Fuller was in London shortly before his death. During his visit he talked to Richard Boston about his passion for design and architecture
Buckminster Fuller's many inventions include the word Dymaxion. This means (more or less) more for less. A modern computer, for example, is not only much smaller than the computer of 30 years ago; it is also cheaper and performs better. The dome of St Peter's weighs 30,000 tons. Buckminster Fuller's first geodesic dome was the same size and weighed 30 tons. A major earthquake would bring St Peter's down, but Bucky's dome would stand.
Another example is Buckminster Fuller himself. As the years go by, and for him 87 years have now gone, he seems to have got smaller and smaller and done more and more. At that rate, by the end of the century, he would have been travelling and talking at the speed of light, and he would have been so miniaturised that you would have been able to put him in your pocket, or wear him on your wrist like a watch.
He was recently on one of his world tours. For a stay-at-home like me, just half his age, it is exhausting simply to read his schedule. That an octogenarian can actually carry it out is extraordinary, but then (whatever else he may be) Buckminster Fuller is nothing if not extraordinary. As he whizzed through London I managed to catch him for an hour, and even managed to get some questions in edgeways.
The first had to do with his remarkable university career at Harvard, where he distinguished himself by being sent down not once but twice. The first time was for "general irresponsibility"; the second time for "lack of sustained interest in the processes of the university."
It is hard not to warm to a gentleman with such a distinguished record. Could he, I wondered, tell me more? He could. He came, he said, from a very distinguished New England family which was very old but not very rich. He was the eighth generation of his family to go to Harvard, but Harvard was changing. Buildings were being named after J. P. Morgan partners. Bucky, coming from an old poor family, found himself out of sympathy with the Harvard new rich, and didn't get on with their clubs and fraternities.
The general irresponsibility was to spend his whole year's allowance in a week. His sister had gone to Hawaii and left behind her white Russian wolfhound. He took this dog to the stage door of the most popular musical of the day, and as the girls came out they all patted the dog. The long and short of it is that he cut an exam, invited the entire chorus line of 30 girls to dinner, spent all his money and got kicked out of Harvard.
Did he regret it? He didn't regret anything. He had made many mistakes. All human beings are born helpless, ignorant, with no experience. Given hunger and thirst we have the initiative to learn things. The thing is to learn from our mistakes.
His enthusiasm for domes does seem to get the better of him sometimes, as when he suggests that whole cities should be enclosed in domes where climate and everything else is controlled.
I said I didn't think I would like to live in a dome. He gave me that look again, as though he was dealing with a madman or a simpleton. "Where do you think you've been living all this time?" he asked, tapping me sharply on the skull. "Everyone lives in a dome."
We have to rehouse humanity, he said. Space stations are the first serious housing project. We were born to be mobile. At this moment we are spinning round earth's axis at 800 miles per hour while our little Spaceship Earth zooms around the sun at 30,000 mph, and our solar system rotates in its nebular merry-go-round at hundreds of thousands of miles per hour. When he talks like that you can understand him.
What of the future? "It's touch and go. If we stop wasting our money on armaments and use our high technology on living instead of weaponry, within ten years we could have all humanity living at a higher standard than anybody has ever known. We could all be billionaires.
"The critical year is 1985. Within the next two or three years we will know whether humans are going to stay on this planet or not. More will happen between now and 1985 than has happened in the whole history of the world up to now."
This is an edited extract, click here for the full profile. Reported by guardian.co.uk 18 hours ago.
Buckminster Fuller's many inventions include the word Dymaxion. This means (more or less) more for less. A modern computer, for example, is not only much smaller than the computer of 30 years ago; it is also cheaper and performs better. The dome of St Peter's weighs 30,000 tons. Buckminster Fuller's first geodesic dome was the same size and weighed 30 tons. A major earthquake would bring St Peter's down, but Bucky's dome would stand.
Another example is Buckminster Fuller himself. As the years go by, and for him 87 years have now gone, he seems to have got smaller and smaller and done more and more. At that rate, by the end of the century, he would have been travelling and talking at the speed of light, and he would have been so miniaturised that you would have been able to put him in your pocket, or wear him on your wrist like a watch.
He was recently on one of his world tours. For a stay-at-home like me, just half his age, it is exhausting simply to read his schedule. That an octogenarian can actually carry it out is extraordinary, but then (whatever else he may be) Buckminster Fuller is nothing if not extraordinary. As he whizzed through London I managed to catch him for an hour, and even managed to get some questions in edgeways.
The first had to do with his remarkable university career at Harvard, where he distinguished himself by being sent down not once but twice. The first time was for "general irresponsibility"; the second time for "lack of sustained interest in the processes of the university."
It is hard not to warm to a gentleman with such a distinguished record. Could he, I wondered, tell me more? He could. He came, he said, from a very distinguished New England family which was very old but not very rich. He was the eighth generation of his family to go to Harvard, but Harvard was changing. Buildings were being named after J. P. Morgan partners. Bucky, coming from an old poor family, found himself out of sympathy with the Harvard new rich, and didn't get on with their clubs and fraternities.
The general irresponsibility was to spend his whole year's allowance in a week. His sister had gone to Hawaii and left behind her white Russian wolfhound. He took this dog to the stage door of the most popular musical of the day, and as the girls came out they all patted the dog. The long and short of it is that he cut an exam, invited the entire chorus line of 30 girls to dinner, spent all his money and got kicked out of Harvard.
Did he regret it? He didn't regret anything. He had made many mistakes. All human beings are born helpless, ignorant, with no experience. Given hunger and thirst we have the initiative to learn things. The thing is to learn from our mistakes.
His enthusiasm for domes does seem to get the better of him sometimes, as when he suggests that whole cities should be enclosed in domes where climate and everything else is controlled.
I said I didn't think I would like to live in a dome. He gave me that look again, as though he was dealing with a madman or a simpleton. "Where do you think you've been living all this time?" he asked, tapping me sharply on the skull. "Everyone lives in a dome."
We have to rehouse humanity, he said. Space stations are the first serious housing project. We were born to be mobile. At this moment we are spinning round earth's axis at 800 miles per hour while our little Spaceship Earth zooms around the sun at 30,000 mph, and our solar system rotates in its nebular merry-go-round at hundreds of thousands of miles per hour. When he talks like that you can understand him.
What of the future? "It's touch and go. If we stop wasting our money on armaments and use our high technology on living instead of weaponry, within ten years we could have all humanity living at a higher standard than anybody has ever known. We could all be billionaires.
"The critical year is 1985. Within the next two or three years we will know whether humans are going to stay on this planet or not. More will happen between now and 1985 than has happened in the whole history of the world up to now."
This is an edited extract, click here for the full profile. Reported by guardian.co.uk 18 hours ago.