On January 16, 1970, R. Buckminster Fuller was awarded the Gold Medal by the American Institute of Architects, the industry’s highest honor. While this placed Fuller among luminaries like Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, architecture was just one of Fuller’s many talents, and his architectural work was a byproduct of his life’s mission to improve human life on Earth. This mission would lead him down many paths, and transformed him into one of the leading designers and theorists of his generation.
It all started for Fuller with failure. The construction company he had started with his father-in-law folded, and he went into a deep depression. While the events may have been mythicized by Fuller through retellings throughout the rest of his life, he emerged from this depression emboldened and self-determined to apply his efforts towards improving the course of humanity’s growth and evolution. He would do this through designing better housing, transportation, and even reexamining global trade and interaction to optimize effort and resource allocation. He would have profound effects wherever he chose to apply his efforts.
Fuller is best remembered, and was most celebrated, for his geodesic domes. One of his governing principles was to do more with less, mostly as a means for resource preservation, and so the geodesic dome, which was super strong and required little in terms of both materials and labor to construct, was an ideal construction. Comprised of interconnecting triangles, these structures proved to be some of the strongest and most stable ever built. One temporary dome constructed in Hawaii was easily erected in just 24 hours, but stymied the demolition crew by taking three weeks to demolish. While they haven’t caught on as residential homes in the way Fuller had hoped, it is estimated that there are over 300,000 in use around the world as exhibition halls, military installations, and the familiar piece of playground equipment.
Aside from domes, Fuller invented cars, homes, maps, and even games. His Dymaxion Car seemed to defy the rules for automobiles at the time it was designed and prototyped in the 1930’s. It held eleven people, had three wheels, and due to is aerodynamic profile could achieve an efficiency of 30 miles to the gallon (better than many five-seat family sedans today). His Dymaxion Home was super light, relied on a single post for structural integrity, and could even be constructed in a factory and airlifted to its final destination. Fuller even designed the single-fixture bathroom for use in these economical homes. As part of his larger world view, Fuller designed a new projection of the global map that, for the first time, successfully displayed the Earth’s continents on a flat surface without proportional distortion. He viewed this as means for better understanding the world’s rescues and how the global community should properly function.
For his work, Fuller received numerous accolades and honors. He was given 53 honorary doctorates, which is all the more impressive considering he never actually graduated from any level of college. (He was kicked out of Harvard on two separate occasions, but was later invited back as a lecturer.) A year before his death, Fuller was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the land. Perhaps the most enduring memorial to the man came when physicist discovered a new element whose atomic structure bore a striking resemblance to Fuller’s geodesic dome. They named the element “Buckminsterfullerene.” In reality, any single article of tolerable length is too short to fully describe the life of Buckminster Fuller and the wonders he brought into our world. It can be certain, however, that his life and contributions are worth our attention and our gratitude.