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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.)
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
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.
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.
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
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.)
Think global, act loco
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.
All your Antarctic spage-age house are belong to us.
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