Editing Buckminster Fuller (section)

== Major design projects ==

[[File:Géode V 3 1.gif|thumb|right|220px|A geodesic sphere]]

=== The geodesic dome ===

Fuller was most famous for his [[thin-shell structure|lattice shell structures]] – [[geodesic dome]]s, which have been used as parts of military radar stations, civic buildings, environmental protest camps, and exhibition attractions. An examination of the geodesic design by [[Walther Bauersfeld]] for the [[Planetarium Jena|Zeiss-Planetarium]], built some 28 years prior to Fuller's work, reveals that Fuller's Geodesic Dome patent (U.S. 2,682,235; awarded in 1954) is the same design as Bauersfeld's.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.telacommunications.com/geodome.htm |title=Geodesic Domes and Charts of the Heavens |publisher=Telacommunications.com |date=June 19, 1973 |access-date=April 18, 2014}}</ref>

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. The geodesic dome was a result of Fuller's exploration of nature's constructing principles to find design solutions. The Fuller Dome is referenced in the [[Hugo Award]]-winning 1968 novel ''[[Stand on Zanzibar]]'' by [[John Brunner (novelist)|John Brunner]], in which a geodesic dome is said to cover the entire island of [[Manhattan]], and it floats on air due to the hot-air balloon effect of the large air-mass under the dome (and perhaps its construction of lightweight materials).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cjfearnley.com/fuller-faq-4.html#ss4.1 |title=The R. Buckminster Fuller FAQ: Geodesic Domes |publisher=Cjfearnley.com |access-date=April 18, 2014}}</ref>

=== Transportation ===

{{main|Dymaxion car}}

{{quote box|width=280px|quote='''''The Omni-Media-Transport:<br />'''''With such a vehicle at our disposal, [Fuller] felt that human travel, like that of birds, would no longer be confined to airports, roads, and other bureaucratic boundaries, and that autonomous free-thinking human beings could live and prosper wherever they chose.<ref name="universe">{{cite book | title = Buckminster Fuller's Universe | publisher = Basic Books | author = Lloyd Steven Sieden | date = August 11, 2000 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rG__1rhIzE0C&q=%22henry+ford%22+%22dymaxion+car%22&pg=PA177 | isbn = 9780738203799 }}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>|source = —''Lloyd S. Sieden, Bucky Fuller's Universe'', 2000
<br />
'''''To his young daughter Allegra:'''''<br />
Fuller described the Dymaxion as a "''zoom-mobile'', explaining that it could hop off the road at will, fly about, then, as deftly as a bird, settle back into a place in traffic".<ref name="zoom">{{cite web | title = R. (Richard) Buckminster Fuller 1895-1983 | publisher = Coachbuilt.com | url = http://www.coachbuilt.com/des/f/fuller/fuller.htm}}</ref>}}

[[File:Dymaxion car photo.jpg|thumb|220px|The Dymaxion car, c. 1933, artist [[Diego Rivera]] shown entering the car, carrying coat]]

The [[Dymaxion car]] was a vehicle designed by Fuller, featured prominently at Chicago's 1933-1934 [[Century of Progress]] World's Fair.<ref>{{patent |US|2101057}}</ref> During the [[Great Depression]], Fuller formed the ''Dymaxion Corporation'' and built three prototypes with noted naval architect [[Starling Burgess]] and a team of 27 workmen — using donated money as well as a family inheritance.<ref name="biography">{{cite book | title = The 20th Century A-GI: Dictionary of World Biography, Volume 7 | page = 1266 | publisher = Routledge | author = Frank Magill | date = 1999 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Nq1GU6I5umQC&q=fuller+dymaxion+car+philip+pearson&pg=PA1266| isbn = 978-1136593345 }}</ref><ref name="nyt06">{{cite news | title = A 3-Wheel Dream That Died at Takeoff | newspaper = The New York Times | author = Phil Patton | date = June 2, 2008 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/automobiles/collectibles/15BUCKY.html}}</ref>

Fuller associated the word ''Dymaxion'', a blend of the words '''''dy'''namic'', '''''max'''imum'', and ''tens'''ion'''''<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=rG__1rhIzE0C&q=Dymaxion+dynamic&pg=PA132 |title= Buckminster Fuller's Universe |page= 132 |first= Lloyd Steven |last= Sieden |year= 2000 |publisher= Basic Books |isbn= 978-0-7382-0379-9 }}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> to sum up the goal of his study, "maximum gain of advantage from minimal energy input".<ref>{{cite book |url= http://www.anb.org/articles/13/13-02560.html |title= R. Buckminster Fuller |page= 17 |first= John |last= McHale |year= 1962 |publisher= Prentice-Hall }}</ref>

The Dymaxion was not an automobile but rather the 'ground-taxying mode' of a vehicle that might one day be designed to fly, land and drive — an "Omni-Medium Transport" for air, land and water.<ref name="Marks 1973 104">{{Cite book |title=The Dymaxion World of Buckminster Fuller |last=Marks  |first=Robert |year=1973 |publisher=Anchor Press / Doubleday |pages=104
}}</ref>  Fuller focused on the landing and taxiing qualities, and noted severe limitations in its handling.  The team made improvements and refinements to the platform,<ref name="universe"/> and Fuller noted the Dymaxion "was an invention that could not be made available to the general public without considerable improvements".<ref name="universe"/>

