Richard Buckminster Fuller defined himself as a “comprehensive anticipatory design scientist” whose life was based on search and research projects. Analysing his contributions to the world of art, architecture and science is not that easy even in our times, especially considering how, while some critics consider him a prophet, others quite often dismiss him as a visionary eccentric.
Among some of the most interesting projects Buckminster Fuller worked on, there was also the "Fly's Eye Dome" (1965), a structure designed as a cheap dwelling, that was still under development two years before his death. This double-skin truncated sphere 15 meters in diameter that looks as if it had been lifted from a sci-fi film set was restored two years ago and will soon be arriving in Europe to be exhibited at the Toulouse International Art Festival, opening at the end of the month.
The dome was based on Buckminster Fuller’s mathematical research and on a very simple principle: enclosing the largest volume of interior space using the smallest surface area, a sphere, creating in this way a structure that could offer immediate shelter to people in urgent need.
The Fly's Eye Dome was extremely light since the structure was pierced by several holes: these “eyes” or openings embedded in the dome could be used as windows, doors, vents or solar energy cells. The structure with its pore-looking holes anticipated our current obsession with biomimicry since, while guaranteeing efficiency and flexibility, the openings also hinted at the metabolic regeneration of living organisms.
As Fuller wrote in his book Critical Path (1981) "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."
Fuller made three prototypes - a 12, 24 and 50 foot dome - and the one that will be shown in Toulouse is the larger one, exhibited during the 1981 Los Angeles Bicentennial, then disassembled and dumped in a field. All the damaged parts have been restored by collector, curator and architecture historian Robert Rubin. The Fly's Eye Dome will occupy the Port Viguerie area and every night special lighting designed by Philips will illuminate it (sadly the dome won't be accompanied by Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion car, an 'omni-directional transport system' intended to fly).
In the Toulouse International Art Festival catalogue, Robert Rubin calls Buckminster Fuller “the American cousin” of French metal worker, self-taught architect and designer Jean Prouvé, drawing comparisons between the two. Fuller's desire to put at the disposal of humanity a high performance shelter reminds indeed of Prouvé's prefabricated structures, from his Maison Tropicale to the Maison des Jours Meilleurs (A house for better days) that could be build in just a few hours.
Yet, while for us it's easy to look at certain projects and structures by Buckminster Fuller and immediately relate to them (considering also new technologies, including 3D printing, applied to design and architecture), the futurist polymath's radical ideas weren't always taken too seriously. After all, as Rubin states in the Art Festival catalogue, "Bucky just came a little early."
Toulouse International Art Festival, Toulouse, France, 24th May-23rd June 2013
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