De la ciencia del diseño a la arquitectura sostenible. Buckminster Fuller y la casa Dymaxion
- Autores: Katarina Mrkonjic
- Directores de la Tesis: Jaume Avellaneda Díaz-Grande (dir. tes.), Antonio Armesto Aira (codir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) ( España ) en 2008
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Josep Muntañola i Thornberg (presid.), Fernando Juan Ramos Galino (secret.), Julio Martínez Calzón (voc.), Juan Herreros Guerra (voc.), Ramón Araujo Armero (voc.)
- Materias:
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- Resumen
In the contemporary discourse about environmental issues, connections between the sustainability concepts and works realized by the American inventor Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) are often emphasized. Despite of this, there are no rigorous studies about the nature of these relations, or detailed research about the real applicability of Fullers concepts in the contemporary society.
The object of study of the thesis, on conceptual level, is the Design Science, Buckminster Fuller's theoretic framework, and, on practical level, a creation derived from it: the Dymaxion House, designed and realized between 1927 and 1946. The overall goal of the investigation is to determine in which grade the Fuller's Design Science, through a combination of its strategies, lead to a reduction of the environmental impact of the Dymaxion House, and which is the relevance of these strategies in the contemporary context.
The Design Science, as conceived by Fuller, aimed to carry out an empirical investigation about natural laws in order to apply them afterwards in design, securing its integration in the ecosystem environment. The Design Science bares numerous similarities to some contemporary views on the subject, which favours its investigation.
The Design Science gave birth, among other artefact, to a dwelling: the Dymaxion House. This permit to study the validity of Fuller's ideas, from a practical point of view: if there is a clear link between the contemporary ideas on sustainability and the Design Science, it is possible to obtain some conclusions of environmental advantages and disadvantages of the application of these concepts on one real house. Additionally, the historical distance provides a possibility to observe its entire lifecycle.
The first part of the thesis provides an introduction to the state of the art regarding sustainable architecture and offers a first approach to the Design Science. The complexity of the subject of sustainable architecture, its interconnectedness with economy, sociology and technology, are brought into connection with a study on the panorama of Design Science, (its goals, theoretical bases and methodology) and its relation with some contemporary environmental strategies, not necessarily from the area of architecture.
The second part of the thesis introduces the object of study - the Dymaxion House. Preliminary investigation on the house is provided, along with its context, design evolution, as well as considerations about environmental advantages and disadvantages. This is followed by an analysis of the technological model of the house, seeing its entire lifecycle through a prism of industrialized production.
The third part of the thesis studies practical application of the concepts in the house and their relevance in the contemporary context. Three key concepts, that connect the Dymaxion House with the contemporary environmental strategies, are analysed: "ephimeralization", regeneration and service industry. For these three concepts, The concept formulation by B. Fuller is investigated, as well as personal and general context, theoretical application of the concept to the housing in general, and its practical application to the Dymaxion House. Environmental potentials of concept application are analyzed, from a contemporary point of view.
Reflections about the connections between the formulated findings throughout the thesis lead to a holistic insight about the studied strategies and to a discovery of potential assets and disadvantages of its combinations and application in the housing, contributing through specific conclusions to the existing research about architecture and sustainability.
