Dymaxion House: Buckmaster Fuller
I managed to sneak out of the office for an afternoon last week, hop on the subway to midtown and pop into the MOMA to check out the current exhibit titled “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling”. I find viewing architecture exhibits to be a bit more of a difficult and involved endeavor than looking at a nice crisp contemporary painting exhibit. This one was incredibly dense, loaded with information about the history of prefab houses. Here’s an excerpt from the curatorial statement:
“Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling offers the most thorough examination of the historical and contemporary significance of factory-produced architecture to date. With increasing concern about such issues as sustainability and the swelling global population, prefabrication has taken center stage as a prime solution to a host of pressing needs. The viability of prefabricated structures has long served as a central precept in modern architecture, and it continues to spur imaginative design and the development of innovative manufacturing processes.
The exhibition also features five contemporary prefabricated houses constructed in the outdoor space to the west of the main Museum building, continuing MoMA’s rich history of presenting full-scale architectural projects. Five individuals and architecture firms have been given the unprecedented opportunity to deploy both commercially viable domestic creations and entirely new, speculative prototypes.”
There was a series of artistic renderings and scale models that were fantastic but my favorite piece of the whole exhibit was a drawing of the Cooper Residence by Frank LLoyd Wright. Not only did the exhibit give an amazing historical presentation of what our architects and builders had achieved, but there was a decidedly avant-guard edge to all of the artwork. Quite beautiful!
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