Roy Mason (June 29, 1938 – May 19, 1996) was an American lecturer, writer, and

futuristic The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...

architect who designed and built a variety of futuristic homes and other buildings in the 1970s and 1980s using low cost materials and

alternative energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a Orders of magnitude (time), human timescale. It includes sources such as Solar power, sunlight, wind power, wind, the movement of Hydropo ...

sources. Mason invented architronics as exemplified in the Xanadu House.

Biography

Before entering his career of architecture and design, Mason received a master's degree from the Yale University School of Architecture. In 1971, he designed a sprayed foam building for an experimental college called College of the Potomac in Paris, Virginia, in 1971. In 1978, Mason created plans for a fifty-home community of solar-powered houses in Columbia, Maryland, that was to be called "Solar Village". In the 1980s, Mason was the architecture editor of the ''Futurist'' magazine and the first executive director of the Home Automation Association. In 1966, he was a founding member of the World Future Society and the publisher of Futurist Magazine for which he co-designed their first logo inspired by the Tomoe."Roy Mason, Obituary", The Futurist, September–October 1996.Cornish, Edward, "The World Future Society's Emergence from Dream to Reality", The Futurist, Mar-April 2007, p.40. During the mid 1980s, Mason Roy was enveloped into the strategic business plan process of Intelligent Building Information Systems (iBis), an Arlington-based subsidiary of

Bell System The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America for over one hundr ...

, and became a spokesman for the company. In 1996, at age 57, he was killed by a man named Christopher Robin Hatton at the architect's home in the 4200 block of Military Road NW. Christopher Robin Hatton was supposedly a close acquaintance of Roy Mason. A month after the slaying, the killer was still on the run and hunted by the police. Christopher Hatton, in a drug-induced rage and demanding money from Mason, bludgeoned Mason with a hammer twenty-five times (per the autopsy). Christopher Robin Hatton was sentenced to fourteen years for the murder of Roy Mason.

Works

Foam houses

Mason was interested in futuristic homes that use alternative materials which make it easier to build homes and more affordable. He developed foam-built homes, including the

Mushroom House The Mushroom House or Pod House is a contemporary residence in the town of Perinton, New York, which has been featured in television programs (notably HGTV's ''Offbeat America'' series) and books (notably the '' Weird U.S.'' series) due to its whi ...

Bethesda, MD Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

outside Washington, D.C in 1974.Marisa M. Kashino
Bethesda’s Famous “Mushroom House” is For Sale
''Washingtonian.com'', 16 May 2018 The architect Paul Rudolph would call Roy Mason "the marshmallow architect" because of the fluffy outcome of foam-built houses. The Xanadu House belongs to the

Blobitecture Blobitecture (from blob architecture), blobism and blobismus are terms for a movement in architecture in which buildings have an organic, amoeba-shaped, building form. Though the term ''blob architecture'' was in vogue already in the mid-1990s, t ...

style.

Smart houses

Mason also favored the concept of computer automated homes which he demonstrated in his Xanadu homes with Bob Masters. Mason invented architronics, which was exemplified in his Xanadu House near Disney World. The Xanadu was a protype of a smart home, with a control center in the family room, lightning control, automatic temperature control, sound-proof and computer-equipped work and study stations, kitchen software for cooking and shopping lists (the 'Robutler'), and a plan to create a fridge/microwave to store and cook food, preprogrammed music playlists selected according to the family mood... ;List of projects Xanadu-House-in-Kissimmee-Florida-1990

Xanadu Xanadu may refer to: * Shangdu, the ancient summer capital of Kublai Khan's empire in China * a metaphor for opulence or an idyllic place, based upon Coleridge's description of Shangdu in his poem ''Kubla Khan'' Other places * Xanadu (Titan), ...

(1979–1983) visitor attraction franchises built from insulation * "Star Castle" in New Fairfield, Connecticut * Experimental school built from insulation in Virginia * The

outside Washington, D.C. * Exhibits for the Capital Children's Museum * Capital Children's Museum, India1986 Craftsmanship Awards Winners
''Wbcnet.org'', 1986 * 1987: 10130 Darmuid Green Drive, Potomac, Maryland, for Frank and Cecelia Ross. * Several dome shelter designs for homes * Solar Village Roy Mason created several forward-looking exhibits for the Capital Children's Museum in Washington, D.C.White, Jean M. "What Goes On In a Red Firebox?", The Washington Post, September 29, 1977, pg. D1.

Awards

*1986: Craftsmanship Award for the Capital Children's Museum in India

Personal life

Mason worked and lived most of his life in and around Washington, D.C. Mason's lover of many years, Brian Carneal, died in 1995 of complications related to HIV. When Mason wasn't in Washington, D.C., he and Carneal resided in Delaware at their Dupont Estate.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Roy 1938 births 1996 deaths 20th-century American architects