Guide to Buckminster Fullerhttp://www.good.is/Floating cities, flying cars, and Spaceship Earth—Buckminster Fuller figured out how to save the planet 50 years ago. Stephanie Smith tells us why his legacy is more relevant than ever.Sun, 27 May 2012 12:46:32 -0700CakePHPhourly1en-us <![CDATA[GOOD Guide: R. Buckminster Fuller (6 of 6)]]> http://www.good.is/post/good-guide-r-buckminster-fuller-6-of-6/ http://www.good.is/post/good-guide-r-buckminster-fuller-6-of-6/

While a world in which Fuller's principles are applied to every aspect of life-what he called "the Design Science Revolution"-is still to come, his ideas have nonetheless been profoundly influential, especially on the 1970s sustainability movement. Ideas like cohousing, smart growth, alternative energy, and recycling all owe Fuller a debt.

In recent years, Architecture for Humanity's co-founder, Cameron Sinclair, created the Open Architecture Network, and the German chemist Michael Braungart and architect William McDonough wrote Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. Both endeavors have brought Fuller's ideals forward in a new paradigm for ecological consciousness, proposing radical new approaches that do away with the concept of waste through a "transformation of human industry through ecologically intelligent design."

In 1966, the futurist Stewart Brand embarked on a campaign to have NASA publicly release the first-ever photographs of the earth from space. Brand believed they would be a powerful symbol of the planet's fragility, and indeed, many credit those photographs with the birth of the modern environmental moment. Fuller met Brand during the campaign and encouraged his efforts, which later included the Whole Earth Catalog and The Well, a pioneering internet community. Brand has become a modern champion of Fuller's legacy, helping to ease the ideas of sustainability and global thinking into the digital age.

Paralleling Fuller's attention to natural and molecular structural principles, yet branching into more esoteric realms, the recent Gen(H)ome Project exhibition, featuring contributions by the architects Greg Lynn/FORM, Karl S. Chu, Servo, and others, showcased architectural forms integrated with discoveries and processes from contemporary science and technology (including genetics, nanotechnology, climatology, and robotics).

Fuller's true legacy, however, is in manufactured dwellings. To date, few of his followers have found the "holy grail"-a commercially viable, environmentally sustainable manufactured house. California's "Case Study" program was arguably the first to attempt it and fail. More recently Dwell has triggered a prefab trend among young designers and home buyers. The jury is still out on whether or not the movement will turn into a solid housing solution.]]>

While a world in which Fuller's principles are applied to every aspect of life-what he called "the Design Science Revolution"-is still to come, his ideas have nonetheless been profoundly influential, especially on the 1970s sustainability movement. Ideas like cohousing, smart growth, alternative energy, and recycling all owe Fuller a debt.

In recent years, Architecture for Humanity's co-founder, Cameron Sinclair, created the Open Architecture Network, and the German chemist Michael Braungart and architect William McDonough wrote Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. Both endeavors have brought Fuller's ideals forward in a new paradigm for ecological consciousness, proposing radical new approaches that do away with the concept of waste through a "transformation of human industry through ecologically intelligent design."

In 1966, the futurist Stewart Brand embarked on a campaign to have NASA publicly release the first-ever photographs of the earth from space. Brand believed they would be a powerful symbol of the planet's fragility, and indeed, many credit those photographs with the birth of the modern environmental moment. Fuller met Brand during the campaign and encouraged his efforts, which later included the Whole Earth Catalog and The Well, a pioneering internet community. Brand has become a modern champion of Fuller's legacy, helping to ease the ideas of sustainability and global thinking into the digital age.

Paralleling Fuller's attention to natural and molecular structural principles, yet branching into more esoteric realms, the recent Gen(H)ome Project exhibition, featuring contributions by the architects Greg Lynn/FORM, Karl S. Chu, Servo, and others, showcased architectural forms integrated with discoveries and processes from contemporary science and technology (including genetics, nanotechnology, climatology, and robotics).

