Art: Beyond the Horizon

What are the latest new ideas in house design? Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art, which makes a specialty of scanning the horizon, last week displayed two from the horizon—or a bit beyond. Both were still in the model stage. ¶ The Geodesic House, which looks at quick glance like an airy, latticework igloo, is the work of ingenious Designer R. Buckminster Fuller (TIME, Nov. 7, 1946, et seq.). Fuller’s new design-aims at economy and simplicity. He chose the dome shape in order to cover the largest area with the least surface, and because such a house should be easier to cool and heat than conventional ones. The surface itself, he says, can be transparent (and closed off with a parachute-like curtain) or opaque. Various floor levels are suspended by cables, can be raised or lowered hydraulically. Included in the projected house are Fuller-manufactured kitchen, laundry and bathroom units which can be placed on wheels and moved anywhere in the dome and connected to flexible hoses and electrical wiring. Fuller intends to rent, not sell his houses and units, hopes to price them as low as $100 a month. A dome owner, taking his family on vacation, can save rent on his units by phoning Fuller and having him remove the bathroom, etc., until the family returns. ¶The Endless House, an ellipse-shaped model somewhat resembling a large, smooth stone, is the work of Vienna-born Frederick Kiesler. Designer Kiesler calls it the Endless House because its structure is “continuous”: the floor curves smoothly into the walls, which become the ceiling, then the walls again. Ideally, the construction would be reinforced concrete, but it can be made of wood as well. Apart from a study and two mezzanines, the rooms are separated only by movable walls. Another innovation: a set of prisms called a “color clock,” which peers out of the roof like an observatory telescope, catches the sun’s rays and reflects the spectrum colors into the house; as the sun’s position changes, so do the refracted colors. Conceivably, Endless House owners would be able to tell time by the color clock, e.g., “half-past blue,” “a quarter to pink,” “yellow-is.” Possible cost of an Endless House: $60,000 to $75,000.