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R. Buckminster Fuller

R. Buckminster Fuller c. 1917
Born July 12, 1895(1895-07-12)
Milton, Massachusetts
Died July 1, 1983 (aged 87)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation Visionary, designer, architect, poet, author, inventor
Spouse Anne Fuller
Children 2

Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller (July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983)[1] was an American architect, author, designer, futurist, inventor, and visionary. Events 1191 - Saladin 's garrison surrenders ending the two-year Siege of Acre. Year 1895 ( MDCCCXCV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Milton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and part of the Greater Boston area The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. "July 1st" redirects here For the Ayumi Hamasaki song see H (song. Year 1983 ( MCMLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar) Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Defined narrowly a visionary is one who experiences a vision or Apparition connected to the supernatural A designer is a person who designs something Perhaps the broadest definition is that provided by Herbert Simon: ‘Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing An architect is a licensed individual who leads a design team in the Planning and Design of buildings and participates in oversight of Building Construction A poet is a person who writes Poetry. Etymology From the Ancient greek: ποιέω, poieō: "I make or compose" An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created An inventor is a person who creates or discovers a new method form device or other useful means Events 1191 - Saladin 's garrison surrenders ending the two-year Siege of Acre. Year 1895 ( MDCCCXCV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year "July 1st" redirects here For the Ayumi Hamasaki song see H (song. Year 1983 ( MCMLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar) The United States of America —commonly referred to as the An architect is a licensed individual who leads a design team in the Planning and Design of buildings and participates in oversight of Building Construction An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created A designer is a person who designs something Perhaps the broadest definition is that provided by Herbert Simon: ‘Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing Futurists, or futurologists, are those who speculate about the future An inventor is a person who creates or discovers a new method form device or other useful means Defined narrowly a visionary is one who experiences a vision or Apparition connected to the supernatural He was the second president of Mensa. Mensa is the largest oldest and most famous high-IQ society in the world [2] He lends his name to a family of complex Carbon structures called Buckminsterfullerene also known as Bucky Balls. "C60" and "C-60" redirect here For other uses see C60 (disambiguation.

Throughout his life, Fuller was concerned with the question "Does humanity have a chance to survive lastingly and successfully on planet Earth, and if so, how?" Considering himself an average individual without special monetary means or academic degree,[3] he chose to devote his life to this question, trying to find out what an individual like him could do to improve humanity's condition that large organizations, governments, or private enterprises inherently could not do. Human beings, humans or man (Origin 1590–1600 L homō man OL hemō the earthly one (see Humus

Pursuing this lifelong experiment, Fuller wrote more than thirty books, coining and popularizing terms such as "Spaceship Earth", ephemeralization, and synergetics. Spaceship is a World view term usually expressing concern over the use of limited resources available on Earth. Ephemeralization is a term coined by R Buckminster Fuller. It refers to the ability of people to use technological advances to continuously do more with less Synergetics is an interdisciplinary science explaining the formation and Self-organization of patterns and structures in open systems far from thermodynamic equilibrium He also worked in the development of numerous inventions, chiefly in the fields of design and architecture, the best known of which is the geodesic dome. A geodesic dome is an almost spherical shell structure based on a network of Great circles ( Geodesics lying approximately on the surface of a Sphere Carbon molecules known as fullerenes or buckyballs were named for their resemblance to a geodesic sphere. "C60" and "C-60" redirect here For other uses see C60 (disambiguation.

Late in his life, after working on his concepts for several decades, Fuller had achieved considerable public visibility. He traveled the world giving lectures, and received numerous honorary doctorates. Most of his inventions, however, never made it into production, and he was strongly criticized in most fields he tried to influence such as architecture, or simply dismissed as a hopeless utopian. Utopia is a name for an ideal community taken from the title of a book written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More describing a fictional Island in the Fuller's proponents, on the other hand, claim that his work has not yet received the attention that it deserves.

Contents

Biography

Fuller was born on July 12, 1895, in Milton, Massachusetts, the son of Richard Buckminster Fuller and Caroline Wolcott Andrews, and also the grandnephew of the American Transcendentalist Margaret Fuller. Events 1191 - Saladin 's garrison surrenders ending the two-year Siege of Acre. Year 1895 ( MDCCCXCV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Milton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and part of the Greater Boston area The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Transcendentalism was a group of new ideas in Literature, Religion, Culture, and Philosophy that emerged in New England in the Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli (May 23 1810 – July 19 1850 was a Journalist, Critic and Women's rights activist associated with the American He attended Froebelian Kindergarten. Spending his youth on Bear Island, in Penobscot Bay off the coast of Maine, he was a boy with a natural propensity for design and for making things. Penobscot Bay originates from the mouth of Maine 's Penobscot River. He often made things from materials he brought home from the woods, and sometimes made his own tools. He experimented with designing a new apparatus for human propulsion of small boats. Years later he decided that this sort of experience had provided him with not only an interest in design, but a habit of being fully familiar and knowledgeable about the materials that his later projects would require. Fuller earned a machinist's certification, and knew how to use the press brake, stretch press, and other tools and equipment used in the sheet metal trade. A machinist is a person who uses Machine tools to make or modify parts primarily Metal parts a process known as Machining. Sheet metal is simply Metal formed into thin and flat pieces It is one of the fundamental forms used in Metalworking, and can be cut and bent into a variety [4]