Fuller's true legacy, however, is in manufactured dwellings. To date, few of his followers have found the "holy grail"-a commercially viable, environmentally sustainable manufactured house. California's "Case Study" program was arguably the first to attempt it and fail. More recently Dwell has triggered a prefab trend among young designers and home buyers. The jury is still out on whether or not the movement will turn into a solid housing solution.]]> Stephanie Smith Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:43:47 PDT <![CDATA[GOOD Guide: R. Buckminster Fuller (5 of 6)]]> http://www.good.is/post/good-guide-r-buckminster-fuller-5-of-6/ http://www.good.is/post/good-guide-r-buckminster-fuller-5-of-6/

If some of Fuller's concepts seem obscure, it may have more to do with the terminology he used to express them than the ideas themselves. Fuller wrote and spoke in a playful, evocative language-welding poetic fancy to the unwieldy engineering jargon-that can be as off-putting as it is nerdily cool.


Some of his more useful coinages include:

4D Design


Considering not only the three spatial dimensions, but also time (the fourth dimension) when making design decisions, Fuller inspired us to think less about personal gain now, and more about the consequences a design has for humanity over time.


 



Ephemeralizing


A design strategy for doing more with less. Fuller believed that "we are now able to do so much with so little that we can provide for the basic needs of 100 percent of humanity without disadvantaging anyone."

Spaceship Earth


A widely adopted term, coined by Fuller to encourage us to think of our planet as a machine, powered by the sun, and requiring constant maintenance to keep it functioning well.

Synergetics


Fuller articulated a mathematical and engineering discipline derived from the design principles of nature (primarily the superior stability of tetrahedral forms) and aimed at devising systems whose output in terms of strength and stability was greater than the individual contributions of each component.

Tensegrity


Structures with tensegrity (a contraction of "tensional integrity") are more efficient than typical man-made structures, employing "tension primarily and compression secondarily," like those found in nature. This increases strength while using less material, as in the geodesic dome.]]>

If some of Fuller's concepts seem obscure, it may have more to do with the terminology he used to express them than the ideas themselves. Fuller wrote and spoke in a playful, evocative language-welding poetic fancy to the unwieldy engineering jargon-that can be as off-putting as it is nerdily cool.


Some of his more useful coinages include:

4D Design


Considering not only the three spatial dimensions, but also time (the fourth dimension) when making design decisions, Fuller inspired us to think less about personal gain now, and more about the consequences a design has for humanity over time.


 



Ephemeralizing


A design strategy for doing more with less. Fuller believed that "we are now able to do so much with so little that we can provide for the basic needs of 100 percent of humanity without disadvantaging anyone."

Spaceship Earth


A widely adopted term, coined by Fuller to encourage us to think of our planet as a machine, powered by the sun, and requiring constant maintenance to keep it functioning well.

Synergetics


Fuller articulated a mathematical and engineering discipline derived from the design principles of nature (primarily the superior stability of tetrahedral forms) and aimed at devising systems whose output in terms of strength and stability was greater than the individual contributions of each component.

Tensegrity


Structures with tensegrity (a contraction of "tensional integrity") are more efficient than typical man-made structures, employing "tension primarily and compression secondarily," like those found in nature. This increases strength while using less material, as in the geodesic dome.]]> Stephanie Smith Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:30:27 PDT <![CDATA[GOOD Guide: R. Buckminster Fuller (4 of 6)]]> http://www.good.is/post/good-guide-r-buckminster-fuller-4-of-6/ http://www.good.is/post/good-guide-r-buckminster-fuller-4-of-6/

Fuller devoted his life to exploring one question: What can one average man do to change the world? He called himself "Guinea Pig B" (the "B" is for Bucky). His was "an experiment to discover what the little, penniless, unknown individual might be able to do effectively of behalf of all humanity."

Underpinning all of his work was the steady hum of optimism. Studying 19th-century philosophers like Malthus, he concluded that they had gotten it wrong: Mankind wasn't "an inherent failure." In fact, we were becoming an inherent success. He believed we could use human ingenuity and existing resources to solve global problems, as long as we committed "egocide." "Selfishness", he declared, "is unnecessary and … unrationalizable. … War is obsolete."

Fuller was one of the first thinkers to publicly identify the global crisis of unbalanced resources that remains today. He set out to put that imbalance right by inventing models for efficiency based on nature. His motto was: "Do more with less." He firmly believed that technological advances, if applied correctly, could allocate and manage the world's resources in such a way that every member of the human race could live the luxurious life of a billionaire. "Technologically," Fuller wrote in 1981, "we now have four billion billionaires onboard Spaceship Earth who are entirely unaware of their good fortune."

BUCKY ETC.


Geodesic Dome

An enclosure composed of self-bracing triangles, the geodesic dome is the only man-made structure that becomes proportionally stronger as it increases in size. No other form of enclosure covers so much area without internal supports. Fuller hoped to eventually create a geodesic membrane as sensitive and adaptable as human skin.

