RIBA Bookshops

Reviewed for RIBA Bookshops by Buddy Haward Burd Haward Marston Architects

Standing on the shore of Lake Michigan in 1927, the 32 year old ‘Bucky’ Fuller is a man in the midst of a breakdown and considering suicide as his only viable option. Suddenly he is seized by a profound and near religious experience that dramatically changes the course of his life and marks the beginning of his own personal 56 year experiment which he nicknames ‘Guinea Pig B’ (B for Bucky). The purpose of which was the not insignificant challenge ‘to determine and document what one individual could accomplish on behalf of all humanity which could not be achieved by any organisation, government or business, regardless of its size or power’. This book sets out to chronicle Fullers extraordinary life and the development of his universal philosophy, theories and inventions, and while not claiming to be a complete biography uses a detailed account of his life as the context in which to explain those ideas. From his birth in 1895, Sieden traces Fuller’s life from the undersized and virtually blind four year old who constructs a rudimentary model of an octettruss with peas and toothpicks, that he later patented, to the world renowned visionary of the 60’s and 70’s touring the globe with his message of ‘spaceship earth’ and ‘global resource management’. On the way, we cover all of Fuller’s key theoretical developments, including his natural geometric coordinating system of ‘Synergetic Geometry’ and ‘Tensegrity Structures’, as well as the invention and development of his many ‘artefacts’ intended to improve the human environment, such as the Dymaxion House, Car, Bathroom and Map and the Geodesic dome in its many forms. Also included are less well known, but we are assured equally significant examples of Fuller’s creative mind, such as the ‘fog gun’ a device for cleaning the body with atomised water, which he tested on his design students. By definition, any book attempting to summarise the whole of Fuller’s life and work is going to be a substantial read, and this is no exception. While much of Sieden’s narrative is rather cumbersome and lacks any form of critical bite, the biographical elements provide a lighter and intriguing insight into the private side of Fuller’s life. Although his attempt to translate Fuller’s often impenetrable theories into a more digestible form is understandable, the end result often tends to lack the resonance and zeal of the original texts. However, in the current climate of web based global communications, the rise of popular protest against multinational corporations and the call for widespread wealth redistribution, Fuller’s basic mantra of the power of the free thinking individual seems even more poignant today than it must have done 40 years ago.