Fuller was sent to Milton Academy, in Massachusetts. Milton Academy is a private, preparatory, Coeducational boarding and Day school in Milton Massachusetts. Afterwards, he began studying at Harvard but was expelled from the university twice: first, for entertaining an entire dance troupe; and second, for his "irresponsibility and lack of interest. " By his own appraisal, he was a non-conforming misfit in the fraternity environment. [4] (Many years later, Fuller received a Sc.D. from Bates College. DSc ScD SD, or DrSc are common abbreviations for the Latin Scientiæ Doctor, meaning Doctor of Science. Bates College is a private liberal arts college located in Lewiston Maine, in the United States. )

Between his sessions at Harvard, he worked in Canada as a mechanic in a textile mill, and later as a laborer in the meat packing industry. He married Anne Hewlett in 1917, and also served in the U.S. Navy in World War I as a shipboard radio operator, as an editor of a publication, and as a crash-boat commander. Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All After discharge, he again worked in meat packing, where he acquired management experience. In the early 1920s he and his father-in-law developed the Stockade Building System for producing light weight, weatherproof, and fireproof housing — though ultimately the company failed. [4]

In 1927 at the age of 32, bankrupt and jobless, living in inferior housing in Chicago, Illinois, Fuller lost his young daughter Alexandra to complications from polio and spinal meningitis. Year 1927 ( MCMXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay their Creditors Creditors may file a bankruptcy petition against Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an acute viral Infectious disease spread from person to person primarily via Meningitis is Inflammation of the protective membranes covering the Brain and Spinal cord, known collectively as the Meninges. He felt responsible, and this drove him to drink and to the verge of suicide. At the last moment he decided instead to embark on "an experiment, to find what a single individual can contribute to changing the world and benefiting all humanity. "

By 1928, Fuller was living in Greenwich Village and spending a lot of time at Romany Marie's[5] where he had spent a fascinating evening in conversation with Marie and Eugene O'Neill several years earlier. Year 1928 ( MCMXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Greenwich Village (ˌgrɛnɪtʃ ˈvɪlɪdʒ often simply called the Village, is a largely residential area on the west side of downtown (southern Manhattan Marie Marchand ( May 17 1885 — February 20 1961) known as Romany Marie, was a Greenwich Village doyenne and restaurateur Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16 1888–November 27 1953 was a Nobel -prize winning American playwright [6] Fuller took on the interior decoration of the café in exchange for meals,[5] giving informal lectures several times a week,[6][7] and models of the Dymaxion house were exhibited at the café. The Dymaxion House was developed by inventor Buckminster Fuller to address several perceived shortcomings with existing homebuilding techniques Isamu Noguchi showed up in 1929 — Constantin Brâncuşi, an old friend of Marie's,[8] had directed him there[5] — and Noguchi and Fuller were soon collaborating on several projects[7][9] including the modeling of the Dymaxion car. was a prominent Japanese American Artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades from the 1920s onward Year 1929 ( MCMXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Constantin Brâncuşi, ( February 19, 1876 &ndash March 16, 1957) konstanˈtin brɨnˈkuʃʲ was an internationally renowned Romanian Marie Marchand ( May 17 1885 — February 20 1961) known as Romany Marie, was a Greenwich Village doyenne and restaurateur The Dymaxion car was a Concept car from 1933 designed by US inventor and architect Buckminster Fuller. [10] It was the beginning of their lifelong friendship.

Fuller taught at Black Mountain College in North Carolina during the summers of 1948 and 1949,[11] serving as its Summer Institute director in 1949. Black Mountain College, founded in 1933 near Asheville North Carolina, was known as one of the leading progressive schools in the United States North Carolina ( is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States There, with the support of a group of professors and students, he began work on the project that would make him famous and revolutionize the field of engineering, the geodesic dome. A geodesic dome is an almost spherical shell structure based on a network of Great circles ( Geodesics lying approximately on the surface of a Sphere One of the early models was first constructed in 1945 at Bennington College in Vermont, where he frequently lectured. Bennington College is a nationally recognized liberal arts college located in Bennington Vermont. In 1949, he erected the world’s first geodesic dome building that could sustain its own weight with no practical limits. Year 1949 ( MCMXLIX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. It was 4. 3 meters (14 feet) in diameter and constructed of aluminum aircraft tubing and a vinyl-plastic skin, in the form of a tetrahedron. A tetrahedron (plural tetrahedra) is a Polyhedron composed of four triangular faces three of which meet at each vertex. To prove his design, Bucky and several students who helped build it hung from the structure’s framework to awe non-believers. The U. S. government recognized the importance of the discovery and employed him to make small domes for the army. Within a few years there were thousands of these domes around the world.

