Cutaway drawings of residential structures.
The occasion for this cutaway of the White House was its $5.4 million, 2 year-long renovation project under President Harry Truman.
By 1950, the White House was a wreck: saggy floors, weakened beams, crumbling masonry. The project gutted the entire inside of the house, replacing it with steel girders, but leaving the outside intact.
Click to Enlarge to 1300 x 748 px:
Source: Popular Science September 1950
A gorgeous picture of a Quonset hut from 1946, touted by Popular Science as a possible “stop gap” to the immediate post World War II housing shortage.
I’ve called it a Quonset hut/house because it clearly does not resemble its earlier incarnation: Army barracks. In fact, the vets were said to be moving back to their old barracks “and loving it.”
Clusters of these 20 x 48 foot huts was sometimes called Homoja Villages, a compound name for Admirals Horne, Moreell, and Jacobs.
Admiral Ben Moreell (1892-1978) is known as the the Father of the Navy’s Seabees, and himself was known as “Master Bee.”
Source: Popular Science March 1946
This is a cutaway drawing from 1951 showing how water vapor moves throughout a house.
Source: Popular Mechanics, September 1951
This is a circa 1979 cutaway drawing of a solar-heated home in Falmouth, Massachusetts. That part of Massachusetts has a 6,000 degree heating season, yet owner John Moody was able to get by spending only $9.63 in the 1978 winter.
The whole winter.
The house does not have solar panels that generate electricity. Rather, the house collects solar heat, redistributes it, and saves it. The pile of rocks (lower center section of cutaway) is one way of absorbing and storing heat.
The house is located at 5 Fire Tower Road, Falmouth, MA 02540. Ironically, when I look on Google Street View to see if the house is still around, Fire Tower Road is lined with electric company utility trucks.
I love this kind of house cutaway. Unlike one of our hotel cutaways that had the front end removed, this type of building cutaway has the roof popped off. Almost as if a giant lifted it off and left everything else intact.
This great cutaway comes from the October 1956 Popular Mechanics–always an abundant source of cutaway drawings–and has plans, detailed interior views, and descriptions. As they say:
Cutaway of completely furnished PM [Popular Mechanics] Big-Family House gives an over-all view of its livability. The front part of the house–living room, family room and kitchen, and the parents’ bedroom with bath just across the hall–is “adult territory.” The rear section with three bedrooms and bath opening on a playroom is the children’s section. Folding walls of two of the bedrooms can be pushed back for more play and living space during the day. The rear patio is accessible both from ktichen and playroom.
