| There
are four major aspects of the postUsonian
technology: first, the technology that is of the
structure - how it is built; second, the technology
of the energy flows through the habitat
- heat, electricity, food; third, the technology
in the
house - that augments life processes; fourth,
the process technology by which the Project is
conducted -
and the means by which any
house project is managed, as well as, the ENTERPRISE as
a whole. |
| Some
of this technology will be proprietary - some
not. The proprietary technology will be “open
source” within a “closed” (I prefer the term
focused) network. Each of the three
Networks of the ValueWeb
(Investor,
Producer, Customer), will has access to, and
will participate in the development of, the
technology
by three degrees of separation (the three “clamshells”
of each Network) [link]. |
| While
these three aspects of technology are distinct
and they act together as a system. The building
process alters the design and visa versa; the
augmentation [link] technology
depends on each houses program; all these factors
impact the structure.
This is one reason why and one way how that
every home built will be different than any other. |
|
| SFIA
Architects - Master Builders [link] will
provide the design and engineering for the core
concepts of the postUsonian.
AI [link] will
provide structural components and interior components
and trim. In time, other designers,
engineers, architects inventors, manufactures and
builders will contribute designs and components.
Their contribution
will
become part of the ValueWeb IP/IC [link] and
they will derive just
compensation
for their
efforts protected by the ValueWeb protocols [link] (see
below). Each addition, be it design or component,
will add to the postUsonian grammar and kit-of-parts. |
| As
System’s Integrator, MG Taylor will create
standards (aesthetic and technical), modules, dimensions
and armature elements [link] (including
Collars) so that these
various components can “plug and play” in
a wide variety of unique assemblages (see NASA
Story [link]).
The components will be designed/manufactured on
various
scales
(levels
of recursion [link]);
in time, the variety (both conceptual and material
[link])
now only possible with totally custom, costly architecture
will be available
at the lower costs associated with high volume
construction. This was achieved 35 years ago with
swimming pools (swimming pool story [link]).
The ability to do this is not a theory, it is possible
to do this. It does, however, take an concerted
systematic effort over a period of a few years. |
| There
are some processes best done in the field, some
best done in the shop. There are traditional materials
that are still better than anything modern and
some modern industrial materials that are unmatched
for their function, beauty and utility. |
| There
are materials we can associate with EARTH:
compacted earth, concrete, brick, slate, tile,
etc.; they
are unmatched in beauty, persistence, warmth, symbol
and flexibility. These will be used for foundations,
terraces, ground floors, fixed-mass walls and certain
vertical elements around utility cores (fireplaces,
kitchens,
storage, etc.). These materials, and the forms
they create, anchor the structure to the EARTH and
bond the building and its inhabitants to physical,
tactile, visual reality. These materials were used
extensively in the traditional Usonians. If you
think of it, all these materials at just different
forms of earth; the postUsonians will rise up out
of earth-sculpture forms (creating patios, micro-climes
and food growing areas [link])
with these various compacted/dense forms of earth
(compacted earth, concrete, brick,
slate, tile) from which the structure, enclosing
the living spaces, will spring. |
| Wood
is still the great building material.
It is close to the ideal material. Besides
being a fantastic and flexible structural material
it is a premium finish material. No human-made
material, yet, comes close to wood when you factor
strength,
warmth, finish, its renewable nature and economy.
The closest are composite materials which is basically
what
wood is and this similarity indicates the best
way to use it given modern means. The Usonians
employed wood extensively as will
the
postUsonians. There are some negatives with the
traditional methods
of using wood: rot, weathering, poor attachment
techniques, limitations of shapes. With modern
glues, bonding materials and finishes it is possible
to employ methods now common to the boat building
industry to create structures of immense strength,
freedom of form and almost
unlimited durability. A “cold molded” boat
hull will displace more water than steel at less
weight
and create a much more livable environment with
lower maintenance costs than a vessel made of
steel. Wood, in the post Usonian, will be an integrated
structural material and inside/outside finish.
