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Bucky Works : Buckminster Fuller's Ideas for Today

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Inventor Richard Buckminster Fuller, "Bucky," died in l983 at age 88. He is known the world over for his invention of the geodesic dome. The author of this book knew him for 31 years.

Bucky, as he was known to everyone, (except his wife of 66 years) was not a college graduate, yet he received 47 honorary degrees during his lifetime. His influence on architectural and product designing was--and still is--tremendous.

This book is of interest not only as a tribute to his inventiveness, but for detailing why many of his concepts, to this day, have not been accepted. The full-page cartoon on page 20 is a classic example of his frustration. It depicts an automobile being made on the driveway of a home. Bucky argued for years how ridiculous it is that we build houses 'from scratch' on a house lot. If we built cars that way, as the cartoon shows, they would cost $300,000! It should be noted that the American Institute of Architects (AIA), in 1928, passed a resolution "...on record as inherently opposed to any peas-in-a-pod-line reproducible designs." Others, sewer system builders, carpenters, electricians, etc., indicated they too would oppose home-building innovations.

One reason the geodesic dome concept succeeded was that the military did not need to consult zoning and codes when it needed a transportable light weight and super strong structure for a mountain top or an Arctic location.

You will be amazed at how much his 1934 car designs resemble today's vans. Equally amazing is his "traveling cartridge," a small car transportable by air or rail. No need to rent a car. It could even be used as a sleeping unit.

His "Triton City" was designed as a floating city (100,000 people) for Tokyo Bay. You see variations of this idea almost every year and it is invariably presented as a new idea. His "Fly's Eye" dome is now under commercial development and you may be seeing into the future when scanning this section of the book.

An example of the tremendous respect for Fuller's concepts can be seen in the naming of the 60-atom carbon molecule discovered in the early 1970s. It is called "buckminsterfullerene" and is often referred to as "Buckyball." Its soccer-ball-pentagon-hexagon pattern very much relates to Fuller's icosahedron-based constructions.

Fuller maintained that the entire universe, from atoms to galaxies, "is make made up of islands of compression in a continuous sea of tension." This "tensegrity" concept may even apply to biological cells according to a recent (1993) paper by Dr. Ingber.

As the author often notes, Fuller--as a person and as a designer--had his faults. However his accomplishments and his influence on others far outshine his failures. Many inventors can relate to the problems due to being "before your time" and to the difficulty of displacing the "established way" of doing something.

This book is crammed with photos, many never before published. Buy it, enjoy it. Donate it to your local school library. There is a whole new generation out there that can be inspired by it.

Buckminster Fuller has fascinated me since my teens because of his borderline science-fictional ideas and his quest to use technology to provide for 100% of humanity -- which unfortunately is a moving target during an era of population growth. Baldwin's book doesn't quite satisfy my curiosity about the current state of Fuller's posthumous work, since he gives me the impression that it's stuck somewhere back in the post-Hippie 1970's. I certainly hope that the field has advanced further along than the dumbed-down "Whole Earth Catalogs" version which celebrated geodesic model kits and "sustainable" (i.e., voluntarily hardship-inducing) technologies.

What I would like to see in a proper review of Fuller's legacy includes (a) mathematicians' assessment of his synergetic geometry, which is more radically anti-Euclidean than non-Euclidean in that it rejects the whole Greek paradigm of "abstraction" from physical objects; (b) economists' assessment of his argument that with proper resource use and rational design decisions we really could take care of 100% of humanity; (c) a discussion of why, if Fuller's goal is indeed practical, after 250 years of industrial and technological progress we've devolved from objectively useful work -- making and moving stuff on farms, in mines and in factories -- into to a situation where we hold absurd, time-wasting and nonproductive "jobs" in "services" (which sociologist Daniel Bell characterized as postindustrial "games between persons"), while billions of other humans don't even have the basics for a materially decent life; (d) and why this goal isn't on the agenda of any major politician or other world-recognized and respected figure.

In other words, I find implicit in Fuller's work the question, "When do we declare victory in the Industrial Revolution, and go on our long-overdue vacation that futurists used to call 'The Postindustrial Leisure Society'?" Although Baldwin supplied me with some useful information on "Buckminster Fuller's Ideas for Today," it wasn't quite what I wanted.

I bought tis book several years ago based on a recommendation as a good intro th Buckys work. This book is a gem for all of those who are inclined to engineering and design, not only because of the explanations and ilustrations, but also as testimonial to the thought of the great genius.

Im still amazed that Bucky's thought have not been embraced by us modern citizens.

I am trying to introduce a revolutionary solar coating here in Venezuela [..], I think of the aluminum domes built in Ghana that used natural convection for cooling, and people thoight they were in fact to cold!!! sustainable development has been around longer than we thought, are we ever going to strat smelling the coffee???

I loved this book. It showed many of Buckminster Fuller's 'interesting' ideas. Many great photos of him with his inventions. It was just all around great. Buy it, you won't soon regret it.

I've been interested in the ideas and work of Buckminster Fuller for a long time but whenever I've tried to read his books I can't get through them, they're too dense for me. J. Baldwin has a clear and concise writing style which he enhances with illustrative photographs. His book really shows the practical applications of Bucky's work. I highly recommend this book to anyone.

Buckyworks is a good overview of many of Fuller's ideas. Seeing the video is a must for those who are the slightest bit intrigued by this book. For those new to Fuller, this introduction rates five stars. For those seeking to learn about Fuller in greater detail, this book earns 3.25 stars. Either way, one will enjoy Baldwins' perspective.

I loved Bucky Fuller since '70s from 'Whole Earth Catalog' & still now making many geo-dome tools, toys & inspired drawings of natural geometry. This book is the best low tech architecture showing 100? different ways with charming stories of how to build & analyze them for practical uses, efficiency beauty, etc. Its a peak since the Dome Books 1 & 2 '70s with 100s of ways of home & multi use building domes. This is user friendly history & potentials of how Bucky domes & many other evolution of Natures crystal geometry works in infinite potentials of creative angles, like tipis, A frames, yurts, (Domebook 2 & Domebook: How to Construct Cardboard Geodesic Play-Domes], Yomes, icosahuts, tree houses, etc.

Bucky was a great man, I wish I had attended one of is lectures and had gotten to work with him. The book is a little biased naturally enough but is still a very good introduction to Bucky. It has a place in my library.

Baldwin has written an engaging Bio on one of our greatest problem solvers of all time. Baldwin spent many years at the side of Fuller, and gives captivating first hand accounts, and anecdotes of Fuller' creative life. Baldwin is also an accomplished Industrial Designer and educator in his own right. He has been a major part of what has become one of the great design programs anytime anywhere at "CCAC", where his is joined by Steven Skov Holt, and Yves Behar, among other notables.

I haven't actually read this book but JB is my professor and a fascinating human. Everyday of class is a treat to listen to his life experiences and stories. He was a student of Fuller and clearly understands his theories and has furthered them in ways that would make Bucky proud.