Archinect - News

2016 Fuller Challenge finalists announced

2016-08-23T12:32:00-04:00

Multi-disciplinary teams from across the globe work hard for a chance to win the $100,000 Fuller Challenge grand prize that will help implement their initiative. Last month, the Buckminster Fuller Institute revealed 19 hopeful initiatives who were shortlisted for the 2016 cycle. Now, that competition pool has narrowed down to the final six.

CommuniTree by Taking Root

Cooperación Comunitaria

The Rainforest Solutions Project

Una Hakika by the Sentinel Project

The Urban Death Project

(cover image) Waterbank Schools by PITCHAfrica

Read more about the finalists on Bustler.

Previously:

Fuller Challenge winner says his GreenWave 3D ocean farm concept "could feed the world"

GreenWave's 3D ocean farm initiative wins the 2015 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

Living Breakwaters wins 2014 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

Seattle architect seeks to redesign America's burial landscape

2016 Fuller Challenge announces 19 semi-finalist initiatives

2016-07-12T14:04:00-04:00

The ninth cycle of the prestigious 2016 Fuller Challenge is well underway, and competition is as fierce as ever. Following the expert jury's rigorous evaluations, 19 semi-finalists were announced today...Multi-disciplinary teams work hard for a chance at winning the $100,000 grand prize that will help implement their initiative.

A few of this year's semi-finalists include:

Cooperación Comunitaria, which works with marginalized communities in Mexico's most seismically active region to build housing that is affordable, seismically sound, sustainable, and culturally appropriate.

The African Design Center “aims to transform the African built environment through a comprehensive program to recruit and train the next generation of African designers and architects.”

Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE) produces sustainably designed feminine hygiene products made out of discarded banana fiber. They call out the lacking availability of such products in developing countries, as well as broader taboos surrounding menstruation.

(cover image) Taking Roots' CommuniTree project works “to tackle deforestation, climate change, and poverty, through a comprehensive reforestation and carbon sequestration strategy” in Nicaragua and Guatemala, in collaboration with local rural farmers and their families.

Check out the full list of se...

Fuller Challenge winner says his GreenWave 3D ocean farm concept "could feed the world"

2015-11-20T13:15:00-05:00

So Smith invented the world’s first 3D ocean farm. Not only does his model aim to reduce overfishing, but it also attempts to mitigate the effects of climate change. [...] With scalability in mind, Smith wanted his model to be simple and replicable. To that end, GreenWave supports other fish farmers to get create their own 3D ocean gardens. “If you were to take a network of our farms totaling the size of Washington state, technically you could feed the world,” Smith said.

Learn more about Bren Smith's award-winning GreenWave farming system when Archinect first announced him winning the 2015 Fuller Challenge last month: GreenWave's 3D ocean farm initiative wins the 2015 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

GreenWave's 3D ocean farm initiative wins the 2015 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

2015-10-22T16:04:00-04:00

The non-profit group GreenWave, which won the prestigious 2015 Buckminster Fuller Challenge, is gaining attention for designing reportedly the world's first 3D multi-species ocean farms. Much like the group's marine-oriented initiatives, the ocean farm project aims to restore ocean ecosystems and biodiversity, and work toward a blue-green economy. Another objective is to create more jobs for coastal communities that will turn fishermen into restorative ocean farmers. Restorative aquaculture was a favorite in last year's Fuller Challenge, wherein SCAPE's "oyster-tecture" proposal scored the $100,000 grand prize.

The GreenWave ocean farms are designed as zero-input "vertical underwater gardens" that consist of layers of seaweed, scallops, and mussels that grow on floating ropes, which are stacked above oyster and clam cages. These crops enable the ocean farmers to produce food, fertilizers, animal feeds, pharmaceuticals, biofuels, and other products.

A single acre of the farm would remo...

Living Breakwaters wins 2014 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

2014-10-23T15:06:00-04:00

"Living Breakwaters" took the grand prize of the 2014 Buckminster Fuller Challenge, considered to be the highest award for social impact design. Designed by a multidisciplinary team led by SCAPE / Landscape Architecture, Living Breakwaters uses an "Oyster-tecture" ecological intervention concept to help create resiliency for coastal cities. As its starting point, the project uses the Northeastern Seaboard of the U.S., which suffered heavy damage from Hurricane Sandy.

Kate Orff of SCAPE will accept the Fuller Challenge prize and the US$100,000 cash award on behalf of the winning team at The Wythe in Brooklyn, NY on November 20.

The SCAPE team is composed of: SCAPE/LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE with Parsons Brinckerhoff, Dr. Philip Orton / Stevens Institute of Technology, Ocean & Coastal Consultants, SeArc Ecological Consulting, LOT-EK, MTWTF, The Harbor School and Paul Greenberg.

Head over to Bustler to learn more about the project.

The 2014 Buckminster Fuller Challenge semi-finalists

2014-08-27T21:14:00-04:00

The next edition of the prestigious Buckminster Fuller Challenge has already begun! Every year, the highly competitive international challenge searches for the most inventive -- and effective -- holistic solution strategies to the world's most pressing problems. The Challenge Review Committee selected 20 semi-finalist initiatives out of 450 proposals worldwide. Each project went through three rounds of rigorous evaluations.

See the rest of the projects and other details on Bustler.

‘Mushroom Plastics’ initiative Ecovative wins 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

2013-10-22T19:00:00-04:00

In the past few weeks, the Buckminster Fuller Institute has been introducing numerous finalist entries for the sixth annual Buckminster Fuller Challenge [...]. Today now, the BFI announced the overall challenge winner: Ecovative, a Green Island, NY-based materials science company that has developed a new class of home-compostable bio-plastics based on living organisms, mushroom mycelia — a high-performing, environmentally responsible alternative to traditional plastic materials.

The 'mushroom material' inventors, Eben Bayer, Gavin McIntyre, and the Ecovative Team, will be awarded the $100,000 cash prize at a ceremony at Cooper Union in New York City on November 18, 2013.

Previously: Announcing the 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Finalists

Announcing the 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Finalists

2013-10-15T21:16:00-04:00

The Buckminster Fuller Institute announced the finalists for the 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge today. Out of 19 semi-finalists--who we previously covered back in August--the distinguished Jury selected the top five after a day of deliberation on Oct. 7.

Previously: 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Semi-finalists announced

UPDATE: ‘Mushroom Plastics’ initiative Ecovative wins 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Semi-finalists announced

2013-08-21T21:46:00-04:00

It's that time of year when we announce the semi-finalists for this year's Buckminster Fuller Challenge from the Buckminster Fuller Institute. [...] Each of the 19 projects represent a collective body of work including whole systems solutions and targeted efforts that address pressing global issues in sanitation, materials, water, energy, disaster prevention, poverty, food and ecology.

UPDATE: ‘Mushroom Plastics’ initiative Ecovative wins 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Entries Published to Idea Index 1.0

2012-02-20T14:29:00-05:00

The Buckminster Fuller Institute has published 103 entries to this year's Buckminster Fuller Challenge in the IDEA INDEX— BFI's ever growing repository of whole systems solutions to the world's most pressing problems. Entries were submitted from all parts of the world— the US, the UK, India, China, the Sahel, the Arctic, South Africa, Rwanda, Barbados, Haiti, and Afghanistan, among others.

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.