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M O B I L E : : A R C H I T E C T U R E
C o l o m b i a
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With the phrase MOBILE ARCHITECTURE we mean an architecture that facilitates the mobility both of the society and the planet, in search of a more comfortable and human destiny, than this one which today - as a civilization- we have created.
The main referent in our work and the main source of inspiration as well, is the life and work of the brilliant architect RICHARD BUCKMINSTER FULLER (1895-1983), one of the most productive, honest, bold and revolutionary minds on the Twentieth Century. We here in Colombia do not want to imitate Fuller, such attitude would be not only impossible but also nonsense. We do want, instead, to guide ourselves by means of the visionary spirit and the ethical attitude of Fuller, because we think that nowadays our troubled planet is in urgent need of a spirit and an attitude as those of Fuller.
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In 1927, overwhelmed by personal difficulties and feeling he was a burden to his family and society, Richard Buckminster Fuller decided to commit suicide, by throwing himself into the cold water of a lake in Michigan, USA. Fortunately, he heard an inner voice which stopped him seconds before he accomplished his decision; this voice advised to give himself another chance. It told him to try proving himself that he was able to do something in relation to solving the more urgent world problems. Therefore, he decided that, from now on, he would devote his entire life to prove, by means of real facts, that a mere man using his own resources and ingenuity in an intelligent way, maybe could transform positively the living conditions on this planet.
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Fuller wondered, how is it that we have the technology required to produce sophisticated weapons, but, at the same time, we have not developed a real solution for something as simple as the lack of affordable housing?
As a response to this inquiry, Fuller proposed a design concept called "Dymaxion", meaning this, to obtain the maximum outcome with the minimum materials and energy involved. Therefore, he started to design and build objects that will be the concretion of the Dymaxion concept: a Dymaxion Car, a Dymaxion Map, a Dymaxion Bath, a Dymaxion House and a Dymaxion Building, among others. A key feature of the Dymaxion objects was to be careful with the natural environment: the Dymaxion House, for example, had a system intended for sewage recycling.
The Dymaxion object that gained more publicity and made Fuller famous worldwide, was the Geodesic Dome, built from tetrahedron. Fuller developed this idea in order to solve the lack of cheap, strong, and smart housing. A house built from a Geodesic Dome, compared to a conventional house in the form of a box, has these advantages: it withstand earthquakes and thunderstorms in a better way; its construction is faster and more clean; it insulates better from outside noise; it requires less materials and labour force, being, in consequence, cheaper and affordable to people with low income; it can be built from weak and cheap materials, such as paperboard, because its strength does not rely on the material itself, but, instead, on the way in which the material are arranged.
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