Harry Stendhal Presents... Fluxcity: Prefabricated/Modular Social Housing System™

July 4, 2012 - PRLog -- New York, NY, July 04, 2012 -- New York, NY. George Maciunas/Fluxus Foundation is pleased to present “Fluxcity: Prefabricated/Modular Social Housing 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 will critically explore urban sustainability through adaptive design solutions.

George Maciunas invented the 1900-sq-ft prefabricated mass building system known as Fluxhouse as a cost-efficient, sustainable, and multi-functional 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.

Intended as an improved design to Soviet Block Housing and Levittowns, Maciunas patented its innovative aluminum framework while working at Olin Mathieson and copyrighted Fluxhouse in 1965. Consonant with evolutionary design, Fluxhouse is an easily modified building based on an organic process of growth and the collective intelligence of its occupants. Maciunas’ interest in learning models and intelligent networks corresponds to the notion that complexity is derived from the multiple actions of many agencies. As a cooperative social housing system, Fluxcity promotes active participation by the community with an aesthetic based on impermanence and adaptability.

As the world faces its greatest economic challenges due to poor property speculation and an expanding global population, systems emphasizing inexpensive, communal, and inventive spaces have taken center stage to cope with this nascent instability. Fluxcity holds great promise as part of a national economic program like Roosevelt’s New Deal to amend shantytowns and sprawl, aid unemployment, and promote social welfare to lower and middle class communities. On a global scale, Fluxcity is suited to repair slums, which is regarded as the world’s fastest growing urban habitat as the number of residents have risen from 777 million in 2000 to 830 million in 2010.

Calling attention to architecture as a creative process, Eric Gould, founder and director of Helicon Design Group, and architects Scott Weinkle, Dominic McKenzie, and Mauricio Arduz will present experimental 3D digital renderings of Fluxcity. The exhibition will feature images by German-born photographer Christoph Gielen, whose aerial photographs of isolated suburban settlements and rapid urban development reveals hidden geometries of the built environment. Topics of architectural consumerism, nomadism, emergence, property bubbles, and urban morphology will be explored in the scholarly works of writer Stewart Brand, mathematician Nikos Salingaros, Dr. Michael Haerdter, and professor Rosi Braidotti among others. The exhibition will open September 2012.

“An Assessment Report on Fluxhouse” is available, please contact info@georgemaciunas.com

This exhibition is organized by Harry Stendhal.

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

Contact:
Harry Stendhal
George Maciunas Foundation Inc
454 West 19th St,
New York. NY 10011
646-476-1014
info@georgemaciunas.com
www.georgemaciunasfoundation.org