Exposé house of the future

Intro

The home of the future is a concept that has been popular to explore since the 20th century. There have been many exhibits, such as theme parks, claiming to show how future houses will look and how they will work. These exhibits were sponsored by builders, developers, or technology companies. After a few years, each successive version of the home of the future will start to turn into something dated and old-fashioned, with some of its "futuristic" things becoming commonplace and others that never manage to catch on at all.

The Monsanto House of the Future was a famous example in this genre. 

sommaire

House of the fifties

First, I (am going to) talk about the house in the past. In 1950, the house was very different than today. Indeed, the construction industry has developed many changes during the year. There was a lot of discoveries such as:

(mode;period;insulation;furniture;less ;solid;quantity)

• open plan
• fitted kitchens
• primary colours
• stacking furniture
• new materials - PVC, Formica, fiberglass, rubber, melamine, aluminium, vinyl, plastics
• abstract, geometric patterns
• animal prints

We can say that It was the age of the consumer, but the house didn’t have the same qualities than the house of today.

Introduction

The house of the future was an attraction at Disneyland in California from 1957 to 1967.

It was sponsored by Monsanto Company that built many things in plastics at that time. This house was not only an attraction; indeed, the house was stylish and it was produced by Monsanto, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Walt Disney engineering.

The engineers studied how plastics were used in construction in the 1950s, and they experimented how its particular properties could be put into practice in the future.

The builders designed a home using wings to maximize access to daylight for each room and add privacy for various activities.

Construction

The trio of engineer developed a frame based on four identical U-shape wings. Each wing was composed by 2 parts for the floor and 2 parts for the roof...  Like in traditional construction, the foundations were in concrete.  All the elements were prefabricated in a factory with fiberglass. This modularity would allow for facility of production and distribution on a large scale. The structure was reinforced by epoxy support columns, laminated wood beams, and laminated safety glass. The roof elements were tied together with steel tension rods. This house demonstrated an increased acceptance of plastic as an exploitable material for the construction industry. Indeed, when Disneyland decided the demolition of the house, there were many difficulties because the house resisted during two weeks…