Final Iteration of Wichita House – Simple Construction Using Compressed Air

I based my project off of the design that became commercially available after the introduction of the Dymaxion house called the Wichita house.

Although the construction is fairly simple and the final iteration was to be painted/decorated in some way, it wasn’t upon request. With a very limited amount of resources and time, I tried my best to use the unit’s associated concept of air compression to fit the very pliable plastic material in between the circular box. The box pictured was originally made to hold chips and was cut by an X-Acto/precision knife. There wasn’t an exceptional challenge that was presented with this project, other than coming up with the idea itself. I feel that there is a certain merit in analyzing visual similarities between various objects and creating a reproduction through immediately available materials within the context and rubric of this assignment.

After consulting Professor Haffar, there were substantial changes that were made to this project. I added a hood for where a door would be placed on a traditional real-scale Wichita house. I also changed the top part of the model to a glass bulb I found to be immediately available. The hood was added by cutting a semicircle into the body of the model and inserting card-stock paper into it.

I want to associate my project with the work of Marcel Duchamp. One of his works titled “Fountain” is a rejection of how people at that time in the 20th century conventionally understood and viewed art. I feel as though my project embodies some of the same principles and conceptual qualities as “Fountain”. My work is an extremely simplified derivative of the Wichita house; built with really common objects not found in a design or fine art setting.