Archinect - News

Artist Leo Villareal's "Buckyball" installation to light up Madison Square Park

2012-10-19T13:59:00-04:00

Madison Square Park Conservancy's Mad. Sq. Art announces a new, monumental sculpture by distinguished artist Leo Villareal. Largely inspired by the work of Buckminster Fuller, Villareal’s BUCKYBALL will apply concepts of geometry and mathematical relationships within a towering 30-foot tall, illuminated sculpture. The site-specific work will remain on view daily from October 25, 2012 through February 2013 in Madison Square Park.

A commission of the Mad. Sq. Art program, Villareal’s BUCKYBALL will feature two nested, geodesic sculptural spheres comprised of 180 LED tubes arranged in a series of pentagons and hexagons, known as a “Fullerene,” referring to the form’s discovery by Buckminster Fuller. Individual pixels located every 1.2 inches along the tubes are each capable of displaying 16 million distinct colors and will be specifically tuned by the artist’s own software, creating a subtle and sophisticated palette to enliven the Park. Relying on LED technologies driven by chance...

Make a Buckminster Fuller Blanket Fort

2012-05-19T17:26:00-04:00

In 1975 Buckminster Fuller first defined the term tensegrity, a portmanteau of “tensional integrity.” It refers to structural systems that derive their stability from various elements acting against each other with equal force, like the surface tension of a bubble. Tensegrity lies at the heart of giant projects like the Georgia Dome. But you can apply it to build the ultimate blanket fort, supported by finely balanced brooms that never touch one another.

Manhattan Memorious

2012-04-10T11:28:00-04:00

Before a city becomes a thing of steel, concrete, and glass it is a theater of visions in conflict. As a city ages, the visions do not die but come up against the physical and ideological resistance of the place and its people. This is an account of a Manhattan that could have been – might have been. A phantasmagorical Manhattan where the visionary meets the everyday. The island as we know it is but a pale reflection of a city designed by visionaries – a city of mad, incongruous utopias.

The film (created for Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale) visualizes several unrealized projects for Manhattan, including Buckminster Fuller’s dome over Midtown, Rem Koolhaas’ City of the Captive Globe, RUR’s East River Corridor, Paul Rudolph’s Eastside Redevelopment Corridor, Morphosis’ West Side Yard and others.

Kickstart: 9 Chains (Buckminster Fuller in Philadelphia)

2012-03-21T20:41:00-04:00

Buckminster Fuller was an inventor, architect and "futurist" who made a very large impact on American culture and technology in the 20th century. “9 Chains” explores his presence in the city of Philadelphia between 1973-1980. Moving between documentary style presentation of the facts and pure abstraction, this work focuses on two projects Fuller worked on while in Philadelphia: the lecture series "Everything I Know" and the development of the World Game Institute.

Check out Archinect's latest curatorial pick at Kickstarter. To view all of our selections visit Kickstarter.com/Archinect.

Aspiring architects get hands-on chance to learn

2011-06-28T19:26:45-04:00

Some local high school students tackled architect R. Buckminster Fuller’s famed geodesic dome during the University of Memphis’ Architecture Summer Camp. Architects from local firm brg3s lectured on structural design and helped the students build their newspaper dome.

Marine Conservation Initiative Named Winner of the 2011 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

2011-06-13T12:58:04-04:00

Blue Ventures, a conservation organization that simultaneously protects marine environments while improving the standard of living in some of the world's poorest coastal communities, has been named the winner of the 2011 Buckminster Fuller Challenge. The London based non-profit, which validates the bio-economic viability of conservation, was awarded $100,000 to further develop and scale up its work.

Bucky's Fly's Eye Dome Now Fully Restorated

2011-05-26T14:41:13-04:00

Restoration work on one of Buckminster Fuller’s most iconic structures, the 24 foot Fly’s Eye Dome, was completed yesterday, and the restored dome was unveiled to the public at Goetz Composites in Bristol, RI.

Patented in 1965, Fuller created two prototypes of this structure – a 24 foot and 50 foot dome. Fuller writes in his seminal book, Critical Path that “the Fly’s Eye domes are designed as part of a ‘livingry’ service. The basic hardware components will produce a beautiful, fully equipped air-deliverable house that weighs and costs about as much as a good automobile. Not only will it be highly efficient in its use of energy and materials, it also will be capable of harvesting incoming light and wind energies.”

The 24 foot dome has undergone extensive restorations in an effort to return the dome to its original condition by the renowned Bristol, RI-based Goetz Composites, fabricators of some of the most successful race boats in the world including three of today’s m...

2011 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Semi-Finalists Announced

2011-04-08T17:40:52-04:00

The Buckminster Fuller Institute announced the Semi-Finalists for the 2011 Buckminster Fuller Challenge. The jury will select a winner who will be revealed at a public ceremony in New York in early June 2011. The winner will be presented with the OmniOculi sculpture and the $100,000 prize money to honor and encourage further development of their work.