DYMAXION LIVING!

In this world of "up to the minute" news and mass technology updates it is easy to sit back watch, be a critic, and become pessimistic about the world and the future but I believe we can make make a difference.

I think the answers are embedded in US!

Creativity is truly an amazing gift to us and I believe God put it right in our DNA. We have the ability to look at any given situation or challenge and invent, manufacture, solve, and dream a solution. The infinite ability to create, which is why I believe we don't just survive but thrive!

I like to discover and see creativity in action. Sometimes creative ideas live and sometimes they are the seeds of future creations.

I read a story recently about Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) inventor, designer, philosopher who had a “more for less” design mantra. Fuller worked simultaneously on plans for houses, cars, boats, games, television transmitters and geodesic domes, all of which were designed to be mass-produced using the simplest most sustainable means possible and were environmentally friendly, efficient, and self-sustaining.

Conceived and designed in the late 1920's but not actually built until 1945, the Dymaxion House was Buckminster Fuller's solution to the need for a mass-produced, affordable, easily transportable and environmentally efficient house.

The word "Dymaxion" was coined by combining parts of three of Fuller's favorite words: DY (dynamic), MAX (maximum), and ION (tension). The house used tension suspension from a central column or mast, sold for the price of a Cadillac, and could be shipped worldwide in its own metal tube. Toward the end of WW II, Fuller attempted to create a new industry for mass-producing Dymaxion Houses. Fuller designed a home that was heated and cooled by natural means, that made its own power, was earthquake and storm-proof, and made of permanent, engineered materials that required no periodic painting, reroofing, or other maintenance. You could easily change the floor plan as required - squeezing the bedrooms to make the living room bigger for a party, for instance.

The Dymaxion House was to be leased, or priced like an automobile, to be paid off in five years. All this would be possible now if houses were engineered, mass-produced, and sold like cars. The Dymaxion only weighed about 3000 pounds versus the 150 tons of an average home!

The Dymaxion house was way ahead of its time and never was massed produced mainly because of technology issues but it was the seed of more energy efficient housing that we benefit from today.

Ok, so interesting story but what does this have to do with us now?

I think there are ideas and solutions to individual and world issues that have yet to be created!

That's right....I think YOU may be the answer!

We were created in the image of the ultimate source of solutions....God.

Paul wrote this in Romans 8:15 (The Message)

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are.

So go ahead, it is confirmed, living and creating for something bigger than ourselves brings LIFE! Think BIG, be INSPIRED, create the FUTURE!

You can check out more info here from an exibit of the Dymaxion house at the Henry Ford Museum: http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/dymaxion/index.html