Academic Trip

Henry Ford Museum |

The most impressive piece in Henry Ford Museum is Dymaxion house designed by Buckminster Fuller in 1945. After World War II, some airplane manufacturers are turned into housing industries because the housing problem was getting worse and worse. Some designers were working on industrialization of architecture, but most of them didn't succeed. However, Dymaxion House is still a model for the architects who are working on the same research. 

Dymaxion House, Buckminster Fuller, 1945

Dymaxion House, Buckminster Fuller, 1945

The museum has lots of cars, airplanes, furniture and machines which played very important roles in human history. Those machines still can operate with high reliability, one of the reason is that the design is relatively simple, thus the machines are barely out of order.

The details of the Dymaxion House, Buckminster Fuller, 1945

Model T of Ford, Henry Ford, 1908

Lotus Ford F1 racing car, Ford, 1965

Ford Assembly Line (F150) |
It is not allowed to take any pictures in the F150 assembly line. However, it is still very inspiring for MS student. In the first class of proseminar, we had some discussions about pre-fab house, and Ford F150 assembly line demonstrates the possibility about the house industrialization. Automobile is a very complex machine which has many systems inside, and so is a building. Comparing to automobile manufacturing, architecture industry seems to be stuck in a rudimentary stage. In 21 century, we still spend much time on constructing a house. The materials we use nowadays are similar to those used in 19 century. Although some design looks very "future", however the technologies used in architecture is still very primitive.