thoughts on Terradyne (3E and 4E)

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Dammann

One of my architecture professors (from a class in the mid 90s) won a competition in the 70s, designing an ergonomic living module. I loved how he told the story: "I thought, 'this is GREAT! I'm gonna be a SPACE ARCHITECT!'"

This is interesting because it touches on another thing in RAH's "Where To?" article. He opens the article with a projected discussion of what a middle-class home might look like in 2000 (remember this was published in 1950):

It's a suburban home not 200 miles from the city. You pick out your destination from the air while the cab is landing you-a cluster of hemispheresthat makes you think of the houses Dorothy found in Oz.

The cab is assumed to be an automated helicopter. Note that this was supposed to be 2000.

Now, in the 1965 revision RAH admitted that this one was way, way off, and again in 1980 he admited that. The revolution in housing he predicted in 1950never came close to happening.

In this case, that might be more due to social/economic issues than technical change. A lot of what SF used to project as futuristic housing resembles a mass-produced house design proposed by Buckminster Fuller:

Dymaxion House

Dymaxian Images

You can see a '1950s' aesthetic in the pictures of the Dymaxion House, though it's the diners and other buildings of the 1950s that took their inspiration from the house, not vice versa. This was what the future was 'supposed' to look like, as seen from 1950.

But note that what actually got built and lived in from then to now are very traditional houses (and mobile homes, lately). We didn't build Dymaxia, we built Allentown.