It will form modular units that will enclose spaces
of unlimited form and will be capable of great
cantilevers freeing this part of the structure
from the bonds of Earth. These wood elements will
anchor to the masonry, compacted earth,
concrete cores, and fly into space creating both
interior
and exterior delight. |
| Glass
and plastics have made enormous gains in the last
15 years. These materials can now be structural
and formed into any shape and “programmed”
with a near infinite variety of characteristics
in graded transitions: hardness,
transparency, translucency, opaqueness, color,
texture, flexibility and strength. Components made
of of these materials can be combined by a broad
variety of means from mechanical fasteners to glues,
caulking compounds and by actual bonding. “Glazing”
made of these new materials can perform traditional
roles:
window and window walls, as well as new roles:
structural elements, passive and active solar systems,
climate creating screens, waterproofing and roofing
materials. |
| What
will distinguish the postUsonian the most will
be its basic method of construction which will
employ masonry, wood and glass materials in an
entirely new way. Mr. Wright talked about Organic
Architecture
being made of an integrated, interlinked continuous
structure. He made great strides towards this ideal
with the means that he had. Architectural structures,
today, remain largely made of pieces mechanically
fastened together into a “structure” that has little
synergy.
Fuller rightly criticized traditional architecture
for this lack of structural poetry. To achieve
his ends, Fuller designed largely in metals that
required precision manufacturing and high volume.
When we worked on the Hypercar, one of Emery Lovens’
points was that it is the automobile industry’s
adherence to metals that drives its high tooling
costs, thus, volume requirements. Composite
structures can be economically achieved in low
volume. For a car this most likely means high tech
composites.
For a building it does not. Wood will do very well
and this approach can be accomplished by prefabrication
or site fabrication for the light weight, flexible
“tension” elements of the structure. The “earth”
materials will serve for compression elements
where weight is not an issue and where the craft
of doing the work creates, by its own
process, an esthetic experience and enduring value
in the final result. The glazing element, in this
approach, can be much more extensive and achieve
a much higher degree of structural integrity than
the “hole in the wall” approach to windows - and
even so-called “window walls” - as architects presently
conceive them. |
| By
employing computers and CAD technologies, templates
of great accuracy can be generated for both production
shop and one-off field fabrication projects by
owner-builders. The geometric challenges that drive
added costs
for buildings of unusual shapes can be be defeated.
The box, which is not a very good structure, inherently,
can be thrown away for good. Wright, with
the Usonians was
held by materials, methods and field knowledge
to basically rectilinear shapes (if not in plan,
in the vertical). He achieved incredibly wonderful
spaces by the way
that he
manipulated
these forms. There is still untapped potential
in the rectangle and there is no reason to abandon
it altogether. There is also no reason to be
a slave to it just because of primitive in-place
building methods, the way that materials are
presently
cut and
shipped “stick method” and the dullness of architectural
components which are mostly manufactured versions,
out of cold, cheap materials, of centuries old
forms. With the means at hand, we can go well beyond
these
limits
and
explore
a much
richer
geometric
space.
These shapes can respond to conditions of utility,
view, light and exposure at a much greater level
of intimacy than traditional forms allow, as well
as, accomplish a significantly higher level of
structural
efficiency
for the materials used. All of this adds up to
the opportunity to create structures of greater
durability and utility, far more fitness between
function and space, and with a much broader potential
for expression. |
|
| Energy
is essentially the flow and transition of the
potential difference between primary materials.
In this viewpoint,
this includes what we typically call energy
as well as the water and food cycles. Physically,
humans are basically heat engines. The structure
of the building mediates between the ranges existing
in nature and those comfortable and useful to
humans. The flow of air, water and nutrients
through
a human
is essentially no different than through a building,
a society or the larger system we call the planet. |
| Of
course we do not now typically engineer our buildings
as if these were all variants of the same process.
We break everything down into disciplines as
if there was little or no relationship between
any of these phenomena. This makes it possible
for experts of different stripes to reduce their
engineering process to formula, earn an easy
living and therby design incredibly inefficient,
expensive,
wasteful buildings all in the name of efficiency
and economy. Have you ever performed a full system
life cycle cost analysis of what your toilet
costs you monthly; or, the vegetables you eat;
or the lights you use, the way you heat and cool
your house, the transportation costs that it
inherently requires? If you have, you know
that the cost of building your house
is trivial (although
the
cost of financing it is not!) compared to the
cost of living in it. You also understand the
the design of its not-integrated “systems” imposes
“hidden” and unmeasured costs and determines
much of your life-style. By design your
habitat is unaffordable. This is the measure of
the waste of energy that is involved including
your own. |
| For
their day, given the knowledge, materials and
technologies available, the Usonians were wonders
of energy management. Many were decent “passive
solar houses” even by modern standards. Mr. Wright
did not set out to do this as an isolated goal.
