Designing Future and House in mid-20th Century Architecture: Dymaxion, Futuro and the Metabolist Capsule

Date

2024-1

Author

Bozacı, Arman

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This study dwells on the conceptions of future and house in twentieth century architecture. The post-war periods, which witnessed immense societal and environmental changes, both built and natural, due to massive destructions and losses offered a ground for discussions on the future of cities, housing and daily life and thus were particularly productive in this regard. It presents briefly the nature of technological developments, and the associated principles of design, production and building in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to set the historical context and conceptual framework. It elaborates the history of the experimental aspect of architectural thought and practice, which often took the conceptualisation and production of ‘house’ at its core and used the private setting as an implementation lab of ideas. The discussion takes to its focus certain prefabricated houses that were developed in the aftermath of the second world war, in conjunction with science fiction literature and theory as a cultural reference point behind their designs. Three major examples are discussed in this scope: the Dymaxion houses designed by R. Buckminster Fuller in the United States of America in 1927 and 1941-47; Finnish architect Matti Suuronen’s Futuro which was designed and built between 1965-68; and finally, Kisho Kurokawa’s Metabolist Capsules built in 1972 (Capsule House K in Nagano and the Nakagin Capsule tower in Tokyo) after Osaka Expo 70 which was a pinnacle moment in Japanese architecture.

Subject Keywords

Future, House, Science Fiction, Modernism, Prefabrication

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/107798

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis