Floating Refrigerators

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31375, 22 May 1967, Page 2

Floating Refrigerators

The world’s first self - powered, “rideaire,” floating refrigerators are installed in the kitchens of “Habitat *67” homes, units designed for familyliving in the city and built on a 1000-acre site at Expo ’67, the the Canadian world fair, in Montreal.

By pressing a button the housewife “energises” the built-in air power unit that “floats” the refrigerator from its installed position on a cushion of non-turbulent air. Cleaning behind or beneath the refrigerator is then a simple task. There are no wheels or castors to mark the kitchen floor.

“Ride-aire,” mounted on the base of the refrigerator, is basically a steel platform with a circular, flexible pad edge-

sealed to its underside. As airflow is generated by the air power unit, it first inflates the pad and picks up the load. Then, the air escapes through small holes near the pad centre causing a thin film of air to form between the bottom of the refrigerator and the floor.

Although the distance the refrigerator is raised above the floor cannot be measured by the naked eye, the refrigerator does “float” over the floor which is left scuff-free. This same principle is used to “float” the washer section of “Habitat,” the combination top-loading automatic washer and front-loading dryer. The 114 “Habitat” kitchens are tailored to the requirements of the houses; each provides conveniently arranged facilities. There are five basic designs. The “unitised” > kitchens, with appliances blending into the cabinetry, are co-ordi-nated in six strikingly un-

usual colour combinations with polar white countertops rounding into abovecounter back-splashes in all. The cabinets and the appliances are in sagebrush, mocha, concord blue, terra cotta, butterscotch and shades of grey. The use of colour Is extended to bright, unusual door liners and colour-keyed interriors in the two-door, topfreezer, 14-cublic-foot frost proof rrefrigerator-freezers. Here charcoal, tomato red, concord blue, sagebrush, Tahitian green and butterscotch continue the kitchen colour schemes.

It one series, teakwood is used for the upper cabinet exteriors. Otherwise, all cupboards, drawers—inside and out—countertops and all exposed vertical kitchen surfaces are of solid-colour formica, providing beauty and durability. Without a single visible handle on the cabinetry or the appliances, the kitchens have a sleek, uncluttered appearance and satin-smooth, unobstructed surfaces that are the ultimate for' ease in cleaning. The electric range, dropped into a counter of stainless steel at a special lower-than-standard height for comfortable mixing and stirring, has surf ar i units clustered above a large-capacity oven. Clean-up, after cooking or

entertaining, is no problem either thanks to the automatic dishwasher that washes 16 table settings—plus pots and pans.

More kitchen convenience is represented by the builtin range hood, completely out of the way until the hood Is drawn forward to put it into operation, and by provision for a built-in electric mixerblender, can opener, and toaster.

Glare-free room illumination is provided by continuous fluorescent lighting installed above the upper cabinets, while under cabinet lighting of the same type floods the counter and cooking surfaces, the remote, automatic controls for the range, and the double stainless steel sinks.