Buckminsterfullerene

Also known as a "Buckyball," this highly unusual carbon molecule is distinguished by a triangulated surface like the geodesic dome. Buckyballs are being researched for their potential to be used as superconductors, lubricants, synthetic diamonds, a rocket propellant, and an AIDS vaccine, as well as countless other applications. The scientists who discovered it (and named it in Fuller's honor) were awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.]]>

Fuller devoted his life to exploring one question: What can one average man do to change the world? He called himself "Guinea Pig B" (the "B" is for Bucky). His was "an experiment to discover what the little, penniless, unknown individual might be able to do effectively of behalf of all humanity."

Underpinning all of his work was the steady hum of optimism. Studying 19th-century philosophers like Malthus, he concluded that they had gotten it wrong: Mankind wasn't "an inherent failure." In fact, we were becoming an inherent success. He believed we could use human ingenuity and existing resources to solve global problems, as long as we committed "egocide." "Selfishness", he declared, "is unnecessary and … unrationalizable. … War is obsolete."

Fuller was one of the first thinkers to publicly identify the global crisis of unbalanced resources that remains today. He set out to put that imbalance right by inventing models for efficiency based on nature. His motto was: "Do more with less." He firmly believed that technological advances, if applied correctly, could allocate and manage the world's resources in such a way that every member of the human race could live the luxurious life of a billionaire. "Technologically," Fuller wrote in 1981, "we now have four billion billionaires onboard Spaceship Earth who are entirely unaware of their good fortune."

BUCKY ETC.


Geodesic Dome

An enclosure composed of self-bracing triangles, the geodesic dome is the only man-made structure that becomes proportionally stronger as it increases in size. No other form of enclosure covers so much area without internal supports. Fuller hoped to eventually create a geodesic membrane as sensitive and adaptable as human skin.

Buckminsterfullerene

Also known as a "Buckyball," this highly unusual carbon molecule is distinguished by a triangulated surface like the geodesic dome. Buckyballs are being researched for their potential to be used as superconductors, lubricants, synthetic diamonds, a rocket propellant, and an AIDS vaccine, as well as countless other applications. The scientists who discovered it (and named it in Fuller's honor) were awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.]]> Stephanie Smith Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:22:34 PDT <![CDATA[GOOD Guide: R. Buckminster Fuller (3 of 6)]]> http://www.good.is/post/good-guide-r-buckminster-fuller-3-of-6/ http://www.good.is/post/good-guide-r-buckminster-fuller-3-of-6/


Fuller came up with thousands of ideas that never even got to the prototype stage. They range from the incredibly practical to the amusingly utopian.



The Fog Gun



In Fuller's view, showers wasted an incredibly large amount of water. He noticed that while standing on the deck of a ship, sea spray was surprisingly effective at cleaning the skin. So he developed a "gun" to shoot a spray of atomized water droplets at the human body, dishes, or clothing. (Clean a family of four with one pint of water!) Naming it the "Fog Gun," he patented it as a pneumatic cleaning agent that "did away with plumbing's piped in water supply."



The Dymaxion Omni-Medium Transport



The Dymaxion car was just a test, produced to examine the behavior of a far more elaborate "twin-orientable, jet-stilts-flown, wingless flying device." Designed for air and marine travel, the Dymaxion omnitransport would "take off and land like an eagle or duck, without any prepared landing fields."



Floating Cities



The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development commissioned Fuller to design Triton, a prototype of a floating tetrahedronal city that could be replicated to house low-income families throughout the world. These structures would be anchored by bridges to major waterfront cities, built in shipyards, and melted down and recycled when they became obsolete. Though deemed "practical" and "water-worthy" by Navy inspectors, none was built.



Cloud Nines



Based on the premise that the weight of the enclosed air in a geodesic dome is 1,000 times greater than the weight of its structure, Fuller set forth the following hypothesis: "If the volume of air was heated only one degree, the sphere would begin to float." Cloud Nines were to be floating geodesic spheres as large as one mile in diameter. These would house thousands of people, with passengers moving from "cloud" to "cloud" or from "cloud" to ground, as the "clouds'' floated around the Earth or were anchored to mountaintops.

]]>


Fuller came up with thousands of ideas that never even got to the prototype stage. They range from the incredibly practical to the amusingly utopian.



