[edit] 1927 - The 4D Dymaxion House

"The original conception of the 4D Dymaxion House set the standard of Fuller’s estimations for what new houses should require, making the most out of the materials it was created from, specifically, aluminum and the “economics of mass production” (Baldwin)."

Dead Media Archive (2010) 'Dymaxion House'

Learn More:—MOMA, New York

[edit] 1928 - Dymaxion House, second version

"Because it required many materials which were not available at that time, the 4D House was not considered a project ready for industrial production and distribution, but an anticipatory design which could not be fully actualized until these materials were developed. This process was assumed to require fifty years. An economic crisis in housing would discover the feasibility of the Dymaxion House."

Carl Solway Gallery

Learn More:—Carl Solway Gallery

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[edit] 1942 - I Figure

In November 1942, Fuller wrote an article for Progressive Architecture on post-war housing. Chapter 5 – ‘I Figure’ – was Fuller’s response to a publisher, namely:—

"What do you figure to be the essential characteristics of post-war housing, speaking both generally and specifically?"

Anon., quoted in Fuller (1942) ‘I Figure’, published in Fuller (1963) ‘Ideas and Integrities’, p.86

Fuller’s response raised a number of questions, including:—

"Is it possible that housing could have been originally responsible for war in its ignorantly rendered task as the environmental factory for mass-maturing the end product, man …"

Fuller (1942) ‘I Figure’, p.86

… and included 157 conclusions, starting from:—

"I figure: that any planned post-war housing now in preparation by the components of the professional housing world as now and hitherto constituted will get about as far as a ten-ton truck can be jerked by its self-starter before the battery goes dead."

ib. p.87

[edit] 1942 - World-Wide Dwelling Service

Other key conclusions in ‘I Figure’ included:—

"… that the mechanized containers will be but incidental apparatus of a World-Wide Dwelling Service…"

ib. p.109 (emphasis added)

… and

"… that the now-developing scientific world-girdling air transport and communication services, together with the new, scientific dwelling service, will be part and parcel of an encompassing larger unit system, eventually complemented and insured of direction by world-girdling energy distribution services …"

ib. p.110 (emphasis added)

See full discussion in Appendix 1.

[edit] 1943 - Dymaxion Map

"R. Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion projection Airocean World Map published Life Mag., March 1."

Fuller, R. B. (1967) ‘”Bucky”‘, p.85 (link added)

The original Life magazine article can be read here.

n.b. Fuller went on to publish his ‘Airocean’ world map using the projection in 1954 that employed a modified icosahedron.

Learn More:—Boston Rare Maps

Learn More:—University of Wisconsin

[edit] 1945 - Dymaxion House, last version

"… manufactured by aircraft industry, Witchita, Kans., under joint auspices of AFL-CIO Labor, War Production Board, War Manpower Commission, Aircraft Industry Production Board, Beech Aircraft’s Executive Administration …"

Fuller, R. B. (1967) ‘”Bucky”‘, p.85

"Although the concept for the Dymaxion House was developed in the late 1920s it was not until after World War II that prototypes were built."

Henry Ford Museum (2002) ‘Dymaxion House’, Image 1 in Library of Congress

Learn More:—MOMA, New York

Learn More:—Library of Congress
See slideshow comprising 7 images in sequence

[edit] 1958 - Experimental Probing of Architectural Initiative

According to James Meller:—

• "The original (talk) was delivered by Fuller as the Annual Discourse to the Royal Institute of British Architects. It was subsequently published in the RIBA Journal in October 1958."
• Meller, J. ed. (1970) ' The Buckminster Fuller Reader', p.67.

Buckminster Fuller wrote in his account of the talk:—

• "I’ve been engaged in what I call ‘comprehensive anticipatory design science.’"
• Buckminster Fuller (1958) ‘Later Development of My Work', ib., p.92 - also in Fuller, R. B. (1963) ‘Ideas and Integrities’, p.63.

