Title & Author:

The art of joining / [presented by] Konrad Wachsmann.

Publication:

London, England : Pidgeon Digital, 1980.

Description:

1 online resource (1 video file (21 minutes)) : sound, color

Notes:
Assembly System By Joseph Paxton, Crystal Palace, 1851 -- Konrad Wachsmann, 1980 -- Industrialisation: The Limitless Marketplace, 1901 -- 2001 -- Art & Craft Of Joining In The 13th Century: Chartres Cathedral -- Industrially Produced & Assembled Wide Span Structure -- 3D Modular System: Equal Horizontal & Vertical Sections -- Universal Joint Connecting Stressed-Skin Panels, 1939 -- 1949 -- Fully Automatic Factory, Producing Precision-Finished Products -- Field Assembly: Fast, Clean: No Waste Of Time, Labour, Materials -- Typical House Assembled In 8 Hours By 5 Unskilled Workers -- Interchangeable Tubular Steel With Attached Joints, 1943 -- 1944 -- Cantilever Truss-Pierloin Slab, A Flexible Joint System -- Metal Wall Surfaces, Independent, Freestanding Or Moveable -- R & D For 3D Universal System Of One Type Of Unit, 1950 -- 1954 -- Stresses Transferred Outwardly In Spiral Fashion -- Form Variations: Analogue To A Ceiling In Prague, 1500 -- A Point In Space Joining, In 3D, Up To 20 Steel Members, 1950 -- 1954 -- High-Strength Steel Forgings: Stacked, Disassembled, Assembled -- The Basic Parts: Only 4 Joint Forgings & 2 Steel Tubings -- Structural Network Of Points In Space Connected With Lines -- 150 Foot Cantilever Space-Frame With Load-Bearing Support System -- Tetrahedral Geometric System: End View Of Structure -- R & D May Include Invention Of Tools For Geometry, Motion, Stress, Etc. -- Star Symbol Interrelates Teamwork Positions To Basic Tasks.

Summary:

Konrad Wachsmann was proud of the fact that he began his working life as a carpenter. He later studied under Polzaig in Berlin, where he also practised architecture, until the Prix de Rome took him to Italy. After this he worked in Spain, and then in 1971 he emigrated to the USA. Wachsmann is famous for his design of industrialised building components, and of a system for constructing large aircraft hangars with prefabrication parts; and for his book "The Turning Point of Buildings" (1961) which has indeed engendered turning points for many of its readers. In the Fifties he directed Advanced Building Research at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago; and since 1965 he has directed the Building Research Division at University of Southern California. John Entenza, former director of the Graham Foundation, once said of Wachsmann "He is a creature of science as it inadvertently approaches poetry". His talk, which he calls a Mini Manifesto, overviews and illustrates the development of his ideas, and ends on an optimistic note, looking to the future as is his wont, foreseeing an abundance of energy everywhere, and posing questions which we should be asking now - for this future lies just round the corner.

Subject:

Architecture Aesthetics.
Architecture, Modern 20th century.
Architecture Esthétique.
Architecture 20e siècle.
Architecture, Modern.

Added entries:

Wachsmann, Konrad, 1901-1980, narrator.