For the next half-century Fuller contributed a wide range of ideas, designs and inventions to the world, particularly in the areas of practical, inexpensive shelter and transportation. He documented his life, philosophy and ideas scrupulously in a daily diary (later called the Dymaxion Chronofile) and in twenty-eight publications. For other uses of the term 'diary' see Diary (disambiguation. The Dymaxion Chronofile is Buckminster Fuller 's attempt to document his life as fully as possible Fuller financed some of his experiments with inherited funds, sometimes augmented by funds invested by his collaborators, one example being the Dymaxion Car project. The Dymaxion car was a Concept car from 1933 designed by US inventor and architect Buckminster Fuller.

Image:Night view of American pavillion e001096692.jpg
Montreal's Expo 67 American pavilion at night

International recognition came with the success of his huge geodesic domes in the 1950s. Montreal, or Montréal in French ( pronounced in French, in English) is the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, or Expo 67 as it was commonly known was the World's Fair held in Montreal, Canada from April 27 to October A geodesic dome is an almost spherical shell structure based on a network of Great circles ( Geodesics lying approximately on the surface of a Sphere Fuller taught at Washington University in St. Louis in 1955 where he met James Fitzgibbon a close friend and colleague. Fuller taught from 1959 at Southern Illinois University Carbondale as an assistant professor, receiving full professorship in 1968 in the School of Art and Design through 1970. Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC but usually just referred to as SIU) is located in Carbondale, Illinois. Working as a designer, scientist, developer, and writer, for many years he lectured around the world on design. Fuller collaborated at SIU with the designer John McHale. John McHale (born Maryhill, Glasgow 1922 died HoustonTexas 1978 was an artist a founder member of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, and In 1965 Fuller inaugurated the World Design Science Decade (1965 to 1975) at the meeting of the International Union of Architects in Paris, that was in his own words devoted to "applying the principles of science to solving the problems of humanity. The International Union of Architects ( Union internationale des Architectes, or UIA is an international Non-governmental organization that represents over a million Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city "

Fuller believed human societies would soon rely mainly on renewable sources of energy, such as solar- and wind-derived electricity. He hoped for an age of "omni-successful education and sustenance of all humanity. "

Fuller was awarded 28 US patents[12] and many honorary doctorates. On January 16, 1970, Fuller received the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects and also received numerous other awards. Events 27 BC - The title Augustus is bestowed upon Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian by the Roman Senate. Year 1970 ( MCMLXX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link shows full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The American Institute of Architects (AIA is a professional organization for Architects in the United States.

Gravestone
Gravestone

He died on July 1, 1983, at the age of 87, a guru of the design, architecture, and 'alternative' communities such as Drop City, the experimental artists community to whom he awarded the 1966 "Dymaxion Award" for "poetically economic" domed living structures. "July 1st" redirects here For the Ayumi Hamasaki song see H (song. Year 1983 ( MCMLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar) A guru (गुरु গুরু is a person who is regarded as having great knowledge wisdom and authority in a certain area and uses it to guide others Drop City was an artists' community that formed in southern Colorado in 1965 His wife was comatose and dying of cancer and while visiting her in the hospital he exclaimed at one point: "She is squeezing my hand!" He then stood up, suffered a heart attack and died an hour later. His wife died 36 hours later. He is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1831 as "America's first garden cemetery" or the first " Rural cemetery " Mount Auburn Cemetery is an Elysium where traditionally

Philosophy and worldview

The grandson of a Unitarian minister (Arthur Buckminster Fuller),[13] R. Buckminster Fuller was also Unitarian. [14] Buckminster Fuller was an early environmental activist. He was very aware of the finite resources the planet has to offer, and promoted a principle that he termed "ephemeralization"—which in essence, according to futurist and Fuller disciple Stewart Brand, Fuller coined to mean "doing more with less. Ephemeralization is a term coined by R Buckminster Fuller. It refers to the ability of people to use technological advances to continuously do more with less Stewart Brand (born December 14, 1938 in Rockford Illinois) is an Author, editor, and creator of The Whole Earth Catalog "[15] Resources and waste material from cruder products could be recycled into making higher value products, increasing the efficiency of the entire process. Fuller also introduced synergetics, a metaphoric language for communicating experiences using geometric concepts, long before the term synergy became popular. Synergetics is an interdisciplinary science explaining the formation and Self-organization of patterns and structures in open systems far from thermodynamic equilibrium Synergy (from the Greek el-Latn syn-ergo, el συνεργός meaning working together is the term used to describe a situation where the final outcome