The Fog Gun



In Fuller's view, showers wasted an incredibly large amount of water. He noticed that while standing on the deck of a ship, sea spray was surprisingly effective at cleaning the skin. So he developed a "gun" to shoot a spray of atomized water droplets at the human body, dishes, or clothing. (Clean a family of four with one pint of water!) Naming it the "Fog Gun," he patented it as a pneumatic cleaning agent that "did away with plumbing's piped in water supply."



The Dymaxion Omni-Medium Transport



The Dymaxion car was just a test, produced to examine the behavior of a far more elaborate "twin-orientable, jet-stilts-flown, wingless flying device." Designed for air and marine travel, the Dymaxion omnitransport would "take off and land like an eagle or duck, without any prepared landing fields."



Floating Cities



The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development commissioned Fuller to design Triton, a prototype of a floating tetrahedronal city that could be replicated to house low-income families throughout the world. These structures would be anchored by bridges to major waterfront cities, built in shipyards, and melted down and recycled when they became obsolete. Though deemed "practical" and "water-worthy" by Navy inspectors, none was built.



Cloud Nines



Based on the premise that the weight of the enclosed air in a geodesic dome is 1,000 times greater than the weight of its structure, Fuller set forth the following hypothesis: "If the volume of air was heated only one degree, the sphere would begin to float." Cloud Nines were to be floating geodesic spheres as large as one mile in diameter. These would house thousands of people, with passengers moving from "cloud" to "cloud" or from "cloud" to ground, as the "clouds'' floated around the Earth or were anchored to mountaintops.

]]> Stephanie Smith Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:08:40 PDT <![CDATA[GOOD Guide: R. Buckminster Fuller (2 of 6)]]> http://www.good.is/post/good-guide-r-buckminster-fuller-2-of-6/ http://www.good.is/post/good-guide-r-buckminster-fuller-2-of-6/

The Dymaxion Car


A dramatic leap in car design, Fuller's 1933 Dymaxion car was modeled on an airplane fuselage. It was a three-wheeled, streamlined vehicle in an era when Ford's boxy "buggies" were the norm; like the Dymaxion house, its body was made of aluminum-clad steel. Extremely long, at 18 feet, it could seat 11 people, yet was so aerodynamic that it could hit speeds of 120 miles per hour. The sculptor Isamu Noguchi, Fuller's friend and collaborator, made the plastic models that led to its elegant form.



Because its steering wheel was connected to a single back wheel, the car could spin on a very narrow axis. It was also the first vehicle to use air-conditioning, and gas mileage estimates range from 30 to 50 miles per gallon (a modern Ford Taurus gets 24).

At the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, a prototype was involved in a fatal collision that scared investors and brought continued development to an abrupt end. Only one of the three Dymaxion prototypes is still in existence.


Dymaxion House


The Dymaxion house was a light, prefabricated dwelling suspended from a central pole. Its aluminum-clad steel structure had a round, "jellyfish" shape that gave it a futuristic look, radically different from other houses constructed at the time. A circular mast at the top was designed to rotate in the wind, cooling the interior. A water system collected and cleaned rain and wastewater to minimize water use.



Fuller developed a production process modeled after those used to build World War II aircraft. The 1,000-square-foot structure would be delivered in two very large packages. Sold through a dealership, customers could customize their furniture and choose their interior wall panels from a range of colors.

Fuller developed the prototyped of the Dymaxion house in 1946 and it received huge amounts of publicity: Fuller's company received over 35,000 orders. Sadly, none were fulfilled. Production failed due to "internal management problems" and the company went bankrupt.


Dymaxion Chronofile


From 1917 to 1983 Fuller documented his life every 15 minutes. He kept receipts, sketches, phone messages, and any and all other ephemera in a large scrapbook, or "chronofile." His life is has been called the most documented human life in history.


Dymaxion World Map




Fuller witnessed the rise of the superpowers after World War II and in response created "a new cartographic projection system by which humanity can view the map of the whole planet Earth as one world island in one world ocean, [an] undistorted map for studying world problems and displaying in their true proportion resources and other data." The first map ever patented, it is still in use today.


World Game


Played on a Dymaxion world map the size of a basketball court, Fuller's game encouraged players to distribute resources for "win-win" scenarios. It is credited as an early inspiration for creators of computer simulations, and later virtual worlds.

