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Space-Age Houses
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..."
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........
-Teiresias
Should be perfect for Florida and other places with "high winds", using ultra-light composites... :-)
Karma: Excellent (My Karma? I wish...:-( )
"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.
Wasn't the 1960s the "space age"? If so, I live in a space age house!
Let's not forget that one can hate his government, but love his country.
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?
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!
You probably shouldn't click this.
All new SpaceHouses come with the band Kraftwerk.
can't sleep. clowns will eat me.
As a ferniture deliverer I see a problem. How the heck do you get large things like couches in it? A crane?
Moo!
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.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
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.)
It seems to me, living in a typical European location is a dangerous thing to do
"Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
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)? 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.
And from TFA, the structure they're talking about can withstand 220 km/h (140 mph) winds.
So I'd say it's pretty sturdy. Lightweight means less inertia which means it's easier to withstand some strong forces.
Cheers, Matt
Terrorist, bomb, al Qaeda, nuclear, yellowcake, kill, assassinate. Carnivore is dead... long live Echelon.
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.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
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!"
Because light is better than strong and heavy. In a gentle earthquake still most of the injuries are caused by fixtures and fittings flying around or objects falling from shelves. This increases but with the strength of the quake but almost all deaths are caused by crushing or suffocation when a structure collapses. Yes you would be flying around like seeds in a pod but unless your computer monitor decides to hit you back for all the times you whacked it then you can at least know you are going to survive with a few bruises.
Of course, you could also jump into your time machine and visit the house of the future 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.
-- I have monkeys in my pants.
And they can get there in their flying cars. slashdot.org
Well, the design goals that support these idea include :
- must be assembled in situ. So transporation dictates that the components must be fairly lightweight. Starting out lightweight also means that additional highly effective insulation materials can be added to minimise heat loss to the environment.
- must withstand cold. Space proven materials can already stand up to the extremes of cold.
- aerodynamic design. Carbon reinforced plastic is great for forming into non-flat shapes. Note that all the pictures in the article show structures that look like they are designed to have low wind resistance when compared to traditional cabin shapes.
- non-polluting at end of life. Lightweight structures that may be dissassembled and released from their ground tethers are better than traditional buildings that may have to use concrete foundations.
I wonder if this style of building is something that will spread to normal life. If it could be made low cost, then it would sure beat having a mobile home !!
Come to think of it, the Texas coast, just south of Galveston has some houses that look a bit similar to this, though the ones I've seen look more like they are made of sheet metal.
-- "It's not stalking if you're married!" My Wife.
Maybe they'll name this one the Beagle III. I hope the residents enjoy disappearing into the Martian wasteland.
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.
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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)
Jack Valenti and the MPAA are to technology as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone
*does the currency conversion* About 350 quid for a house? I might consider moving to the US after all.
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.
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
TFA does not say that they advocate replacing ALL current building methods with this. If you did RTFA you would have noticed this:
This was NOT designed for Florida, it was designed for Europe/Antarctica.
Hooptie
"Heavens, it appears that my weewee has been stricken with rigor mortis!" -- Stewie Griffin
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.
>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 troll it would say something like "Afghanistan is free of the Taliban", "Cheney is better qualified than Edwards", "2/3 of al Qaueda's leaders are now in Guantanamo or in Hell", "Support traditional values -- vote Bush", or something along those lines.
Sorry, but nonsense offends me.
All your Antarctic spage-age house are belong to us.
This sig contains repetition and redundancy.
NASA developed Tang? That's funny, I thought General Foods developed Tang in 1957 (original USPTO trademark registration #0670697, filed Oct 16, 1957, renewal [current?] #1974439), and NASA was signed into law in 1958.
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