Dream House Of The Future
Dream House Of The Future
Wow, how dangerous it is to work or live in a many storied flat or sky-scraper as I remembered the earth quake in
Jakarta recently. And
Jakarta has to build upwards. How safe are the village cottages compared to the modern towering buildings.
“Were I an architect, I’d design a Dream House of the future.” said Si Upik. “Its floor, its walls, just guess … I fill with air. Small and light. You could easily carry it where ever you like just by decompressing and fold it. In case of a fire you can easily save your self or carry it away. In times of flood as at the time of Noah, the house becomes an ark. It can cope with earth quakes and there’s no danger from being destroyed as a vagrant’s illegal dwelling by government functionaries as you easily can carry it away. Transport and set it up as easily on land on camping, mountain areas as well as on a lake or river. Environment oriented. You could save on truck-loads of cement and iron, save on trees being cut down, river-sand and boulders taken from the rivers and a lot more.” So she said.
Yes, it’s a nice thought full of fancy of si Upik. This age is oriented to the small. Formerly the KPM (a large Dutch corporation) has to install the IBM machine in a big room to do the administration. It needs a large hall or many rooms to store its files. Today one could perhaps have just a table with one or two computers to do the same and enjoy, join in the internet. One day people would prefer a small, cozy Dream House. It is flexible in its use, rather than a giant sized luxurious house, which is very costly, has high maintenance costs and is fixed to the same place for ever.
According to Upik’s calculation, if she doesn’t make a mistake, the floor of a small Dream House of 6 m by 6 m as thick as 50 cm according to the law of Archimedes, is capable to lift, carry a weight up to 18 tons or all the furniture of the household and perhaps including a car. What is especially special of this house is, is that it is very cheap, as its main constituent is air which is free and never exhausted or ever will disappear as cement from the market. People succeeded to create cars with solar energy. Ikaros in the Greek tales dreamt to be able to fly as a bird. Today one can fly a gantole, a sailing vehicle in the air, in the future one would be able to fly as Gatotkaca or Superman.
From Jayakarta, May 24, 1996
