If you have a spare ¥6 million -- about $60,000 -- you too can have a home shaped like a dodecahedron (the twelve-sided "perfect solid") soccer ball/football. It's the "Barrier," from the G-Wood company in Japan, and it's supposedly designed to float, remain standing in an earthquake, and even resist collapse in the event of a bombing. (I say "supposedly" because the company's website is entirely in Japanese; the folks at Dotcommu provide a summary.) The Barrier units are fairly small, running roughly 375 square feet for the current model and around 1100 square feet for the planned larger unit, but can be made to be quite liveable.
The presentation of the Barrier on the G-Wood site is ineffably Japanese, but the idea is serious. The notion of a structurally-stable, relatively inexpensive, floating home -- complete with cool, funky design -- is highly appealing. It's just the sort of dwelling one would want in regions prone to global-warming-induced flooding and hurricanes. I wouldn't be surprised to see one at the next Burning Man, too. (Via Futurismic)
(Thanks, marc, for pointing out the errors in Solids Analysis)
Comments (4)
I have the strangest urge to paint numbers on the sides and give it a good shove . . .
Posted by Stefan Jones | January 17, 2004 5:55 PM
Posted on January 17, 2004 17:55
Only if you hit with your battle-axe first.
Posted by Jamais Cascio | January 17, 2004 6:04 PM
Posted on January 17, 2004 18:04
Sorry for being anal here, but that isn't a dohecahedron, or not a regular, platonic one at least.
Dodecahedrons have 12 pentagonal faces. In the picture, I see at least 5 hexagonal faces. Plus, the six faces we see don't really cover half the shape, so there are probably more than 12 faces. I think that it's shaped more like a soccer ball (or football, depending where you live).
Posted by marc | January 21, 2004 5:44 AM
Posted on January 21, 2004 05:44
Good googly-moogly. You're right. I saw the five-sided surface for the door and didn't pay close enough attention to the rest.
My humblest apologies.
Posted by Jamais Cascio | January 21, 2004 10:42 AM
Posted on January 21, 2004 10:42