One of the integral features of the Dymaxion Dwelling Machine was Fuller’s Dymaxion Bathroom.  The typical American bathroom is a fairly expensive installation made of tile and grout with many small and seemingly impossible to clean nooks and crannies prone to leaking and harboring of bacteria. Seeking a solution to these issues, Buckminster developed a more sanitary, cost-effective solution in 1936, the Dymaxion bathroom.

The Dymaxion bathroom was comprised of four stamped sheets of metal or moulded plastic which could be bolted together by section and was light enough to be carried by two workers. [1]. Forget about a messy installation process, all of the appliances and plumbing are built in and one only needs to hook it up. Neither will the bathroom get too foggy, the ventilation system is specially designed to pull steam downwards to an undersink vent.

 A secondary feature of all Dymaxion bathrooms was a Fog Gun. Using only one cup of water, the vapor gun used compressed air and water to blast off dirt without the need for soap. [2]  The eco-friendly waterless packaging toilet also separated waste which could be shrink-wrapped and used for composting.

The Phelps Dodge Corporation was to produce the bathrooms but they were met with resistance from plumbers fearful of losing their jobs and so the bathrooms were never produced.  [3]

By: Tara Seaver

[1]  “About Fuller: Dymaxion Bathroom,” The Buckminster Fuller Institue, Accessed March 12, 2018, https://www.bfi.org/about-fuller/big-ideas/dymaxion-world/dymaxion-bathroom

[2] Rebecca Iglesias, “An Ode to Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Bathroom,” Overcup Press, June 14, 2016. Accessed March 12, 2018, https://overcupbooks.com/blogs/overcup-press/122040513-an-ode-to-buckminster-fullers-dymaxion-bathroom

[3] Cole Gerst, Buckminster Fuller: Poet of Geometry (Portland: Option G Visual Communication, 2013), 60.