Fuller was one of the first to propagate a systemic worldview and explored principles of energy and material efficiency in the fields of architecture, engineering and design. Systems theory is an Interdisciplinary field of Science and the study of the nature of Complex systems in Nature, Society, and A comprehensive world view (or worldview) is a term Calqued from the German word Weltanschauung ( Welt is the German Material efficiency is a description or metric which expresses the degree to which a construction project or physical process is carried out in a manner which consumes incorporates The term architecture (from Greek αρχιτεκτονικήarchitektoniki) can be used to mean a process a profession or documentation Engineering is the Discipline and Profession of applying technical and scientific Knowledge and Design is used both as a Noun and a Verb. The term is often tied to the various Applied arts and Engineering (See design disciplines [16][17] He cited Francois de Chardenedes' view that petroleum, from the standpoint of its replacement cost out of our current energy "budget", essentially the incoming solar flux, had cost nature "over a million dollars" per U. Petroleum ( L petroleum, from Greek πετρέλαιον, lit Solar energy is the Light and radiant heat from the Sun that powers Earth 's Climate and Weather and sustains Life S. gallon (US$300,000 per litre) to produce. From this point of view its use as a transportation fuel by people commuting to work represents a huge net loss compared to their earnings. [18]

Fuller was concerned about sustainability and about human survival under the existing socio-economic system, yet optimistic about humanity's future. Sustainability, in a general sense is the capacity to maintain a certain process or state indefinitely Defining wealth in terms of knowledge, as the "technological ability to protect, nurture, support, and accommodate all growth needs of life", his analysis of the condition of "Spaceship Earth" led him to conclude that at a certain time in the 1970s, humanity had crossed an unprecedented watershed. Fuller was convinced that the accumulation of relevant knowledge, combined with the quantities of key recyclable resources that had already been extracted from the earth, had reached a critical level, such that competition for necessities was no longer necessary. Cooperation had become the optimum survival strategy. "Selfishness", he declared, "is unnecessary and. . . unrationalizable. . . War is obsolete. . . "[19]

Fuller also claimed that the natural analytic geometry of the universe was based on arrays of tetrahedra. Analytic geometry, also called coordinate geometry and earlier referred to as Cartesian geometry or analytical geometry, is the study of Geometry A tetrahedron (plural tetrahedra) is a Polyhedron composed of four triangular faces three of which meet at each vertex. He developed this in several ways, from the close-packing of spheres and the number of compressive or tensile members required to stabilize an object in space. Some confirming results were that the strongest possible homogeneous truss is cyclically tetrahedral. In Architecture and Structural engineering, a truss is a structure comprising one or more triangular units constructed with straight slender members whose

His technologically oriented point of view can also be taken as a metaphor for what it is to be human generally. In his 1970 book I Seem To Be a Verb, he wrote: "I live on Earth at present, and I don’t know what I am. I know that 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. "

Major design projects

Fuller was most famous for his geodesic domes, which can be seen as part of military radar stations, civic buildings, environmental protest camps and exhibition attractions. A geodesic dome is an almost spherical shell structure based on a network of Great circles ( Geodesics lying approximately on the surface of a Sphere Walther Bauersfeld was in all probability the source of this concept. Walther Bauersfeld ( January 23, 1879 in Berlin – October 28, 1959 in Heidenheim an der Brenz) was a German engineer employed In Chapter 3, of Buckminster Fuller's Book 'CRITICAL PATH', he writes:-

". . . . I found a similar situation to be existent in World War II. As head mechanical engineer of the U. S. A. Board of Economic Warfare I had available to me copies of any so-called intercepts I wanted. Those were transcriptions of censor-listened-to intercontinental telephone conversations, along with letters and cables that were opened by the censor and often deciphered, and so forth. As a student of patents I asked for and received all the intercept information relating to strategic patents held by both our enemies and our own big corporations,. . . "

Supporting this view, an examination of the design by Dr. Walther Bauersfeld's geodesic design for the Zeiss Planetarium, reveals that it is an exact duplicate of Buckminster Fuller's Geodesic Dome Patent.