The Usonians were a natural result of an organic [link] approach
to design and the consequence of their strict
economy. They make a rare example, to be found
anywhere, where art,
economy and ecology are so integrated. Part
of this equation, it should be remembered, is
that the inhabitant of the Usonian is not
over
indulged by an inflated energy-economy that makes
little sense [link]. It
is amazing (to put it kindly) that houses built
today
and considered progressive are not significantly
advanced compared the Usonian which is going
on 65 years of age. To stay true to this tradition
means to incorporate and integrate all that is
known and available today and make as as substantial
a leap into the future as Wright accomplished.
Not an insignificant challenge. |
| Such
an advance does not require a breakthrough in
any specific technology - although over time
this will surely happen. It will be the consequence
of integration. |
|
| A
postUsonian will have to be capable of being
as augmented as any work environment in the world,
with a difference, however. This difference is
made up of a combination of transparency and
environmental amenity. |
| By
transparency, I mean that the technology is completely
invisible, seamless and non intrusive. |
| By
environmental amenity I am referring to the greater
range of this aspect that is typically available
in the office environment. |
|
Enterprise
and Project Management
Technology
|
| As
stated elsewhere, this will be a distributed
enterprise. It will build up, over time, locations
where
a local critical mass and, thus, capibility will
exist. Most areas will have to be supplied from
afar.
Each
postUsonian
house will be different yet all will
share architectural
grammar and and certain components. Some will
be highly custom, others an adaptation of standard
plans. Some will be owner built, some contractor
build, some largely prefabricated, some a combination
of all three. Financing and other services will
be provided no matter the location. |
| To
facilitate and develop such an extended enterprise
will require the full utilization of the World
Wide
Web and
the many tools that make it up: e-mail, web-sites,
BLOGs [link],
WIKIs [link],
order fulfillment software, multimedia, computer
tutorials, and so on. At present, these
tools stand semi-isolated from one another. MG
Taylor, as ValueWeb Systems Integrator,
will provide a method that melds these
tools into an integrated system. In addition,
the MG
Taylor organizational and design PROCESSES will
be employed: DesignShop [link] events,
7 Domains Workshops [link],
PatchWorks exercises [link],
ValueWeb architecture and protocols [link]. |
| The
specific BUILD process (the synthesis
of the “swimming pool method” and the NASA process
[link])
will be transferred to all ValueWeb Inner
Clamshell [link] members.
This technology will provide a tremendous “competitive
advantage” for the ValueWeb. |
| There
are specific methods in the MG Taylor Patent
and Patent Pending related to the naming, locating,
transporting, tracking and fitting of pieces
and components [link] that
will be employed. |
| In
total, a complete system and method from idea
to actualization to the creation of Intellectual
capital [link] will
be systematically employed to radically reduce
cost and time in the creation of these
habitats and their life-cycle management as a
real asset [link]. |
|
| This
technology, applied to the realm of architecture,
is literally the sum of 46 years of R&D on my part
with the goal in mind - from the beginning [link] - to
be able to build this kind of habitat
in an affordable way. Afforadable not only to the
individual, to the society and to the planet; in
other words, sustainable [link]. |
| Great
architecture has always been accessible to the
very rich (if they had the taste and ability to
procure it) [rbtfBook];
the Usonians were remarkable - unprecedented -
in the amount of architecture they provided for
the dollar. Today, 50 years later, we have technologies
almost unimaginable to Wright and his contemporaries.
It would be a travesty - would it not - if we cannot
employ these to significantly advance the state-of-the-art? |
|
|
|
| Return
To postUsonian Index |
|
|
|
|
| Return
To post Usonian Prototypes |
|
|
|
|
Matt
Taylor
Elsewhere
May 22, 2004
|
SolutionBox
voice of this document:
VISION • PHILOSOPHY • PROGRAM
|
posted
May 22, 2004
revised
June 1, 2004
• 200405222.45117.mt • 20040601.333300.mt •
(note:
this document is about 50% finished)
Matt
Taylor 615 525 7053
me@matttaylor.com
Copyright© Matt
Taylor 2004
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