Comments on: Dymaxion Map

Dymaxion Map

destro — Thu, 08 Nov 2001 09:20:59 -0800

Dymaxion Map , Dymaxion House, Dymaxion Car. Buckminster Fuller pretty much did it all. My favorite has to be the car which could turn 360 degrees in the same spot and looked like the old streamlined trailers.

By: monju_bosatsu

monju_bosatsu — Thu, 08 Nov 2001 09:22:46 -0800

Great post destro! I've been looking for a hi-res wallpaper style picture of that Dymaxian Map for a while now. Anyone know where I can find one?

By: Kikkoman

Kikkoman — Thu, 08 Nov 2001 09:55:54 -0800

Here's a bit more on the map -- the great thing about this projection is that is has no distortion of the landmasses (unlike more common projections which make Greenland look 60% larger than it really is, etc.)

By: destro

destro — Thu, 08 Nov 2001 11:37:56 -0800

My apologies, I missed the Dymaxion Bathroom

By: mmarcos

mmarcos — Thu, 08 Nov 2001 13:13:04 -0800

Bucky was a master of creative thinking. Here's a another great site on him. A good portion of his material is online including his seminal Synergetics. Here's another site dedicated to synergetics. A good introductory book (light reading, I mean) is the one by J. Baldwin of Whole Earth Review. Has good photos. Check out his plan to float a dome over Manhattan and Old Man River, a project intended to be built in St. Louis. The end result here was to stabilize the climate in that zone and drastically reduce heating and air conditioning expenses. The domes from the 1964 NY World's Fair and Montreal 1967 Expo were designed by Bucky. Yet another fascinating Bucky-influenced site is the World Game Institute. You can read up on some of the history of this game which analyzes production and distribution on a worldwide scale in terms understandable to anyone. "It is not for me to change you. The question is, how can I be of service to you without diminishing your degrees of freedom? - Bucky" (I've left no doubt I am impressed by Bucky, have I?)

By: eilatan

eilatan — Thu, 08 Nov 2001 13:33:07 -0800

I just saw the Dymaxion House at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI, on Monday--I didn't realize it was a new exhibit. It's pretty neat. I don't know if I'd want to live in one, though--all plastic and aluminum. The tour was a little odd, too--it was like you were living in 1946 and were a prospective buyer, and the guide was showing you all the features of the house. You're able to go through most of the house and look in all the closets and see how it all worked; the only room you can't go in is the living room, but you can see it from either the doorway or through the windows.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Thu, 08 Nov 2001 13:59:40 -0800

destro, you also overlooked his super-popular home products, not to mention his professional sports league.

By: hincandenza

hincandenza — Thu, 08 Nov 2001 17:26:41 -0800

Ya gotta love Bucky, not just for those creative engineering marvels, but the general notion of reusability, of social problem solving by matching up seemingly unrelated problems to create a symbiotic relationship between them that solves both. Y'know, like nature has been doing for hundreds of millions of years. :) It's long been my dream to someday build a gen-yoo-wine Geodesic Dome Home, perhaps even a double-dome: energy efficient, spacious, great acoustics, no bearing walls (for greater interior design flexibility), well-lit, and organically shaped. Sweet!

By: mmarcos

mmarcos — Thu, 08 Nov 2001 17:59:03 -0800

hincandenza, I'm with you. I'd like to get a little ground out in the countryside and build me a dome. Someday.