Their construction is based on extending some basic principles to build simple tensegrity structures (tetrahedron, octahedron, and the closest packing of spheres), making them lightweight and stable. For the movement system created by Carlos Castaneda, see Tensegrity (Castaneda The patent for geodesic domes was awarded in 1954, part of Fuller's exploration of nature's constructing principles to find design solutions. The Fuller Dome is referenced in the Hugo Award winning novel Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner, where a geodesic dome is said to cover the entire island of Manhattan, but, due to hot-air balloon effect of the large air-mass under the dome, (and perhaps its construction of lightweight materials), it floats on air. The Hugo Awards are given every year for the best Science fiction or Fantasy works and achievements of the previous year Stand on Zanzibar is a dystopic New Wave Science fiction Novel written by John Brunner and first published in 1968 (ISBN John Kilian Houston Brunner ( September 24, 1934 &ndash August 26, 1995) was a prolific British author of Science fiction [20]

Previously, Fuller had designed and built prototypes of what he hoped would be a safer, aerodynamic Dymaxion car ("Dymaxion" is contracted from DYnamic MAXimum tensION, however it has also been reported that the name is a combination of the words dynamic, maximum, and ion, per the National Automobile Museum. The Dymaxion car was a Concept car from 1933 designed by US inventor and architect Buckminster Fuller. ) He worked with professional colleagues over a period of three years beginning in 1932. Based on a design idea Fuller had derived from aircraft, the three prototype cars were different from anything on the market. They had three wheels, with two (the drive wheels) in front, and the third, rear wheel being the one that was steered. The engine was in the rear, with the chassis and the body being original designs. The aerodynamic, somewhat tear-shaped body (which in one of the prototypes was about 5. 5 metres or 18 feet long), was large enough to seat 11 people. It resembled a melding of a light aircraft (without wings) and a Volkswagen van of 1950s vintage. The car was essentially a mini-bus in each of its three trial incarnations, and its concept long predated the Volkswagen Type 2 mini-bus conceived in 1947 by Ben Pon. The Volkswagen Type 2 (also known as Transporter) was the second automotive line introduced by German automaker Volkswagen. Ben Pon (born Bernardus Marinus Pon on 9 December 1936 in Amersfoort, Netherlands) is a Vintner and former Olympian

Despite its length, and due to its three-wheel design, the Dymaxion Car turned on a small radius and parked in a tight space quite nicely. The prototypes were efficient in fuel consumption for their day. Fuller poured a great deal of his own money into the project, in addition to funds from one of his professional collaborators. An industrial investor was also keenly interested in the concept. Fuller anticipated the car could travel on an open highway safely at up to about 160 km/h (100 miles per hour). Due to some concept oversights, they were unruly above 80 km/h (50 mph), and difficult to steer. Research ended after one of the prototypes was involved in a collision resulting in a fatality.

In 1943, industrialist Henry J. Kaiser asked Fuller to develop a prototype for a smaller car, and Fuller designed a five-seater which never went beyond development. Henry John Kaiser ( May 9, 1882 — August 24, 1967) was an American Industrialist who became known as the father of modern American

Another of Fuller's ideas was the alternative-projection Dymaxion map. The Dymaxion map of the Earth is a projection of a global map onto the surface of a Polyhedron, which can then be unfolded to a net This was designed to show the Earth's continents with minimum distortion when projected or printed on a flat surface.

A Dymaxion House at The Henry Ford.
A Dymaxion House at The Henry Ford. The Henry Ford, a National Historic Landmark, (also known as the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, and more formally as the Edison Institute

Fuller's energy-efficient and low-cost Dymaxion House garnered much interest, but has never gone into production. The Dymaxion House was developed by inventor Buckminster Fuller to address several perceived shortcomings with existing homebuilding techniques Here the term "Dymaxion" is used in effect to signify a "radically strong and light tensegrity structure". One of Fuller's Dymaxion Houses is on display as a permanent exhibit at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan. The Henry Ford, a National Historic Landmark, (also known as the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, and more formally as the Edison Institute Designed and developed in the mid-1940s, this prototype is a round structure (not a dome), shaped something like the flattened "bell" of certain jellyfish. It has several innovative features, including revolving dresser drawers, and a fine-mist shower that reduces water consumption. According to Fuller biographer Steve Crooks, the house was designed to be delivered in two cylindrical packages, with interior color panels available at local dealers. A circular structure at the top of the house was designed to rotate around a central mast to use natural winds for cooling and air circulation.

Conceived nearly two decades before, and developed in Wichita, Kansas, the house was designed to be lightweight and adapted to windy climes. It was to be inexpensive to produce and purchase, and easily assembled. It was to be produced using factories, workers and technologies that had produced World War II aircraft. It was ultramodern-looking at the time, built of metal, and sheathed in polished aluminum. The basic model enclosed 90 m² (1000 square feet) of floor area. Due to publicity, there were many orders in the early Post-War years, but the company that Fuller and others had formed to produce the houses failed due to management problems.

Words Coined (Bucky-isms)

Quirks

Fuller was a frequent flier, often crossing time zones. He famously wore three watches; one for the current zone, one for the zone he had departed, and one for the zone he was going to.

