a+u 2023:08 Feature: The Seven Principles of R. Buckminster Fuller
Content
a+u’s August issue features Buckminster Fuller’s 7 principles: 4D, dymaxion, synergetics, geodesic, tensegrity, design science, and Spaceship Earth. Fuller, born in 1895, spent more than 5 decades of his career, from 1927 till his death in 1983, dedicated to inventing and pioneering solutions to reform the environment for all humanity. With a far-reaching perspective on the world’s problems, he left behind numerous patents and inventions, having a massive influence over the generations that have followed. As detailed in an article by Fuller published in this issue, “We can invent objectively the instruments and tools that qualify us as local Universe problem-solvers.” His profound understanding of Universe led to his discovery of the principles, and thus to his inventions, including industrialized prefabricated houses, geodesic domes, and cartography. In this issue, Fuller’s patents and their real-world applications are selected and organized into chapters framed by these principles. Fuller, who held 24 patents in his lifetime, saw a patent as a catalog of Universe, a form of inheriting knowledge that can be accumulated and used by everyone. With the 7 principles as their foundation, the 13 patents and 30 works featured here reflect Fuller’s lifelong dedication and half-century of work on ambitious and diverse “experiments in individual initiative” – and the “polyhedral” image of Buckminster Fuller. (a+u)
Introduction: Bucky as System
Daichi Shigemoto
Essay: Experiment in Individual Initiative
R. Buckminster Fuller
4D
4D Time Lock
4D Lightful Tower / Fuller 4D Tower Garage
United States Patent Application: 4D House
Dymaxion
Dymaxion House
United States Patent 2220482: Prefabricated Bathroom
Dymaxion Bathroom
United States Patent 2343764 / United States Patent 2351419:
Building Construction
Dymaxion Deployment Unit
Wichita House
United States Patent 2101057: Motor Vehicle
Dymaxion Car
Synergetics
United States Patent 2986241: Synergetic Building Construction
Airplane Hanger
Proposal for United States Pavilion, Montréal Expo ’67
Geodesic
United States Pavilion, Montréal Expo ’67
United States Patent 2682235: Building Construction
Ford Rotunda 88
United States Patent 2905113: Self-Strutted Geodesic Plydome
United States Patent 3197927: Geodesic Structures
Des Moines Plydome / Cornell Pinecone Plydome
Fly’s Eye Dome
United States Patent 2914074: Geodesic Tent
Kaiser Dome
United States Patent 3203144: Laminar Geodesic Dome
Spaceship Earth, Epcot
Geodesic Dome for the US Marine Corp
Drop City
R. Buckminster Fuller and Anne Hewlett Dome Home
Tensegrity
United States Patent 3063521: Tensile-Integrity Structures
United States Patent 3866366: Non-Symmetrical Tension-Integrity
Structures
Geodesic Tensegrity Dome / Tensegrity Sphere
Three Structures by Buckminster Fuller
Design Science
Skyrise for Harlem/ Dome Over Manhattan/
Tetrahedron City/ Triton City/ Cloud Nine
Spaceship Earth
United States Patent 2393676: Cartography
Dymaxion Airocean World
World Game
Geoscope
Dymaxion Chronofile