Wayback Machine 1946: Airform House by Wallace Neff
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03. 4.08
Post World War II there were all kinds of experiments going on to accommodate the returning GIs and their new baby boom families. California architect Wallace Neff tied a Goodyear rubber balloon down to a concrete slab and sprayed it with concrete, then insulation, then more concrete. Result: the "Airform" house. According to the Washington Post:
Neff was an unlikely inventor of the modest bubble house. Grandson of the founder of Rand McNally, he grew up in luxury. As an architect he's best known for the Italian-style California mansions he designed for Hollywood's glitterati. Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and C ary Grant all owned Neff-designed houses. ( Madonna and Brad Pitt are among more recent celebrities to own his work.)
under construction
Only one airform house remains in the United States. It's a single-dome model, built in Pasadena, Calif., for the architect's brother. Neff himself lived in it before his death in 1982. Steve Roden and his wife live in it now.
"It is actually totally wonderful," Steve, an artist, told Answer Man. Only 1,000 square feet, the two-bedroom house has a ceiling that's 12 feet high at its tallest point.
There's hardly any closet space — "a dilemma," Steve admits — and he sometimes hits his head on the curved wall when he gets out of bed. The walls don't go all the way to the ceiling, being more like concrete partitions. Despite all that, Steve loves the house, which he likens to an inside-out swimming pool.
"It just has a very warm kind of open, comfortable feeling," he said. "It's not claustrophobic at all." ::Book of Joe via ::Materialicious
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This should be a great departure point for sustainable housing: quick, cheap, inexpensive materials and a minimum of skill required. The composite construction integrates a lot of insulation and essentially provides a SIPS panel with complex curvature.
While a dome is the simplest geometric form, the balloons could be modified to provide other shapes, several grouped together, multiple stories, etc. So there could be more traditional forms, and easier to populate spaces within the homes, without compromising the structure or the method.
The inflatable balloon also eliminates the need for a great deal of formwork, which adds a great deal of time and expense to conventional concrete construction.
A similar house was built two towns over from me. They are built in much the same way - on an airform. Concrete is pretty energy intensive on the front end, but reportedly extremely efficient from then on out.
http://static.monolithic.com/gallery/homes/gay/index.html
Great idea, available today @ Monolithic.com. Personally I wouldn't build anything else today. Same cost per sq/ft, crazy R-values, and a lifespan measured in centuries rather than decades like stick frame construction.
I do agree with John. Log in Monolithic dot com and find out how much can be done with the airform these days.
The mix of concrete and insulation allows for incredibly strong houses which needs very small HVAC units and can withstand the most severe hurricanes and tornadoes. And the best part is that once the concrete floor is cured, the entire shell can be completed in about a week!
the Monolithic dot com is a little different. they spray the in side of the inflatable form with insulation, then rebar and shotcrete for the structure. kind of opposite to the method above.