Practical achievements

Certainly, a number of Fuller's projects did not meet success in terms of commitment from industry or acceptance by a broad public. However, many geodesic domes have been built and are in use. According to the Buckminster Fuller Institute Web site, the largest geodesic-dome structures (listed in descending order from largest diameter) are:

Fuller's development of the dome and his roles as a philosopher and as a gadfly within the design and architectural communities left an important legacy. The Eden Project is a visitor attraction including the world's largest greenhouse He introduced a number of concepts, and if every one wasn't entirely new, we can still say that he honed each one well.

More than 500,000 geodesic domes have been built around the world. Some notable ones include the 80. 8-meter (265-foot) wide Epcot Center at Disney World in Florida, a 109. Epcot is a Theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort. The park is dedicated to international Culture and technological Innovation. 7-meter (360-foot) tall dome over a shopping center in downtown Ankara, Turkey, and a 85. 3-meter (280-foot) high dome enclosing a civic center in Stockholm, Sweden. The world’s largest aluminum dome formerly housed the “Spruce Goose” airplane in Long Beach Harbor, California. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout However, domes are not an everyday sight in most places. Contrary to initial hopes, in practice, most of the smaller owner-built geodesic structures had drawbacks (see geodesic domes). A geodesic dome is an almost spherical shell structure based on a network of Great circles ( Geodesics lying approximately on the surface of a Sphere As a home, many people have been put off by the domes' unconventional appearance.

An interesting spin-off of Fuller's dome-design conceptualization was the Buckminster Ball, which was the official FIFA approved design for footballs (soccer balls), from their introduction at the 1970 World Cup until recently. The design was essentially a "Geodesic Sphere", consisting of 12 pentagonal and 20 hexagonal panels. This was used continuously for 34 years until it was replaced by a 14-panel version in the 2006 World Cup.

While an envisioned widespread and common adoption of geodesic domes is yet to materialize, Fuller's ideas, teachings, and attitude to life and creativity, in combination, have prodded designers and engineers. What Fuller accomplished, in that sense, was to make professionals and students think "outside the box"; to question convention. Fuller was followed (historically) by other designers and architects (for example, Sir Norman Foster and Steve Baer) willing to explore the possibilities of new geometries in the design of buildings, not based on conventional rectangles. Norman Robert Foster Baron Foster of Thames Bank, OM, FRIBA, RDI, (born 1 June 1935) is a British architect whose company Steve Baer (1938- is an American inventor and solar and residential designer The English writer, playwright, and philosopher John Dryden wrote something quite relevant to the pioneering forays of Fuller still to be brought to full result: "We must beat the iron while it is hot, but we may polish it at leisure. John Dryden (– was an influential English poet Literary critic, Translator and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England "

Facts and Figures

"If somebody kept a very accurate record of a human being, going through the era from the Gay 90s, from a very different kind of world through the turn of the century — as far into the twentieth century as you might live. I decided to make myself a good case history of such a human being and it meant that I could not be judge of what was valid to put in or not. I must put everything in, so I started a very rigorous record. " [9] [10]

Use of language and neologisms

Buckminster Fuller spoke and wrote in a unique style and thought it crucial to describe the world as accurately as possible. [21] Fuller often created long run-on sentences and used unusual compound words (omniwell-informed, intertransformative, omni-interaccommodative, omniself-regenerative) as well as terms he himself coined. [22] Fuller used the word 'Universe' without the definite or indefinite articles (a or the) and always capitalized the word. Universe to Fuller meant the sum of all experience. [23]

The words 'down' and 'up,' according to Fuller, are awkward in that they refer to a planar concept of direction inconsistent with human experience. The words 'in' and 'out' should be used instead, he argued, because they better describe an object's relation to a gravitational center, the Earth. [24] 'World-around' is a term coined by Fuller to replace worldwide. The general belief in a flat Earth died out in the Middle Ages, so using wide is an anachronism when referring to the surface of the Earth — a spheroidal surface has area and encloses a volume, but has no width. The idea of a flat Earth is the idea that the surface of the Earth is flat (a plane) rather than the view that it is a very close approximation of An anachronism (from the Greek "ana" " ανά " "against anti-" and "chronos" " χρόνος " Equation A spheroid centered at the origin and rotated about the z axis is defined by the implicit equation \left(\frac{x}{a}\right^2+\left(\frac{y}{a}\right^2+\left(\frac{z}{b}\right^2 Area is a Quantity expressing the two- Dimensional size of a defined part of a Surface, typically a region bounded by a closed Curve. The volume of any solid plasma vacuum or theoretical object is how much three- Dimensional space it occupies often quantified numerically Fuller held that unthinking use of obsolete scientific ideas detracts from and misleads intuition. superseded, or obsolete scientific theory is a Scientific theory that was once commonly accepted but that is no longer considered the most complete description of The terms sunsight and sunclipse are other neologisms, according to Allegra Fuller Snyder, collectively coined by the Fuller family, replacing sunrise and sunset in order to overturn the geocentric bias of most pre-Copernican celestial mechanics. Celestial mechanics is the branch of Astrophysics that deals with the motions of Celestial objects The field applies principles of Physics, historically Fuller also coined the phrase Spaceship Earth, and coined the term (but did not invent) tensegrity. Spaceship is a World view term usually expressing concern over the use of limited resources available on Earth. For the movement system created by Carlos Castaneda, see Tensegrity (Castaneda