]]>

The Dymaxion Car


A dramatic leap in car design, Fuller's 1933 Dymaxion car was modeled on an airplane fuselage. It was a three-wheeled, streamlined vehicle in an era when Ford's boxy "buggies" were the norm; like the Dymaxion house, its body was made of aluminum-clad steel. Extremely long, at 18 feet, it could seat 11 people, yet was so aerodynamic that it could hit speeds of 120 miles per hour. The sculptor Isamu Noguchi, Fuller's friend and collaborator, made the plastic models that led to its elegant form.



Because its steering wheel was connected to a single back wheel, the car could spin on a very narrow axis. It was also the first vehicle to use air-conditioning, and gas mileage estimates range from 30 to 50 miles per gallon (a modern Ford Taurus gets 24).

At the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, a prototype was involved in a fatal collision that scared investors and brought continued development to an abrupt end. Only one of the three Dymaxion prototypes is still in existence.


Dymaxion House


The Dymaxion house was a light, prefabricated dwelling suspended from a central pole. Its aluminum-clad steel structure had a round, "jellyfish" shape that gave it a futuristic look, radically different from other houses constructed at the time. A circular mast at the top was designed to rotate in the wind, cooling the interior. A water system collected and cleaned rain and wastewater to minimize water use.



Fuller developed a production process modeled after those used to build World War II aircraft. The 1,000-square-foot structure would be delivered in two very large packages. Sold through a dealership, customers could customize their furniture and choose their interior wall panels from a range of colors.

Fuller developed the prototyped of the Dymaxion house in 1946 and it received huge amounts of publicity: Fuller's company received over 35,000 orders. Sadly, none were fulfilled. Production failed due to "internal management problems" and the company went bankrupt.


Dymaxion Chronofile


From 1917 to 1983 Fuller documented his life every 15 minutes. He kept receipts, sketches, phone messages, and any and all other ephemera in a large scrapbook, or "chronofile." His life is has been called the most documented human life in history.


Dymaxion World Map




Fuller witnessed the rise of the superpowers after World War II and in response created "a new cartographic projection system by which humanity can view the map of the whole planet Earth as one world island in one world ocean, [an] undistorted map for studying world problems and displaying in their true proportion resources and other data." The first map ever patented, it is still in use today.


World Game


Played on a Dymaxion world map the size of a basketball court, Fuller's game encouraged players to distribute resources for "win-win" scenarios. It is credited as an early inspiration for creators of computer simulations, and later virtual worlds.

]]> Stephanie Smith Tue, 14 Aug 2007 15:52:40 PDT <![CDATA[GOOD Guide: R. Buckminster Fuller]]> http://www.good.is/post/good-guide-r-buckminster-fuller/ http://www.good.is/post/good-guide-r-buckminster-fuller/

"How can we make the world work for 100 percent of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone?" -R. Buckminster Fuller

If you've ever scrambled up and down on an aluminum geodesic playground dome, then you're already intimately familiar with the legacy of R. Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller-designer, architect, engineer, and mathematician. A charismatic genius who coined the term "Spaceship Earth," Fuller was a global thinker and futurist before we knew we needed global thinking and future visions.

To educator and philosopher Marshall McLuhan, Fuller was "the Leonardo da Vinci of our time." Time called him "the first poet of technology," and the Nobel committee short-listed him for its Peace Prize. Fuller was the godfather of today's sustainability movement. As far back as the 1950s, well before modern "environmentalism," he identified a global crisis of planetary magnitude.

And he took action. Fuller designed one of the first environmentally friendly cars, a dwelling to house the world's poor, and a game to inspire cooperation among nations. In 1964, Time reported that "in 10 years the famed domes of Bucky Fuller have covered more square feet of the earth than any other single kind of shelter." His own peers were in awe of his talent: the architect Minoru Yamasaki called him "an intense, devoted genius, whose mind, which is better than an IBM machine, has influenced all of us."

And yet today, outside the playground, it is hard to find his traces in our built realm.

What happened? The 1980s and 1990s left behind Fuller's vision of collective solutions to humanity's pressing problems in favor of "starchitects" whose social agendas (when they had them) were subordinated to form. Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid design aesthetically thrilling, heroic yet disappointingly self-contained buildings, with little consideration for the surrounding community, environmental impact, or long-term consequences.

Buckminster Fuller didn't want to be a hero. But in 1927, at age 32, he found himself at a crossroads. Contemplating suicide after the death of his daughter, instead he committed "egocide," deciding to make his life an experiment to test the possibilities for living in a way as beneficial to humanity as possible.

