Talk:Xanadu House

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Contents 1 Phrasing 2 "earliest home automation systems"? 3 History section order 4 Context in Lead 5 Tense of Design Paragraph 6 Wisconsin? 7 Disambiguation 8 Differences between the versions is not very clear 9 Design section 10 HuH? 11 Commodore?

[edit] Phrasing

The second paragraph of the "History" section introduces "Roy Mason" rather intensly. It seems like the phrase "Architect Roy Mason" means to imply that an architect named Roy Mason was chosen as the lead architect on the project? I don't know much about architecture, so I didn't want to change the article myself, but I'd suggest something like "Architect Roy Mason was chosen as the [lead architect / some other architecture term] for the Xanadu House. He had previously worked on a similar project involving polyurethane foam, an "experimental school" in Virginia." -- Creidieki 05:47, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

In the section marked Design, the first sentence says: "The creator of the Xanadu house is a mass murder and hides his killings in the backyard of retirement homes." I don't believe this could be a valid statement.

[edit] "earliest home automation systems"?

I rewrote the introduction to make it a little clearer what the Xanadu Houses were. I added that they contained "some of the earliest home automation systems". That *seems* to be true, but I'm not completely sure that it is, so if it's inaccurate it should probably be fixed. -- Creidieki 05:58, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] History section order

The "History" section was a bit out-of-order, talking about the second Xanadu House before the first. I understand that the second house was the most important one, but I think that it's better to go in chronological order with this. I rearranged the section somewhat; you may need to check to make sure that the footnotes are still okay. This rearrangement brings out that the first House isn't covered very clearly in the article; another sentence or two would help that paragraph a lot (perhaps why it wasn't as popular, or the distinctive features of that design, or somesuch). But I don't see expanding that part as strictly necessary, it's just a suggestion. -- Creidieki 17:25, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

The rearrangement is good. The problem is that there is actually no information other than what is there about the Wisconsin Dells and Tennessee homes. The Xanadu book (which I have and, obviously, used to write most of this article) doesn't even say much about them. The Xanadu that became the most popular, and lasted the longest (from 1983-2005, while the others lasted from about 1979-early 1990s) was the Kissimmee house that used computers and automation conceived by Roy Mason. I guess the others houses were not as popular because they didn't use the technology and automated systems that the Kissimmee house became known for. — Wackymacs 18:24, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

• I hadn't realized that the other houses weren't focusing on automation, maybe that should be clearer somewhere. You might be able to just say something like that: "The first Xanadu house included novel architectural design, but did not include the automation and technology of the later Kissimmee house, and never rivalled that house in popularity." That would help to place the first house in context, and incidentally fills out the paragraph nicely. In the part about the third house, add something like "A third Xanadu house was built in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, but was constructed by a different architect, and did not include the computerization of the second house. Like the first house, it was largely overshadowed by the automation-focused Kissimmee house." -- Creidieki 20:24, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Context in Lead

It goes from saying how popular they were, to the houses being demolished. The question is why were they demolished. Obviously interest waned, but why did it wane, and/or was politics involved and/or the land being needed for something else. - RoyBoy ⁸⁰⁰ 15:58, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

• The information you request is covered towards the end of the History section of the article. The lead of an article is not meant to mention the topic in detail but summarize the article, thanks. — Wackymacs 17:58, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Tense of Design Paragraph

I fixed the tense in the second paragraph of Design - it switched from past to present to past while talking about the same thing. - --Aarondude919 03:01, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wisconsin?

A very nice article, but with room for more information. There is no wiki-link for Bob Masters, for example, who seems to be sort of a mysterious person, judging from Google. Also the article seems a little "Florida-Centric," to this childhood fan of the (original!) WI one. It would be nice to nail-down an actual closing date for the WI and TN Xanadus, for example. And I especially notice that under the "Design" section the article repeatedly mentions "Xanadu House" and "Xanadu" when it seems to be refering only to the *Florida* Xanadu (I don't think the WI Xanadu was on a lake, for example). As a final note, pics of the WI and TN Xanadu would be particularly welcome, as these seem to unavailable on the web. ThaddeusFrye 17:21, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Disambiguation

I'm kind of new to this, but don't we need a disambiguation page? Can't Xanadu refer to other things?

Yep, but Xanadu doesnt redirect to here. You'd have to deliberately type "Xanadu House" to get to this page. Hence Xanadu points to Xanadu (disambiguation), and this page doesnt. GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 16:01, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Xanadu House is also the name of an undergraduate student residence at Stanford University, where First Daughter Chelsea Clinton lived in 1998-9.Kenta2 19:58, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Differences between the versions is not very clear

The article should try to put the differences in perspective.The article now seems to tell people that all the houses were identical.--213.224.129.118 19:45, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

• If you know anything about the other Xanadu houses apart from the Florida one then please do add any information you know, or pictures. I have found pictures of the others but no actual information. I own the official Xanadu book and it only very briefly talks about the other houses, sorry. The first was designed by Bob Masters, and included a glass dome for a greenhouse, I believe. — Wackymacs 21:52, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Design section

Does anybody know what "derior" means, as in the sentence "It used curved walls, painted concrete floors rather than carpets, a light color scheme featuring cool colors throughout, and an open-floor plan linking rooms together without the use of derior used a cream color for the walls, and a pale green for the floor."? I'm also puzzled by this sentence: "A pre-shaped vi sound shell within a few hours." VirtualDave 01:56, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm confused by this: "A pre-shaped vinyl balloon was formed and attached to the ring, and then inflated by air pressure from large fans. Once the form was fully inflated, its interior surface was sprayed with quick-hardening polyurethane plastic foam. Spraying from the inside permitted work to continue even in wet or windy weather." You mean the inside of the balloon was sprayed? I don't see how it could be deflated after that. Or by "interior" do you just mean what later becomes the interior of the house? 24.159.255.29 02:38, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] HuH?

From "Design", "A pre-shaped vi sound shell within a few hours.". Can anyone understand that? Thanx 68.39.174.238 00:11, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Commodore?

Are we sure they used Commodore computers? The Quicktime video in the Links section, as well as the picture of the kids using the computer in the bedroom, appear to show IBM PCs. 24.159.255.29 02:40, 2 September 2006 (UTC)