In 1959, in a talk given to the Faculty of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts in the University of Oregon, Buckminster Fuller recommended a way for architects to involve themselves:—

• "There is an effective strategy open to the architects. Whereas doctors deal with the interior organisms of man, architects deal with the exterior organisms of man. Architects might join with one another to carry on their work in laboratories as do doctors in anticipatory medicine. Architects might solve design problems of world-resource use before people get into resource troubles. into resource troubles. Architects might thus join forces, as do scientists, with the integrity of inter-self accrediting of the respective abilities of each individual on the team. Architects might begin the laboratory pooling of their resource capabilities at the university level."
• Buckminster Fuller (1959) 'The Comprehensive Man', in Meller, J. ed. (1970) ' The Buckminster Fuller Reader', p.315 - also in Fuller, R. B. (1963) ‘Ideas and Integrities’, p.83.

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[edit] 1962 - Education Automation

"My 1961 prognostications covering world developments to 1982 as contained in Education Automation, as published by the Southern Illinois University Press (now in paperback) is trending to be far more spontaneously assimilated than was for instance my 4-D monograph of 1928."

Fuller, R. B. (1967) '"Bucky"', p.73 and p.76

For instance:—

"...primarily the individual is going to study at home. That is in elementary, high school, and college years."

(Fuller, R. B. (1962) 'Education Automation', p.50)

"...let us think carefully and daringly of the equipment we will need and that we won't need for the large, new research
establishments for students staying longer and longer at the university, as the new major industry of mankind."

(ib., p.84)

"Get yourselves the right geographical bases..."

(ib., p.87)

"Get lots of real estate and lots of airplanes and helicopters—get mobility. Get the most comprehensive generalized computer setup with network connections..."

(ib., p.87-88)

"Get ready the greatest new educational facility at the dynamic population center of the North American continent..."

(ib., p.88)

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[edit] 1963 - World Design Science Decade

"Five two-year phases of a world retooling design proposed to the International Union of Architects for adoption by world architectural schools..."

Fuller, R. B. (1963)

WDSD Phase 1 Document 1: Inventory of World Resources Human Trends and Needs

WDSD Phase1 Document 2 - The Design Initiative *

WDSD Phase1 Document 3 - Comprehensive Thinking

WDSD Phase1 Document 4 - The Ten Year Program

WDSD Phase2 Document 5 - Chronofile

WDSD Phase2 Document 5 - Comprehensive Design Strategy

WDSD Phase2 Document 5 - Introduction to Comprehensive Design Strategy

WDSD Phase2 Document 6 - The Ecological Context Energy and Materials

World Game Series Document 1

• Document 2 is too large to preview but can be downloaded.

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[edit] 1969 - Fifty Years of the Design Science Revolution and the World Game

• View large image - Double page spread

Not in Library

[edit] 1969 - Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth

• View larger image - Underlying Order in Randomness

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[edit] 1969 - Utopia or Oblivion

• View larger image - Geoscope

"Fuller envisioned Geoscope as a two-hundred-foot-diameter (sixty-one meter) globe made of glass and light bulbs, controlled by several electronic computers. Historical and contemporary data would be projected on the globe, and viewers would be able to experience the data flows by standing in the middle of the immersive installation and by looking around in all directions. Symbolically, the globe was to be installed adjacent to the UN headquarters in New York..."

(Dellanoce, L. and Steiner. A. 2018 'Digital Earth')

• Read Chapter 5 - Keynote Address at Vision 65 pp.153-157.
• Read Chapter 6 - The World Game—How to Make the World Work pp.203-208

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[edit] 1981 - Critical Path

... Fuller's critical-path program of realization as first inscribed in 1927 and many times revised thereafter - see Phase 1, Individual (pp.255-257) and Phase 2, Collective (pp.257-261).

n.b. these page numbers do not correspond to the page numbers in the archive.

Chapter 8 - Designing a New Industry

Chapter 10 - Universal Requirements of a Dwelling Advantage

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[edit] 1982 - World Livingry Service Industry

I describe the design science revolution that leads to this computer-persuadable veering of big business from its weaponry fixation to accommodation all humanity at an aero-space level of technology, with the vastly larger, far more enduringly profitable for all, entirely new world Livingry Services Industry, in my most recent book Critical Path...

Fuller, R. B. (1982) World Livingry Service Industry, p.2

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