Buckminster Fuller’s 50-Foot “Fly’s Eye” Dome to be Restored
Noted architectural historian and preservationist Robert Rubin has purchased the largest of Buckmister Fuller’s ”Fly’s Eye” domes and plans to reopen it to the public this summer for the first time in 30 years.
More on Fuller’s dome and its new owner after the break…
“Everything I Know”: 42 Hours of Buckminster Fuller
In January of 1975, Buckminster Fuller sat down to deliver twelve lectures that made up the 42-hour series Everything I Know. The entire event was captured on video, with the most advanced, bluescreen technology of the time. Fuller discusses an array of topics, from “architecture, design, philosophy, education, mathematics, geometry, cartography, economics, history, structure, industry, housing and engineering”, to all his major inventions and discoveries, along with “his own personal history in the context of the history of science and industrialization”.
The embedded video above is recompiled and edited version of the series. You may download the entire 42-hours (for free!) from the Internet Archive. The Buckminster Fuller archive has also made transcripts of Everything I Know - “minimally edited and maximally Fuller” – freely available.
Continue after the break for links to the remaining lectures.
Happy birthday, Buckminster Fuller! (1895-1983)
A 117-years ago in Milton, Massachusetts, a legend was born. Dedicated to a life of exploration, discovery, invention and teaching, R. Buckminster Fuller was driven by his intention “to make the world work for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or disadvantage of anyone.” And for this, he has become known as the father of sustainability.
Fuller never confined himself to a single profession and worked as a ‘comprehensive anticipatory design scientist’ to solve global problems surrounding housing, shelter, transportation, education, energy, ecological destruction and poverty. Throughout his prolific career, Fuller held 28 patents, authored 28 books and received 47 honorary degrees. His best known “artifact” was the geodesic dome, which has been produced over 300,000 times worldwide.
In honor of the renowned 20th century inventor and visionary, we celebrate with a special ArchDaily logo:
Recentely, Norman Foster recreated the legendary futuristic Dymaxion Car designed by Fuller, after a lengthy, expensive and passionate two year project. More details can be found here.
For more information, visit the Buckminster Fuller Institute. And, for those of you in the San Francisco area, celebrate Bucky’s birthday at the ongoing SFMoMA exhibit The Utopian Impulse: Buckminster Fuller and the Bay Area, which will concluded July 29th.
SFMoMA Exhibit: “The Utopian Impulse: Buckminster Fuller and the Bay Area”
If you are in the Bay Area this weekend, we recommend you stop in at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and check out their current exhibit The Utopian Impulse: Buckminster Fuller and the Bay Area. This exhibition is the first of its kind, featuring Buckminster Fuller’s most iconic projects as well a focus on his local design legacy in the Bay Area. Though he was never a resident, Fuller’s ideas inspired many local experiments in the realms of technology, engineering and sustainability. Continue reading for more information.
Video: Manhattan Memorious / Reiser + Umemoto
Created by Reiser + Umemoto for the Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale, “Manhattan Memorious” explores what Manhattan could have been. The film visualizes several unrealized projects from Manhattan, including Buckminster Fuller’s dome over Midtown, Rem Koolhaas’ City of the Captive Globe, RUR’s East River Corridor, Paul Rudolph’s Eastside Redevelopment Corridor, Morphosis’ West Side Yard and others.
Jesse Reiser, Principal of Reiser + Umemoto, explains; “Before a city becomes a thing of steel, concrete and glass it is a theater of visions in conflict. As a city ages, the visions do not die but come up against the physical and ideological resistance of the place and its people. The city we see today is the direct result of radical visions, gradually changing the way the future is realized. This is an account of a Manhattan that could have been – might have been. A phantasmagorical Manhattan where the visionary meets the everyday – the absurd and the sublime. The island as we know it is but a pale reflection of a city designed by visionaries – a city of mad, incongruous utopias.”
ASM International World Headquarters Renovation / The Chesler Group and Dimit Architects
The ASM International World Headquarters, originally constructed in 1959, is an architectural composition by two influential designers during the mid-twentieth century: John Terence Kelly, who studied under Bauhaus-founder Walter Gropius, and R. Buckminster Fuller, well known for his geodesic domes, environmentally-conscious designs and the dymaxion car. The complex includes the building, dome and garden on the 45-acre site known as Materials Park. The renovation, led by The Chesler Group and Dimit Architects, brings new life to Kelly’s building. According to Architectural Record, (Snapshot, Laura Raskin), Michael Chesler of The Chesler Group, campaigned to salvage the architectural marvel, giving it a place in the National Register of Historic Places and using tax credits to fund the renovation.
Pictures and details of the renovation after the break.
Restoration of Buckminster Fuller’s iconic Fly’s Eye Dome at America’s Cup
Goetz Composites, fabricators of some of the most successful race boats in the world including three of today’s most high profile yachts as well as ten America’s Cup racing yachts completed a historic restoration of one of Buckminster Fuller‘s most iconic structures, the 24 foot Fly’s Eye Dome.
Patented in 1965, Fuller created two prototypes of this structure; a 24 foot and 50 foot dome. Fuller writes in his seminal book, Critical Path that “the Fly’s Eye domes are designed as part of a ‘livingry’ service. The basic hardware components will produce a beautiful, fully equipped air-deliverable house that weighs and costs about as much as a good automobile. Not only will it be highly efficient in its use of energy and materials, it also will be capable of harvesting incoming light and wind energies.”
More images and information after the break.
Video: Norman Foster Recreates Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Car
“I was privileged to collaborate with Bucky for the last 12 years of his life and this had a profound influence on my own work and thinking. Inevitably, I also gained an insight into his philosophy and achievements,” shared Lord Norman Foster.
Recreating the legendary futuristic Dymaxion Car, Foster’s No. 4 version was a lengthy and expensive two year project, but was obviously a labor of love. Buckminster Fuller’s futuristic three wheeled car was brief, with a mere three actually built. Incredibly efficient the streamlined body with long tail-fin averaged 35 miles to the gallon and could achieve 120 mph. The Zeppelin inspired design with a V8 Ford engine was intended to fly as well, Fuller’s vision of revolutionizing how people traveled.
More following the break.
Bucky Fuller & Spaceship Earth, curated by Foster
What: Ivorypress Art + Books is to stage an exhibition of the work of Buckminster Fuller
Where: Madrid, Spain
When: From September 1st to October 30th
Curated by Norman Foster and Luis Fernández-Galiano, the exhibition brings the different strands of Bucky’s influential career together with original drawings and models and will be the first chance to see the recently completed recreation of the Dymaxion Car.
In Lord Foster´s words: “I was privileged to collaborate with Bucky for the last 12 years of his life and this had a profound influence on my own work and thinking. Inevitably, I also gained an insight into his philosophy and achievements. With Luis Fernández-Galiano, my co-curator for this exhibition, we have tried to show Bucky and the broad range of his work in the context of his time.”