The bodywork was aerodynamically designed for increased fuel efficiency and its [[Automobile platform|platform]] featured a lightweight cromoly-steel hinged chassis, rear-mounted V8 engine, front-drive, and three-wheels. The vehicle was steered via the third wheel at the rear, capable of 90° [[steering|steering lock]]. Able to steer in a tight circle, the Dymaxion often caused a sensation,  bringing nearby traffic to a halt.<ref name="Kleiner">{{cite book | title = The Age of Heretics | publisher = Jossey Bass, Warren Bennis Signature Series | author = Art Kleiner | date = April 2008 | quote = In 1934, Fuller had interested auto magnate Walter Chrysler in financing his Dymaxion car, a durable, three-wheeled, aerodynamic land vehicle modeled after an airplane fuselage. Fuller had built three models that drew enthusiastic crowds wherever. Like all Fuller's other projects (he was responsible for refining and developing the geodesic dome, the first practical dome structure) it was inexpensive, durable and energy efficient; Fuller worked diligently to cut back the amount of material and energy used by any product he designed. "You've produced exactly the car I've always wanted to produce," the mechanically apt Chrysler told him. Then Chrysler noted ruefully, Fuller had taken one-third the time and one fourth the money Chrysler's corporation usually spent producing prototypes — prototypes Chrysler himself usually hated in the end. For a few months, it had seemed Chrysler would go ahead and introduce Fuller's car. But the banks that financed Chrysler's wholesale distributors vetoed the move by threatening to call in their loans. The bankers were afraid (or so Fuller said years later) that an advanced new design would diminish the value of the unsold motor vehicles in dealers' showrooms.  For every new car sold, five used cars had to be sold to finance the distribution and production chain, and those cars would not sell if Fuller's invention made them obsolete. | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=YDQgqe4lpLQC&q=the+age+of+heretics+dymaxion+like+all+other+of+fuller%27s&pg=PT26| isbn = 9780470443415 }}</ref><ref name="Marks 1973 29">{{Cite book |title=The Dymaxion World of Buckminster Fuller |last=Marks  |first=Robert |year=1973 |publisher=Anchor Press / Doubleday |pages=29 }}</ref>

Shortly after launch, a prototype rolled over and crashed, killing the Dymaxion's driver and seriously injuring its passengers.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Nevala-Lee |first=Alec |date=August 2, 2022 |title=The Dramatic Failure of Buckminster Fuller's "Car of the Future" |url=https://slate.com/technology/2022/08/the-dymaxion-car-the-true-history-of-buckminster-fullers-failed-automobile.html |access-date=October 20, 2022 |website=Slate Magazine |language=en}}</ref> Fuller blamed the accident on a second car that collided with the Dymaxion.<ref name="accident">{{cite web|title=Passenger Files: Francis T. Turner, Colonel William Francis Forbes-Sempill and Charles Dollfuss |publisher=Stanford University Archives |url=http://hotgates.stanford.edu/Bucky/dymaxion/crash.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120821193516/http://hotgates.stanford.edu/Bucky/dymaxion/crash.htm |archive-date=August 21, 2012 }}</ref><ref name="carandriver">{{cite magazine | title = Maximum Dynamism! Jeff Lane's Fuller Dymaxion Replica Captures Insane Cool of the Originals | magazine = [[Car and Driver]] | author = Davey G. Johnson | date = March 18, 2015 | url = http://blog.caranddriver.com/maximum-dynamism-jeff-lanes-fuller-dymaxion-replica-captures-insane-cool-of-the-originals/ | access-date = May 1, 2015 | archive-date = May 18, 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150518065656/http://blog.caranddriver.com/maximum-dynamism-jeff-lanes-fuller-dymaxion-replica-captures-insane-cool-of-the-originals/ | url-status = dead }}</ref> Eyewitnesses reported, however, that the other car hit the Dymaxion only after it had begun to roll over.<ref name=":0" />

Despite courting the interest of important figures from the auto industry, Fuller used his family inheritance to finish the second and third prototypes<ref name="transverse">{{cite book | title = Inventions: The Patented Works of R. Buckminster Fuller | publisher = St. Martin's Press | author =  R. Buckminster Fuller | date = 1983}}</ref> — eventually selling all three, dissolving ''Dymaxion Corporation'' and maintaining the Dymaxion was never intended as a commercial venture.<ref name="business">{{cite web | title = About Fuller, Session 9, Part 15 | publisher = Bucky Fuller Institute | url = https://bfi.org/about-fuller/resources/everything-i-know/session-9 | access-date = May 1, 2015 | archive-date = May 18, 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150518082909/https://bfi.org/about-fuller/resources/everything-i-know/session-9 | url-status = dead }}</ref>  One of the three original prototypes survives.<ref>{{cite web | title=Dymaxion Car at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada. The only surviving prototype
 | url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/dymaxion-car-at-the-national-automobile-museum | author=Allison C. Meier | publisher= AtlasObscura | access-date= September 27, 2020}}</ref>