It has also been claimed that Fuller coined the phrase debunk in 1927, but many credit William Woodward for the term in 1923. A debunker is an individual who discredits and exposes claims as being false exaggerated unscientific or pretentious William Woodward may refer to William Culham Woodward (1885-1941 Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.

Concepts and buildings

His concepts and buildings include:

Bibliography

See also

Former students

References

  1. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica. In the thought of Vladimir Vernadsky and Teilhard de Chardin, the noosphere (sometimes spelled noösphere) can be seen as the " sphere of The Whole Earth Catalog was an American Counterculture catalog that granted "Access to Tools" published by Stewart Brand between 1968 and James Tennant Baldwin (born 1933 (whose books and articles have been published under the names J Joseph D Clinton had a long professional association with Buckminster Fuller. Mark Victor Hansen (born January 1948 is an American Inspirational and Motivational speaker, Trainer and Author. David Johnston David Johnston studied with Buckminster Fuller at Southern Illinois University, graduating with a degree in Environmental Systems Edwin Arthur Schlossberg (born July 19, 1945), Founder and Principal of ESI Design, is an internationally recognized Designer Kenneth Snelson (born June 29, Ruth Asawa (born January 24 1926 is a Japanese American sculptor Constance Abernathy, born Constance Davies (1931-1994 in Detroit Michigan attended Cass Technical High School and University of Michigan Architecture (2007). Fuller, R Buckminster. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved on 2007-04-20. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1303 - The University of Rome La Sapienza is instituted by Pope Boniface VIII.
  2. ^ Serebriakoff, Victor. "The Odd Way Mensa Began. " (as linked to Western Pennsylvania Mensa website) [1]
  3. ^ Fuller, R. Buckminster (1981). Critical Path. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, p. 124. ISBN 0312174918.  
  4. ^ a b c Pawley, Martin (1991). Buckminster Fuller. New York: Taplinger. ISBN 0-8008-1116-X.  
  5. ^ a b c John Haber. Before Buckyballs. Review of Noguchi Museum Best of Friends exhibit (May 19–October 15, 2006). The Noguchi Museum – chartered as The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum – is the first museum in America to be founded curated and initially funded by an artist Events 1535 - French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships 110 men and Events 533 - Byzantine General Belisarius makes his formal entry into Carthage, having conquered it from the Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.  “Noguchi, then twenty-five, had already had enough influences for a lifetime—from birth in Los Angeles to childhood in Japan and the Midwest, premed classes at Columbia, academic sculpture on the Lower East Side, and Brancusi's circle in Paris. was a prominent Japanese American Artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades from the 1920s onward Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. Columbia University is a private University in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. The Lower East Side is a Neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city Now his exposure to Modernism and "the American century" received a decidedly New York twist. See also Modernism American modernism like modernism in general is a trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create improve and reshape their environment
    “Only two years before, on the brink of suicide, Fuller had decided to remake his life and the world. Why not begin on Minetta Street? In 1929, he was shopping around his first major design, plans for an inexpensive, modular home that others air-lift right where desired. The Dymaxion House was developed by inventor Buckminster Fuller to address several perceived shortcomings with existing homebuilding techniques Now, in exchange for meals, he took on the interior decoration and chairs for Marie's new location. Marie Marchand ( May 17 1885 — February 20 1961) known as Romany Marie, was a Greenwich Village doyenne and restaurateur He must have stood out in person, too, ever the talkative, handsome visionary in tie and starched collar. ”
    See also: The Architect and the Sculptor: A Friendship of Ideas. Grace Glueck, The New York Times (May 19, 2006). Events 1535 - French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships 110 men and Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.
  6. ^ a b Lloyd Steven Sieden. Buckminster Fuller's Universe: His Life and Work (pp. 74, 119-142). New York: Perseus Books Group, 2000. ISBN 0-73820-379-3. p. 74: “Although O'Neill soon became well known as a major American playwright, it was Romany Marie who would significantly influence Bucky, becoming his close friend and confidante during the most difficult years of his life. Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16 1888–November 27 1953 was a Nobel -prize winning American playwright Marie Marchand ( May 17 1885 — February 20 1961) known as Romany Marie, was a Greenwich Village doyenne and restaurateur ”
  7. ^ a b John Haskell. Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi. Kraine Gallery Bar Lit, Fall 2007.
