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Newspaper Article
Doyen of the dome
2006
Overview
[Buckminster Fuller]'s approach to mathematics was experimental. His methods enabled him to make discoveries quicker than more formal mathematical methods. Cardboard, toothpicks, rubber bands, steel bands, ping-pong balls and marbles were extremely important in, what [Michael John Gorman] calls, \"Fuller's geometrical toolbox\". Between 1943 and 1954, he developed his most famous architectural structure: the geodesic dome. In 1956 the Office of International Trade Fairs invited Fuller to create a prefabricated building for the trade fair in Kabul. The designs for the 100-foot diameter dome were produced in one week and the dome was flown from America to Afghanistan in one DC-4 plane. The dome parts were colour-coded, so that untrained workmen with any native language could erect it. Within 48 hours, the dome was erected by local Afghan workmen, who were instantly acclaimed as the most skilled builders. The dome was an extraordinary success, the King of Afghanistan even requested it as a gift. The geodesic dome was launched on a glittering career as a trade-fair pavilion. A student, Kenneth Snelson, working with Fuller in 1948, discovered \"a static structure stranger than anything he could have imagined\". Snelson's wooden X-piece model was the first example of a modular \"tensegrity\" system. \"Tensegrity\" was Fuller's word for structures which combined \"tension\" and \"integrity\". Fuller was convinced that \"tensegrity\" was nature's great structural secret. Gorman notes Fuller underplaying the significance of Snelson's discovery. All his life, Fuller was deeply concerned with protecting his intellectual property and patented many of \"his\" discoveries, requiring universities and students who worked with him, to formally sign away any claims they might have on breakthroughs. The two \"tensegrity\" models, held in Stanford University, are beautiful discovered forms.
Publisher
The Irish Times DAC
Subject
