Design Science Today
The AICA USA award for best architecture or design show will be presented to Buckminster Fuller: Starting with the Universe, curated by K. Michael Hays and Dana Miller and appearing at the Whitney Museum of American Art last year. Second place goes to Design and the Elastic Mind, organized by Paola Antonelli (who participated in a panel discussion at last year’s Buckminster Fuller Challenge conferring ceremony at the Center for Architecture) at the Museum of Modern Art.
The International Association of Art Critics/USA bestows its annual awards honoring artists, museums and curators at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City on Mar. 2, 2009.
To inquire about attending the awards ceremony please send an email to aicausaprogram (at) gmail (dot) com
The Buckminster Fuller Institute is delighted to invite you to respond to a new publication on the subject of design science written by Fuller’s former student and colleague Dr. Michael Ben-Eli. BFI is committed to continued research into the practice and fundamental principles of comprehensive anticipatory design science and its relevance to contemporary global issues and design practice.
Design Science: A Framework for Change is the result of a year of intensive research into Fuller’s conceptions and practice of design science as well as wide-ranging interviews with some of its key practitioners.
We want to know what you think. To get the conversation started:
- Read Design Science: A Framework for Change onscreen above or download it as a pdf.
- Create a free user account on this website (or log in using your existing account)
- Post a comment or question by clicking Add new comment here or at the bottom of this posting
- Reply to an existing comment or question by clicking "reply"
You can post a question or comment about the document to Michael Ben-Eli and the BFI community.
We look forward to hearing from you!
The Buckminster Fuller symposium at Cooper Union in New York City on September 12th and 13th was a resounding success! The sold-out event represented the culmination of the Whitney Museum's exhibit, Buckminster Fuller Starting with the Universe, which travels to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in March 2009.
Many thanks to extrememediastudies.org for the images above. To read their thoroughly blogged overview of the event click here.
We look forward to the Whitney Museum's posting of the video of the event in its entirety in the coming months.
Allegra Fuller Snyder's moving talk served as the touchstone for the entire event. Click "Read more" for the full text of Allegra's address.
Hydrogen could be a clean, abundant energy source, but it's difficult to store in bulk. In new research, materials scientists at Rice University have made the surprising discovery that tiny carbon capsules called buckyballs are so strong they can hold volumes of hydrogen nearly as dense as those at the center of Jupiter.
The research appears on the March 2008 cover of the American Chemical Society's journal Nano Letters.
"Based on our calculations, it appears that some buckyballs are capable of holding volumes of hydrogen so dense as to be almost metallic," said lead researcher Boris Yakobson, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Rice. "It appears they can hold about 8 percent of their weight in hydrogen at room temperature, which is considerably better than the federal target of 6 percent."
The Department of Energy has devoted more than $1 billion to developing technologies for hydrogen-powered automobiles, including technologies to cost-effectively store hydrogen for use in cars. Hydrogen is the lightest element in the universe, and it is very difficult to store in bulk. For hydrogen cars to be competitive with gasoline-powered cars, they need a comparable range and a reasonably compact fuel system. It's estimated that a hydrogen-powered car with a suitable range will require a storage system with densities greater than those found in pure, liquid hydrogen.
Image courtesy of NASA, 2002.
A tribute by Dr. Michael Ben-Eli
September 15, 2007 - If anyone deserves to be remembered as a Master Design Scientist it would surely be Paul MacCready, who passed on August 28, 2007.
Paul spent his career pioneering extreme transportation solutions and the company he founded in 1971, AeroVironment, is a hotbed of breakthrough innovations in unmanned aerial vehicles, electric vehicles and non-polluting, alternative energy systems. In his work, Paul epitomized Bucky’s concept of doing more with less. He made aviation history in 1979, with Gossamer Condor, the first ever craft to sustain a controlled, human-powered flight. The feather light Condor, weighting only 70 pounds with a wing span of 90 feet, challenged conventional thinking about vehicle efficiency demonstrating an effective application of radical “performance per pound.” It was followed by the Gossamer Albatross and the first human-powered flight across the English Channel. Then came the sun-powered Solar Challenger, flying from Paris to an airfield in the UK, and later the remote-controlled, solar-powered Path Finder, which reached fifty thousand feet into the stratosphere.
By Eric Malnic, Special to The Times
August 30, 2007
Paul B. MacCready, the Caltech-trained scientist and inventor who created the Gossamer Condor -- the first successful human-powered airplane -- as well as other innovative aircraft, has died. He was 81.
MacCready died in his sleep at his Pasadena home Tuesday, according to an announcement from AeroVironment Inc., the Monrovia-based company he founded. The statement said he had been recently diagnosed with a serious ailment but the cause of death was not listed.
An accomplished meteorologist, a world-class glider pilot and a respected aeronautical engineer, MacCready headed the team that designed and built the Gossamer Condor and the Gossamer Albatross -- two flimsy, awkward-looking planes powered by a furiously pedaling bicycle racer -- that won him international fame and $300,000 in prize money.
He also built and flew a radio-controlled replica of a prehistoric pterodactyl, the largest creature that ever took to the air.
His successes in these and other imaginative projects led to more than 30 prestigious awards, including the Collier Trophy for achievement in aeronautics and astronautics, and five honorary degrees.
Continue reading at latimes.com
In Summer 1992, we sent a questionnaire to a number of close colleagues and associates of Buckminster Fuller: This questionnaire on Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science (CADS) asked the following questions:
1) How would you define CADS?
2) What is its relevance to today's world?
And 3) What would you consider to be the highest priorities for advancing the concerns of Design Science in the 1990's and beyond?
We received an excellent response covering a wide range of views.
While there are many books on science and many on design, there hasn't been a lot written about "Design Science." We have pulled a few published references, some by close associates of Fuller, which have addressed the concepts central to Fuller's work.
Permaculture principles / see below for larger version
Imagine living in a place that is blended into the natural environment. Your home is not only naturally heated and cooled, but is elegant and affordable. Integrated into the surrounding landscape are natural water systems where food is being grown safe from harmful chemicals, and waste is managed for productivity. A place where the neighbors, young and old, routinely help one another. There is less traffic, less pollution and more open spaces. Leisure time becomes abundant and recreational opportunities are close at hand. Also imagine that as a result of its design, this place saves you money, and most importantly, it saves the Earth its precious resources.
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