This is the schedule for the plastic house in which you may live a few years from now:
- The preliminary design has been completed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- A scale model will go up some time this spring.
- A lifesize test house may be ready in a year.
What will happen after that is anybody's guess; but a brand-new multimillion-dollar industry could result.
There will be a lot of concrete and maybe wood and steel in the house - where concrete, wood and steel can be used more advantageously than plastics. But plastics will he the very backbone of the structure. They will be used for its floors, walls and ceilings; they will line the bathroom, decorate the living room and support the roof.
The project began in 1953 when the Monsanto Chemical Company, one of the largest producers of plastics, offered to sponsor research. Work has been going on ever since under the direction of
Richard W. Hamilton of MIT's Department of Architecture. The preliminary design was completed in 1954 by architect Marvin Goody with the help of Ernest Kirwan.
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