Harry Stendhal Presents – Fluxcity: Prefabricated/Modular Solution for Social Housing

New York, New York (PRWEB) June 18, 2012

George Maciunas/Fluxus Foundation is pleased to present Fluxcity: Prefabricated/Modular Solution for Social Housing. The exhibition will open in September 2012 with a conceptual web exhibit and related works will be available to view at the foundation exhibition space at 454 West 19th St.

Sustainability has never been a more pressing need in the state of current socio-economic trends. George Maciunas, who stated efficiency is giving the most performance for the least cost, invented the 1900-square-foot prefabricated mass building system known as Fluxhouse as an flexible solution for social housing. Echoing MoMa curator Pedro Gadanhos famous statement, curating is the new criticism, the exhibition will engage the concept of urban sustainability through adaptive design solutions.

Influenced by Le Corbusier and Buckminister fullers geodesic dome, Maciunas invented the structural framework of extruded aluminum beams and columns useful for prefabricated construction while working at Olin Mathieson. Copyrighted in 1965 as an improved design to Soviet Block Housing and Levittowns, Fluxhouse is a modular unit based on a minimum number of components and a simple manufacturing method of fabrication and construction. With simple tooling requirements, the manufacturing process is readily adaptable to existing automation systems. Easily customized to residential, institutional, industrial, and agricultural functions, the Fluxhouse unit can be multiplied to construct buildings of any size and configuration. Naturally eco-friendly, Fluxhouse is resistant to natural disasters including fires, floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes, as well as deterioration caused by rot, termites, corrosion, and discoloration.

Maciunas, who is known as the Father of SoHo for gentrifying this neighborhood with artists cooperatives, envisioned Fluxcity as an adaptive knowledge-city manifesting collective intelligence into the built environment. As the world faces its greatest economic challenges due to poor speculation in property developments and an expanding global population, prefabricated systems like Fluxhouse hold their greatest potential as a cost efficient government sponsored solution used to repair lower and middle class communities and raise the standards of living for the world today.

The commercial applications of Fluxhouse are examined in the newly published An Assessment Report. Eric Gould, founder and director of Helicon Design Group, and architects Scott Weinkle and Mauricio Arduz will present experimental 3D digital renderings of Fluxcity. The exhibition space will display images from Ciphers, the latest project of Christoph Gielen, whose aerial photographs of isolated suburban settlements reveals the hidden geometries of living environments. The topics of architectural consumerism, cooperative living arrangements, nomadism, and urban morphology will be studied in the scholarly works of Stewart Brand, Nikos Salingaros, Christopher Alexander, Michael Haerdter, Bryan Welcel, and Rosi Brandotti among others.

This exhibition will be open as a conceptual web exhibition in June, 2012 at the foundation website http://www.georgemaciunasfoundation.org.

This exhibition will be open to public at the foundation exhibition space 454 West 19th St. in September, 2012.

Both exhibitions are produced and organized by Harry Stendhal.

An Assessment Report on Fluxhouse is available, please contact info(at)georgemaciunas(dot)com

George Maciunas / Fluxus Foundation Inc.

George Maciunas Foundation Inc. is exempt from Federal income tax under section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code
Contributions to the George Maciunas Foundation Inc. are deductible under section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code
Federal Tax Id Number: 26-3178359
George Maciunas Foundation Inc. is a public charity




Fluxcity: Prefabricated/Modular Building System


New York, NY (PRWEB) September 15, 2012

New York, NY. George Maciunas/Fluxus Foundation is pleased to present Fluxcity: Prefabricated/Modular Building System in the foundation gallery space at 454 West 19th St. Engaging Maciunas statement efficiency is giving the most performance for the least cost, the exhibition critically explores Fluxhouse/Fluxcity as a solution to achieve social welfare by raising the Quality/Standard of Living for communities across the economic spectrum.

George Maciunas invented the 1900-sq-ft prefabricated mass building system known as Fluxhouse as a cost-efficient, sustainable, and multifunctional solution for social housing. Fluxhouse is a modular unit based on a minimum number of components which can be customized to residential, institutional, industrial, and agricultural functions, and multiplied to construct buildings of any size. Intended for factory production, Fluxhouse has simple tooling requirements and is readily adaptable to existing automation systems. This eco-friendly design is resistant to natural disasters including fires, floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes as well as deterioration caused by rot, termites, corrosion, and discoloration.

Maciunas was awarded architectural degrees from Cooper Union (1952) and Pittsburghs Carnegie Institute of Technology (1954). After graduation, he worked for several major firms, including Skidmore, Owing and Merrill (1955-57), the highly regarded designers Knoll Associates (1960-61) (interior design, interior graphics, exhibits, displays, structures), and Olin Mathieson (1957-1960) (R&D Aluminum div product development and design) where he is credited with the invention of a structural framework useful in construction of prefabricated buildings using extruded aluminum beams and columns. Furthermore, Maciunas received a patent for the innovative modular building system in 1961. The Fluxhouse design was completed and copyrighted in 1965 as an invention which can be used to build a single family house, a highrise building, or an entire city (Fluxcity).

Intended as an improved design to Soviet Block Housing and Levittowns, Fluxhouse is a flexible building system which reduces costs through an innovative manufacturing process of prefabrication rather than a reduction of living space. Fluxcity marries Maciunas collectivist sensibility with his interest in learning models as an solution to amend economic inequality through adaptive urban design.

As the world faces its greatest economic challenges due to poor property speculation and expanding populations, Fluxcity holds great promise as part of a national program like Roosevelts New Deal to amend shantytowns and sprawl, aid unemployment, and provide relief to lower and middle class communities. On a global scale, Fluxcity has immediate potential to repair slums, which is regarded as the worlds fastest growing urban habitat as the number of residents have risen from 777 million to 830 million in 2010.

In demonstrating an organic process of need-based growth, Fluxcitys evolutionary design principles will be examined in relation to Maciunas theories on knowledge processing in the web exhibit. The foundation will present images by German-born photographer Christoph Gielen, whose aerial photographs of isolated suburban settlements and rapid urban developments raise critical awareness on the hidden geometries of the built environment. Topics of commercialism, starchitecture, nomadism, and collective intelligence will be explored in the scholarly works of writer Stewart Brand, mathematician Nikos Salingaros, Dr. Michael Haerdter, professor Rosi Braidotti, and Jessica Rhee, among others.

The exhibition will open September 13th – November 30th, 2012 .

Critical essays by Jessica Rhee

Cities in Flux Part 1

Cities in Flux Part 2

An Assessment Report on Fluxhouse is available, please contact info(at)georgemaciunas(dot)com







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