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64 NUCLEAR HOUSE BY FRIEDRICH KIESLER Year 1931 Status Project Material Plaster Scale 1:100 Model maker Lung Peng Friedrich Kiesler was an Austrian, in Czernowitz, born artist who worked in the fields of stage design, exhibition design, furniture design, architecture and art. He studied architecture at the Technical University and art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna but never finished his studies. In 1926 he travelled to New York to exhibit the International Theater Exposition, which had been developed, compiled and curated under his supervision. Kiesler did not return to Europe from the United States, as initially planned. Instead he started to live and work there and ended up staying for the rest of his life.1 The Nuclear House was developed in 1931. Kiesler came up with the idea of a standardised prefabricated single family house and applied for a copyright for the design. From 1931 to 1933 Kiesler tried to launch the prefabricated houses with the help of the Sears, Roebuck & Co company based in Chicago. However, the project was never realised.2 1 Bogner, Dieter (Ed.) (1988): Friedrich Kiesler. Architekt Maler Bildhauer. 1890-1965. Wien: Löcker Verlag. 9-77. 2 Boeckl, Matthias (Ed.) (1995): Visionäre & Vertriebene. Österreichische Spuren in der modernen amerikanischen Architektur. Berlin: Ernst & Sohn. 335.