Supplementary reading

THE PLASTIC HOUSE FOR TOMORROW

Young architects from the architectural department of the Rhode Island School of Design are dreaming up tomorrow’s houses today.

One such house was designed with the help of research material by a graduate of this school. The system is based on cast plastic bubbles linked together, and it permits the creation of almost any size and shape of house. The walls will be giant curved sandwiches, with rigid plastic as outside surfaces and foamed plastic between to act as insulation.

This house will embody the features that are associating more and more with modern living; one-floor living, and a long, low line that makes it blend with its surroundings. The huge glass areas will admit lots of light, and will also tend to add outdoor space to the indoors and increase the feeling of speciousness.

Another house is a beautiful example of what engineers like to call “blue sky thinking”. Its skeleton is a coil of magnesium alloy covered by a vapour barrier and a sprayed coat of concrete, and the floor is concrete. If glass were desired, it could be set between the coils of the frame. The entire structure would rest on pieces of curved precast masonry.

Wild thinking? On the contrary. According to its designer, the spiral framework would be compressed, just like a spring, for shipment to the site. Once there it is expanded, braced with welded pieces between coils, and the skin is applied. Thus would be solved the problems of manufacturing large pieces of house that are still transportable.

Other ideas come to mind. If a family has become larger and wishes to enlarge the house it might hire a pair of bulldozers and stretch their house out to more opulent dimensions.

1 Answer the following questions.

1) What permits the house of the first design to make any size and shape?

2) What makes the house blend with its surroundings?

3) What is the skeleton of the house of the second design made of?

4) What are the advantages of the spiral framework according to the designer of the house?

2 Make a report about the houses described in this article paying attention to their shape and the materials they are made of.

THE INVISIBLE HOUSE

In our image-obsessed, visually accelerated world, disappearing may be the ultimate retreat.

In order to make the house “disappear”, every wall is deflected in shape which lends itself to “dynamic architecture”. Through this technique, the house can never be fully seen or fully comprehended from any single vantage point.

Architects worked on 3 invisibility concepts to create this house: camouflage, motion distortion and optical distortion.

Camouflage: insects like bugs and locusts rely on camouflage to bend into their local environment. For example, the army uses pattern recognition techniques to break down “certain forms” into “uncertain forms (a tree is an uncertain form where a human is a certain form or a “silhouette”). The house does have edges and corners but they are not rectilinear, and the underside of the house and roof can be compared to terrain-like geometries.

Motion distortion: though houses do not move, the deflection in the surface panels of this house encourages the viewer to move around it to fully comprehend it. It is called “non-static” architecture, a new kind of architectural vision for the 21st century.

Optical distortion: reflection and refraction are used to help the house disappear by itself, just like sunlight mirages and weather alter our spatial and visual perception in relation to distance. The swimming pool close to the house is very important as it reflects light into the main living space.

MATERIALS THAT CAN BE IGNORED

The “Invisible house” will be built in Sydney, Australia, but it is reminiscent of architecture in Southern California. The home will be made of carbon fibre composites using technologies from Formula 1 and aerospace industries, meaning it will be extremely light and incredibly strong. The walls are literally paper-thin, which is another reason why it can be qualified as the “Invisible House”. Steel and glass will be used to build the lower level, thus showcasting the upper level as a floating element. Inside, the “Invisible House” will have everything a typical home would have: three bedrooms and two bathrooms on the upper level, along with an open kitchen, dining area and bathroom on the lower level. Construction of the “Invisible House” is set to begin soon, but even neighbours may not notice.

THE INTERNET GETS ONBOARD THE TRAIN

New state-of-the-art technology is enabling passengers to communicate with their mobile devices (phones, laptop and PDAs, etc) with significantly greater reliability than ever before. The German Railway operator Deutsche Bahn AG (DB) is attracting its customers with its advanced communication strategy: nearly 100 ICE fast-speed trains, among others, are currently being equipped with GSM repeater systems (900 and 1800 MHz) developed, installed and serviced by Kokusai Electric Europe (KEE).

Internet applications and mobile telephones have developed into lucrative mass-markets within a short timespan. KEE has designed a product which enables robust reliable GSM and Internet applications at a train speed of up to 300 km/h. Usage can include, for example, e-mail, and all Internet activities, such as banking, research, booking and reservations.

Installed in the DB train carriages, the repeater systems enable robust mobile communication that would otherwise not be possible for two reasons. Firstly, cellular networks are traditionally clustered within urban areas and around motorways. Rail tracks are often situated at the periphery of those network cells, causing insufficient coverage. Secondly, the metallic thermal isolation that is used on modern railway carriages leads to a so-called “Faraday Cage”, which suppresses transmission of GSM signals into and outside of the carriage.

Figure shows the repeater system in place:

1 A repeater is installed in each of the carriages to be covered. It serves to amplify incoming and outgoing radio signals.

2 Leakage cable antennas are fixed below the carriage roof of each high-speed train. Each of the antennas is a coaxial cable whose isolation is perforated with holes or slits:

a) therewith the cable embodies a ‘line antenna’ that is connected to the repeater;

b) the leakage cable sends the radio signals towards the cellular phone;

c) the cellular phone again sends the outgoing signals to the leakage cable;

d) amplified, the signals are then sent to the next base-station via the repeater.

3 The repeater is fixed to a roof-antenna. The antenna maintains the connection to the base-station. The capability of the repeater system has been proven in several field trails in Germany. In a major trail, using a sample of 105 phone calls, a good connection could be established while the repeater was switched on in 83,9 per cent of all cases. Subsequently, using a sample of 84 phone calls on the same track but with the repeater switched off, a good connection could be established in only 53.3 per cent of all cases.