Editing Dymaxion house (section)

==Description ==
[[Image:Dymaxion structure.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Interior of Dymaxion house showing structural details. Visible are the partially assembled aluminum ceiling, struts and exterior skin as well as the single central post which supports the entire structure and carries utilities and plumbing.]]  Two Dymaxion houses were prototyped—one indoor (the "Barwise" house) and one outdoor (the "Danbury" house). No Dymaxion house built according to Fuller's intentions was ever constructed and lived in. The only two prototypes of the round, [[aluminum]] house were bought by investor William Graham, together with assorted unused prototyping elements as salvage after the venture failed. In 1948, Graham constructed a hybridized version of the Dymaxion house as his family's home; the Grahams lived there into the 1970s. Graham built the round house on his lake front property, disabling the ventilator and other interior features. It was inhabited for about 30 years, although as an [[Extension (metaphysics)|extension]] to an existing [[ranch house]], rather than a standalone structure as intended by Fuller. In 1990, the Graham family donated this house, and all the component prototyping parts, to the [[Henry Ford Museum]]. A painstaking process was used to conserve as many original component parts and systems as possible and restore the rest using original documentation from the Fuller prototyping process. It was installed indoors in the Henry Ford Museum in 2001 with a full exhibit.

Since there was no evidence of the crucial internal rain-gutter system, some elements of the rain collecting system were omitted from the restored exhibit. The roof was designed to wick water inside and drip into the rain-gutter and then to the cistern, rather than have a difficult-to-fit, perfectly waterproof roof.

There was to be a waterless packaging toilet that deftly shrink-wrapped the waste for pickup for later composting. During the prototyping process, the idea for the packaging toilet was quickly replaced by a conventional septic system because the packaging plastic was not available. Other features worked as advertised, notably the heating, and the passive air conditioning system, based on the "dome effect".

[[Image:Pat2220482fig2.GIF|thumb|200px|{{US Patent|2220482}}, Prefabricated bathroom, by [[Richard Buckminster Fuller]], issued 1940]]
The inhabitants of the much-modified version of the house said that the [[bathroom]]<ref>{{US Patent|2220482}} Prefabricated Bathroom, Richard Buckminster Fuller, Issued Nov. 5, 1940</ref>
was a particular delight. The bathroom consisted of two connected stamped [[copper]] bubbles, built as four nesting pieces. The bottom piece is fully plated in tin/antimony alloy and the top half is painted. Each bubble had a drain.  No area had a radius of less than four inches (10&nbsp;cm), to aid cleaning. The [[commode]], shower, bathtub and sink were molded into the structural shell in one piece. One bubble contained a step-up ergonomic bathtub and shower, high enough to wash children without stooping, but just two steps (16 inches / 40&nbsp;cm) up. The oval tub had the controls mounted on the inside left of the entrance to the oval tub. The other bubble was the bathroom proper with commode and sink. The ventilation for the bathroom was a large silent fan under the main sink, which kept odors away from people's noses. All lighting was totally enclosed.  To prevent fogging, the [[mirror]] faced into the medicine chest, which was ventilated by the fan. A plastic version of the bathroom was available intermittently until the 1980s.<ref>[http://www.bfi.org/about-fuller/big-ideas/dymaxion-world/dymaxion-bathroom Dymaxion Bathroom]</ref>

The large wrap-around windows and lightweight structures were popular with the children, who crawled on the windowsill, and twanged the bicycle-wheel-style main struts.<ref>
{{cite book
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=iOhrizYNIjQC
|title= BuckyWorks Buckminster Fuller's Ideas for Today
|page= 56
|first= J.
|last= Baldwin
|year= 1996
|publisher= John Wiley & Sons, Inc
|accessdate=2016-04-25
|isbn= 0-471-19812-9
}}</ref>

Fuller also designed a 10-story variant which was to have been dropped in place by the ''[[LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin|Graf Zeppelin]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=De la Croix |first1=Horst |last2=Tansey |first2=Richard G. |last3=Kirkpatrick |first3=Diane |title=Gardner's Art Through the Ages |date=1991 |publisher=Thomson/Wadsworth |isbn=0-15-503769-2 |edition=9th |page=[https://archive.org/details/gardnersartthrou00gard/page/1008 1008] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/gardnersartthrou00gard/page/1008 }}</ref>