The Trend Home, a low-cost house designed by Jacque Fresco in 1948, featured aluminum and glass construction and was displayed on the Warner Bros. Sunset Lot in Hollywood. Despite receiving $500,000 in seed money from Earl Muntz, the project failed to achieve mass production, forcing a shift in Fresco’s career toward speculative technological and social theories.
Early Engineering and Military Design
Born in Brooklyn in 1916, Fresco grew up in a Sephardi Jewish household. During his youth, he left home at 14 and traveled across the United States. In the late 1930s, he worked for the Douglas Aircraft Company in California, where he proposed flying wings and disk-shaped aircraft designs that were rejected. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army, working at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, on technical designs including a variable camber wing meant to optimize flight control.
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Fresco established Scientific Research Laboratories in Los Angeles during the late 1940s. He later relocated to Miami in 1955, where he worked as an industrial designer for corporations such as Alcoa and Major Realty Corporation. In 1961, he collaborated with Pietro Belluschi and C. Frederick Wise on the Sandwich House, a prefabricated structure intended to be sold for $2,950. He also utilized Jacque Fresco Enterprises Inc. to design aluminum components to support his various projects.
Sociocyberneering and Future Planning
Throughout his career, Fresco lectured on cybernetic technology, sustainable cities, and automation. He co-authored the book Looking Forward with Ken Keyes Jr. in 1969, detailing a society where personal possessions and work are eliminated. He founded a membership organization called Sociocyberneering, which eventually led him to purchase land in Venus, Florida. In 1985, he and partner Roxanne Meadows launched The Venus Project, which promoted a resource-based economy.
Media Recognition and Later Years
Fresco’s ideas reached broader audiences through the 2008 film Zeitgeist Addendum and the 2012 documentary Future My Love. He traveled extensively with Roxanne Meadows during 2010 to promote his concepts of resource management and social engineering. Throughout his long career, he was a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship. He passed away in 2017 in Sebring at the age of 101.
Fast facts
- Born: 1916, Brooklyn
- Died: 2017, Sebring
- Primary occupations: Engineer, futurist, industrial designer
- Notable project: The Venus Project
- Notable collaboration: Sandwich House with Pietro Belluschi
- Military service: U.S. Army, Wright Field
- Notable award: Guggenheim Fellowship
- Citizenship: United States
Questions readers ask
Did Jacque Fresco hold a doctorate?
No, there is no evidence to support that Fresco held a doctoral degree, despite media appearances where he was occasionally addressed as 'Doctor'.
What was the purpose of the Trend Home?
The Trend Home was a low-cost, mass-producible housing project designed to be constructed from aluminum and glass.
Achievements
- Worked as futurist, designer and writer
