Tag: Wayback Machine - Page 9
-
Trends in Office Design: The Open Office, 1923
Greg at Workalicious notes that back in the day they had "open office, team building, things have come so far, and yet not at all..!"
-
1935: Villa Girasole: Rotating House Follows the Sun
We have shown rotating houses before, but this one predates them by decades- Angelo Invernizzi's house has an upper section that rests on a circular track and follows the sun, 1,500 tons powered by two motors with a total of three horsepower.
-
People-Powered Hair Salon in Paris, 1945
The electricity supply in Paris was pretty intermittent in the spring of '45, so an "ingenious beautician hires unemployed 6-day bicycle racers to peddle away on a bike, the back wheel of which is attached to a small generator! The current runs 6
-
Prefab Trybo Cottage Was a Hit in 1969
It is a problem that continues to this day: the depopulation of the harsher regions of northern countries, the conversion of jobs from resource extraction, farming and making things to scooping ice cream for tourists or building cottages.
-
Ethanol Was Proposed for Farm Relief, 1933
Larger version at Modern Mechanix
-
Syd Mead Still Cranking Out Visions of the Future
Syd Mead has been cranking out visions of the future since the distant past, including ideas for United States Steel from the early sixties that you can see on Flickr here. I had no idea he was still at it, producing drawings like this. fittingly for
-
Happy 60th Birthday to the First Computer
No doubt many readers, particularly Americans, will disagree with this, but the BBC points out that "Baby", born sixty years ago in Manchester, was the first "modern" computer that one could program:
-
Totally Tubular Modern Prefab
Around 1960, Swiss artist Guy Dessauges wondered why we were so square. "La voûte résiste à des pressions beaucoup plus grandes que le plafond plat. The vault resists pressure much larger than the flat ceiling. Pour la même qualité de matériaux. For
-
Total Furnishing Unit by Joe Columbo
We show a lot of transformer furniture; we love ideas that combine different functions into units that take up less space and let us live more efficiently with less. It is not a new idea; we have previously shown Joe Columbo's Minikitchen, recently
-
1939: The Electric House of the Future
O, the future. Where we get to live under power lines and mainline all the juice we need. Complete with electric mood control. Yet compared to many visions of the future, this one gets a lot of things right:
-
1939: The Trailer Grows Up
Trailers are fascinating models of efficient design, showing how one can live in small spaces, often demonstrating the efficiencies and promise of mass production. The trailer park is also an interesting model of tenure, enabling people to own their
-
Scary Fifties Bloody and Gory Filmstrip on Bike Safety
Great filmstrip on bike safety from Cathedral Films- no falling anvils but just about everything else. Lessons: Keep you bike in good repair, don't ride with no hands, don't hitch or draft, leave hands free for steering, watch people and traffic. Stop
-
1955: Hot News About the Sun
Long and fascinating article in Modern Mechanix about the promise and possibilities of solar power, from Mechanix Illustrated in August, 1955.
-
1939: Frank Lloyd Wright Reinvents Office Building
Modern Mechanix calls them "golf tees" - Wright called them lily pads. The building inspectors called them illegal under the codes because of tapered shape, and required a test where they were to be loaded with twelve tons. They piled on sixty tons
-
1957 Frigidaire Dream Kitchen of Tomorrow- in Czech
Click here to go to video
-
Trailer Pops Out Into Three Room House
"Light and compact enough to be drawn behind a motor car like a trailer, a movable type of house can be expanded to form three rooms at its destination. On the road it is supported on two wheels with drop axle and is sixteen feet long and six and
-
-
Dine While You Drive with the Exhaust Cooker
The Exhaustburger we showed earlier is just lame compared to this Exhaust Cooker that was cooked up in 1930. It has a steam pressure cooker, so an hour's drive and it's done like dinner. After all, "Motor tours are much more pleasant when one is
