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Saturday, November 25, 2017

Bucky Fuller in Black Mountain NC

BUCK THE SYSTEM: Inventor and visionary R. Buckminster Fuller “did not limit himself to one field but worked as a ‘comprehensive anticipatory design scientist’ to solve global problems surrounding housing, shelter, transportation, education, energy, ecological destruction and poverty,” according to the Buckminster Fuller Institute.

He’s pictured here, in his Black Mountain College classroom, in 1948. Photo by Hazel Larsen Archer, courtesy of the estate of Hazel Larsen Archer



Was he ever mentioned in my high school physics class? I doubt it.  I discovered him when I saw the first geodesic dome of my life at the Montreal Biosphere in 67.  There was one in New York at a fair also in the 60s.  Then my first visit to Disney World, I think they had just started Expo, with a huge dome.

Then I enjoyed reading Operating Manual for Space Ship Earth, and another of his difficult but insightful books, Critical Path.  Now there's even a Facebook group Buckminster Fuller Institute.


And now I live 2 miles from where Black Mountain College once was located, which is where the picture above was taken, (strangely enough 2 miles from the campus!)

Bucky (as he was called) didn't succeed in erecting the dome which he devised at that time using venetian blind slats, but the design was there.  Here's the link for the Black Mountain College Museum in Asheville, NC.

I've posted about a potter here on my blog, who also was on the faculty at Black Mountain College, M. C. Richards, Here 1 and HERE 2,
and HERE 3!

 I think these trees probably were here on Lake Eden Rd when the Black Mountain College was here.

 Part of the campus is now an active summer camp, Camp Rockmont for boys.




The newer buildings on the campus are for the camp.  But there's one building that remains that was part of the Black Mountain College.

The studies building (often the photo disappears, so I'll try a couple of versions of it.)



But before I leave today, I'll share two of my favorite domes...inspired of course by Bucky Fuller.
Interior of original (small) dome for Unitarian Fellowship of Tampa (when I attended in the 70s)

Exterior of small dome while larger one was being constructed in foreground in the 80s

Large dome with geodesic roof design for UU Church of Tampa FL.

And since there are so many pictures about Lake Eden, I'll continue them in another post!
There's a Music Festival held there twice each year! LEAF.

I share this post with Sepia Saturday this week...where there's an interesting crew sitting with 2 bottles and 3 pipes, and 4 very different hats...doing who knows what.  Maybe thinking about doing something that nobody else has done...


Today's quote:
The Things to do are: the things that need doing, that you see need to be done, and that no one else seems to see need to be done. Buckminster Fuller










8 comments:

  1. I discovered Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes in the 70s through the Whole Earth Catalogue, which I consider the precursor to the internet. For a long time I wanted to build a dome as a new age mountain or seaside cabin. Even just recently I thought about making a small dome sculpture for our garden. It seems a shame that there is no geodesic dome here in the Asheville/Black Mountain area to commemorate his design.

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    1. Oh yes, I remember Whole Earth Catalogues, and even purchased an old one at a used books store, maybe the last, or the last last. Definitely you should build a dome! Can I come see it?

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  2. Fascinating post on Bucky's achievements.

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    1. Thanks Susan! I forgot to mention he always talked in long sentences, and big words...listening to him speak it was sometimes hard to follow his train of thought. I went to one of his lectures, in Atlanta I think.

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  3. The gymnasium at our local community college is a geodesic dome set in the middle of a pine forest. The sight of it is rather majestic. The setting of the studies building of Black Mountain College is beautiful - especially in the fall.

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  4. I’d never heard of geodisc domes but they are certainly fascinating structures. They remind me a little of the biomes at the Eden Project in Cornwall, England.

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  5. I can remember being enchanted by the dome idea. I love the way you tied everything together and the Bucky quote.

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  6. I must have seen that Geodesic Dome at the New York World's Fair, which I went to several times in the 1960s. Interestingly, some designs of the ancient yurt tents bear a striking resemblance to these domes.

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Thanks for your comments...