  8. ^ Robert Schulman. Romany Marie: The Queen of Greenwich Village (pp. Marie Marchand ( May 17 1885 — February 20 1961) known as Romany Marie, was a Greenwich Village doyenne and restaurateur Greenwich Village (ˌgrɛnɪtʃ ˈvɪlɪdʒ often simply called the Village, is a largely residential area on the west side of downtown (southern Manhattan 85-86, 109-110). Louisville: Butler Books, 2006. ISBN 1-88453-274-8.
  9. ^ Interview with Isamu Noguchi. Conducted November 7, 1973 by Paul Cummings at Noguchi's studio in Long Island City, Queens. Events 1492 - The Ensisheim Meteorite the oldest Meteorite with a known date of impact strikes the Earth around noon in a Wheat Year 1973 ( MCMLXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. Long Island City (often abbreviated LIC) is the western-most neighborhood of the borough of Queens in New York City. Smithsonian Archives of American Art. The Smithsonian Institution (smɪθsoʊnɪən is an educational and research institute and associated Museum complex administered and funded by the Government of
  10. ^ Michael John Gorman (updated March 12, 2002). Events 538 - Witiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. Passenger Files: Isamo Noguchi, 1904-1988. Towards a cultural history of Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Car. The Dymaxion car was a Concept car from 1933 designed by US inventor and architect Buckminster Fuller. Stanford Humanities Lab. Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University or simply Stanford, is a private Research university located in Includes several images.
  11. ^ IDEAS + INVENTIONS: Buckminster Fuller and Black Mountain College. Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center Exhibit (July 15 – November 26, 2005). Black Mountain College, founded in 1933 near Asheville North Carolina, was known as one of the leading progressive schools in the United States Events 1099 - First Crusade: Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final Events 43 BC - The Second Triumvirate alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus ("Octavian" later "Caesar Augustus" Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
  12. ^ list of Fuller US patents
  13. ^ Arthur Buckminster Fuller
  14. ^ Buckminster Fuller: Designer of a New World
  15. ^ Brand, Stewart (1999). The Clock of the Long Now. New York: Basic. ISBN 046504512X.  
  16. ^ Fuller, R. Buckminster (1969). Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth. Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth ( ISBN 0-525-47433-1) is a short book by R Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 080932461X.  
  17. ^ Fuller, R. Buckminster; Applewhite, E. J. (1975). Synergetics. New York: Macmillan. ISBN 002541870X.  
  18. ^ Fuller, R. Buckminster (1981). Critical Path. New York: St. Martin's Press, pp. xxxiv-xxxv. ISBN 0312174888.  
  19. ^ Fuller, R. Buckminster (1981). "Introduction", Critical Path, First Edition (in English), New York, N. Y. : St. Martin's Press, p. xxv. ISBN 0-312-17488-8.  “"It no longer has to be you or me. Selfishness is unnecessary and hence-forth unrationalizable as mandated by survival. War is obsolete. ” 
  20. ^ The R. Buckminster Fuller FAQ: Geodesic Domes
  21. ^ "What is important in this connection is the way in which humans reflex spontaneously for that is the way in which they usually behave in critical moments, and it is often "common sense" to reflex in perversely ignorant ways that produce social disasters by denying knowledge and ignorantly yielding to common sense. " Intuition, 1972 Doubleday, New York. p. 103
  22. ^ He wrote a single unpuncuated sentence approximately 3000 words long titled "What I Am Trying to Do. " And It Came to Pass - Not to Stay Macmillan Publishing, New York, 1976.
  23. ^ I can define many of its parts but I cannot define simultaneously the nonsimultaneously occurring aggregate of partially overlapping experiences whose total set of local scenario relationships constitutes Universe though the later as an aggregate of finites is finite. "How Little I Know" from And It Came to Pass - Not to Stay
  24. ^ "I suggest to audiences that they say, "I'm going 'outstairs' and 'instairs. '" At first that sounds strange to them; They all laugh about it. But if they try saying in and out for a few days in fun, they find themselves beginning to realize that they are indeed going inward and outward in respect to the center of Earth, which is our Spaceship Earth. And for the first time they begin to feel real "reality. " Intuition (1972).

Further reading

External links

Persondata
NAME Fuller, Buckminster
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fuller, Bucky
SHORT DESCRIPTION American inventor and author
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Milton, Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 1983
PLACE OF DEATH Los Angeles
The New Yorker is an American Magazine that publishes reportage commentary criticism essays fiction satire cartoons and poetry Events 1191 - Saladin 's garrison surrenders ending the two-year Siege of Acre. Year 1895 ( MDCCCXCV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Milton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and part of the Greater Boston area The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. "July 1st" redirects here For the Ayumi Hamasaki song see H (song. Year 1983 ( MCMLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar) Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West
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