This kind of idealism may sound sentimental, or hopelessly naïve, but increasingly, trends in art, architecture, and design have begun to elaborate on ideas he first developed. Whether he wished it or not, this may be the moment to declare Buckminster Fuller a contemporary hero.

"I live on Earth at present, and I don't know what I am, I know I am not a category. I am not a thing-a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process-an integral function of the universe."

ABRIDGED CHRONOFILE1895: Born in Milton, Massachusetts

1933: Dymaxion car working prototype

1942:


Dymaxion house working prototype (including a "Dymaxion bathroom")


1948: Geodesic dome prototype developed while Fuller was a summer professor at Black Mountain College in North Carolina

1950: Full-size geodesic structure built in Montreal

1954: Designed Dymaxion World Map

1964:


Fuller was featured on the cover of Time


1967:


Geodesic dome 250 feet in diameter and 20-stories high featured at Expo 67 in Montreal


1968: Awarded the World Medal of Architecture

1969:


Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth published


1969: Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

1975: Fuller's "Everything I Know" lecture is recorded (running time: 42 hours)

1983: Dies in Los Angeles, California

1985:


Carbon molecule (C60) discovered and named "buckminsterfullerene"

]]>

"How can we make the world work for 100 percent of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone?" -R. Buckminster Fuller

If you've ever scrambled up and down on an aluminum geodesic playground dome, then you're already intimately familiar with the legacy of R. Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller-designer, architect, engineer, and mathematician. A charismatic genius who coined the term "Spaceship Earth," Fuller was a global thinker and futurist before we knew we needed global thinking and future visions.

To educator and philosopher Marshall McLuhan, Fuller was "the Leonardo da Vinci of our time." Time called him "the first poet of technology," and the Nobel committee short-listed him for its Peace Prize. Fuller was the godfather of today's sustainability movement. As far back as the 1950s, well before modern "environmentalism," he identified a global crisis of planetary magnitude.

And he took action. Fuller designed one of the first environmentally friendly cars, a dwelling to house the world's poor, and a game to inspire cooperation among nations. In 1964, Time reported that "in 10 years the famed domes of Bucky Fuller have covered more square feet of the earth than any other single kind of shelter." His own peers were in awe of his talent: the architect Minoru Yamasaki called him "an intense, devoted genius, whose mind, which is better than an IBM machine, has influenced all of us."

And yet today, outside the playground, it is hard to find his traces in our built realm.

What happened? The 1980s and 1990s left behind Fuller's vision of collective solutions to humanity's pressing problems in favor of "starchitects" whose social agendas (when they had them) were subordinated to form. Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid design aesthetically thrilling, heroic yet disappointingly self-contained buildings, with little consideration for the surrounding community, environmental impact, or long-term consequences.

Buckminster Fuller didn't want to be a hero. But in 1927, at age 32, he found himself at a crossroads. Contemplating suicide after the death of his daughter, instead he committed "egocide," deciding to make his life an experiment to test the possibilities for living in a way as beneficial to humanity as possible.

This kind of idealism may sound sentimental, or hopelessly naïve, but increasingly, trends in art, architecture, and design have begun to elaborate on ideas he first developed. Whether he wished it or not, this may be the moment to declare Buckminster Fuller a contemporary hero.

"I live on Earth at present, and I don't know what I am, I know I am not a category. I am not a thing-a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process-an integral function of the universe."

ABRIDGED CHRONOFILE1895: Born in Milton, Massachusetts

1933: Dymaxion car working prototype

1942:


Dymaxion house working prototype (including a "Dymaxion bathroom")


1948: Geodesic dome prototype developed while Fuller was a summer professor at Black Mountain College in North Carolina

1950: Full-size geodesic structure built in Montreal

1954: Designed Dymaxion World Map

1964:


Fuller was featured on the cover of Time


1967:


Geodesic dome 250 feet in diameter and 20-stories high featured at Expo 67 in Montreal


1968: Awarded the World Medal of Architecture

1969:


Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth published


1969: Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

1975: Fuller's "Everything I Know" lecture is recorded (running time: 42 hours)

1983: Dies in Los Angeles, California

1985:


Carbon molecule (C60) discovered and named "buckminsterfullerene"

]]> Stephanie Smith Tue, 14 Aug 2007 15:22:22 PDT