=== Housing ===

[[File:Dymaxion House exterior.jpg|thumb|right|220px|A Dymaxion house at [[The Henry Ford]] Museum in [[Dearborn, Michigan]]]]
Fuller's energy-efficient and inexpensive [[Dymaxion house]] garnered much interest, but only two prototypes were ever produced. 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 Museum]] in [[Dearborn, Michigan]]. Designed and developed during 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 earlier, and developed in [[Wichita, Kansas]], the house was designed to be lightweight, adapted to windy climates, cheap to produce and easy to assemble. Because of its light weight and portability, the Dymaxion House was intended to be the ideal housing for individuals and families who wanted the option of easy mobility.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Massey|first=Jonathan|year=2012|title=Buckminster Fuller's Reflexive Modernism|journal=Design and Culture|volume=4|issue=3|pages=325–344|doi=10.2752/175470812X13361292229159|s2cid=144621805}}</ref> The design included a "Go-Ahead-With-Life Room" stocked with maps, charts, and helpful tools for travel "through time and space".<ref>{{Cite news|title=Planetary Homeboy|last=Wigley|first=M|date=1997|work=Any|pages=16–23}}</ref> It was to be produced using factories, workers, and technologies that had produced [[World War II]] aircraft. It looked ultramodern at the time, built of metal, and sheathed in polished aluminum. The basic model enclosed {{convert|90|m2|ft2|abbr=on}} of floor area. Due to publicity, there were many orders during the early Post-War years, but the company that Fuller and others had formed to produce the houses failed due to management problems.

In 1967, Fuller developed a concept for an offshore floating city named [[Floating cities and islands in fiction|Triton City]] and published a report on the design the following year.<ref>{{cite book|title=A study of a prototype floating community|author=R. Buckminster Fuller|publisher=Triton Foundation|year=1968}}</ref> Models of the city aroused the interest of President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] who, after leaving office, had them placed in the [[Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Cities on the Sea? |first=John |last=Lear |journal=The Saturday Review |volume=54 |date=December 4, 1971 |page=90}}</ref>

In 1969, Fuller began the Otisco Project, named after its location in [[Otisco, New York]]. The project developed and demonstrated concrete spray with mesh-covered wireforms for producing large-scale, load-bearing spanning structures built on-site, without the use of pouring molds, other adjacent surfaces, or hoisting. The initial method used a circular concrete footing in which anchor posts were set. Tubes cut to length and with ends flattened were then bolted together to form a duodeca-rhombicahedron (22-sided hemisphere) geodesic structure with spans ranging to {{convert|60|ft|m}}. The form was then draped with layers of ¼-inch wire mesh attached by twist ties. Concrete was sprayed onto the structure, building up a solid layer which, when cured, would support additional concrete to be added by a variety of traditional means. Fuller referred to these buildings as monolithic ferroconcrete geodesic domes. However, the tubular frame form proved problematic for setting windows and doors. It was replaced by an iron [[rebar]] set vertically in the concrete footing and then bent inward and welded in place to create the dome's wireform structure and performed satisfactorily. Domes up to three stories tall built with this method proved to be remarkably strong. Other shapes such as cones, pyramids, and arches proved equally adaptable.

The project was enabled by a grant underwritten by [[Syracuse University]] and sponsored by [[U.S. Steel]] (rebar), the Johnson Wire Corp (mesh), and Portland Cement Company (concrete). The ability to build large complex load bearing concrete spanning structures in free space would open many possibilities in architecture, and is considered one of Fuller's greatest contributions.

=== Dymaxion map and World Game ===

Fuller, along with co-cartographer [[Shoji Sadao]], also designed an alternative projection map, called the [[Dymaxion map]]. This was designed to show Earth's continents with minimum distortion when projected or printed on a flat surface.

In the 1960s, Fuller developed the [[World Game]], a collaborative simulation game played on a 70-by-35-foot Dymaxion map,<ref>{{cite news |last=Perry|first=Tony|title=This Game Anything but Child's Play: Buckminster Fuller's creation aims to fight the real enemies of mankind: starvation, disease and illiteracy|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-10-02-me-52516-story.html|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=January 19, 2014|date=October 2, 1995}}</ref> in which players attempt to solve world problems.<ref>{{cite web|last=Richards|first=Allen|title=R. Buckminster Fuller: Designer of the Geodesic Dome and the World Game|url=http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-environment/the-plowboy-interview-r-buckminster-fuller.aspx?PageId=1|publisher=Mother Earth News|access-date=January 19, 2014|date=May–June 1971}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Aigner|first=Hal|title=Sustaining Planet Earth: Researching World Resources|url=http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-environment/world-resources-zmaz70ndzgoe.aspx|publisher=Mother Earth News|access-date=January 19, 2014|date=November–December 1970}}</ref> The object of the simulation game is, in Fuller's words, to "make the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone".<ref>{{cite web|title=World Game|url=http://bfi.org/about-bucky/buckys-big-ideas/world-game|publisher=Buckminster Fuller Institute|access-date=January 19, 2014}}</ref>