Trimtab Vol. 15 No. 11 | The Buckminster Fuller Institute

BFI Updates

2014 Fuller Challenge Celebration at The Wythe Hotel BFI held its seventh annual Fuller Challenge Award Ceremony and Celebration last week at The Wythe Hotel. Fuller Challenge Winner Kate Orff accepted the OmniOculi sculpture and $100,000 prize on behalf of Living Breakwaters and the SCAPE / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE PLLC team.	Special Recognition Award goes to Thunder Valley BFI is delighted to share that in partnership with the Surdna Foundation and others, we are able to present a special recognition award to the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation from Pine Ridge, South Dakota.	New Fly's Eye Dome™ Commission in Miami! The Buckminster Fuller Institute's new Fly's Eye Dome™ has been installed in the Design District in Miami. It is a significantly evolved FED structure commissioned specifically for the site by Craig Robins, Miami developer and international contemporary art and design collector.
Become a BFI Member! Join BFI to catalyze the collective intelligence required to address the unprecedented challenges before us by partnering with us as we grow our capacity for impact through a financial contribution or by becoming a card-carrying Member of the BFI community.	BFI in the dsgnfix blog BFI Executive Director Elizabeth Thompson was recently interviewed for the dsgnfix blog, talking about this year's Fuller Challenge cycle, this year's winner Living Breakwaters, and exciting new opportunities on the horizon.

Trends + Perspectives

US solar potential over 100 times current use A new report states that "The United States has the potential to produce more than 100 times as much electricity from solar PV and concentrating solar power (CSP) installations as the nation consumes each year."	Harvesting electricity... from actual photosynthesis A small company in the Netherlands has been developing a new technology to harvest electricity from living, growing plants, potentially opening a whole new approach to "generating"sustainable energy.	Ecovative helps build biodegradable drone A team of students has built a biodegradable drone using a mycelium-based chassis grown by 2013 Fuller Challenge winners Ecovative Design.
Descience merges science and fashion BFI Fiscally Sponsored project Descience, offering a fresh collaboration between the worlds of science and fashion, has put on a show highlighting the 15 finalists of their competition for 2014.	ESA lands Philae on Comet 67P The European Space Agency (ESA) has successfully landed the Philae probe on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as part of the overall Rosetta mission and its search for the possible cometary origins of Earth's water and complex organic molecules.	How Big is "Big"? German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk discusses the relevance of Buckminster Fuller's call for autodidacts to write our own instruction manual for Spaceship Earth, in the 21st century world of climate change and rampant materialism.

Resources

Building your own dome (or tensegrity)

We've been seeing quite a few geodesic dome and tensegrity-related projects and articles lately, and we decided to highlight a few here.

Interdisciplinary Incubator in Red Hook

Tucked into Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood is an interdisciplinary incubator called Pioneer Works, where art, design, science, and technology co-exist and mingle in equal doses.

4D Wood Printing

While the 3D printing "revolution" continues to gain more widespread adoption across disciplines, the MIT Self-Assembly Lab isn't satisfied with the production of static materials, focusing instead on the very Bucky-like concept of "4D printing."

Upcoming Events

BFI in the UK

BFI will be in London next week for NESTA's Challenges of Our Era Summit, to discuss a range of societal, global challenges which require additional impetus and creativity to enable innovative solutions.

Bucky at the Textile Museum

Buckminster Fuller is featured in an exhibition on lightweight structures put on by the Textile Museum in the Netherlands.

The History (and Mystery) in February

David Novak will be bringing D.W. Jacobs' R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of The Universe to the Black Mountain College Museum in Asheville, NC, on Feb 21 and 22.

From The Idea Index

Dispatches from the Field: Recycling and Community Center Chira Island

This innovative recycling and community center for the Women's Association (ADATA) on Chira Island, Costa Rica, includes a work and social area. The center systemically tackles multiple immediate community needs simultaneously, presenting a comprehensive strategy to improve wellbeing and fill resource needs.

From the Store

Visit BFI's Dymaxion Marketplace Online

BFI’s 30th year in existence is coming to a close, and we want to celebrate by giving you 30% off on all store sales! This season, bring home Bucky in the form of tote bags, t-shirts, maps, educational toys and much more.

About Trimtab

Trimtab is BFI's monthly email newsletter service, bringing you BFI programming updates and news from around the world related to "humanity's option for success" and comprehensive design solutions.

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