in the roof and near the floor allowed air to circulate naturally, with cool air dropping into the living area in summer and warmer air gathering in winter. The bathroom was specially designed as a single drop-in unit. The shower used a special “fogger” spray head to give a full shower while using only a single cup of water, while the toilet used no water at all—it would shrink-wrap solid waste for disposal.

The Beech Aircraft Company, which had developed extensive experience with aluminum manufacturing during the war, became interested in the idea and signed a contract.  In the end, however, Fuller’s idea was never put into production. He was never really satisfied with the design and kept making changes and improvements in it, refusing to actually produce any until it was “finished”. Beech did construct two full-size prototypes, and science-fiction writer Robert Heinlein is said to have specifically ordered a Dymaxion for himself, but it was never delivered.

In 1948, William Graham, who had invested in the venture, obtained both of the prototypes and assembled them together on his lakefront property to make one complete Dymaxion. His family lived in the Dymaxion until 1990, when it was donated to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn MI. It remains there on display.