qpmarl blog

It's been at least two days since I've pulled my laptop out of its bag and for about a week before that, just a few times to watch a movie.

I just finished reading Buckminster Fuller: Designing for Mobility by Michael John Gorman. It's sort of a Biography, but not about him so much as about his designs (most notably the geodesic dome). The guy had some pretty crazy ideas, most of them too radical or impractical to become reality (like sky cities floating in the air inside giant geodesic domes). His Dymaxion transport - intended to be a car/plane with inflatable wings that would be deflated and stored for "extended taxiing mode" - was sort of constructed. Three Dymaxion Cars (they had no wings) were built. They had two big wheels in front and a single small wheel in the back which was used for steering - the idea was that planes and ships are steered from the rear and automobiles should be as well. In practice it wasn't much good.

One design that has persisted is the geodesic dome, which never reached Fuller's expectations. His idea was that it would allow cheap, easily erected, mass produced housing. It has proven rather problematic as a dwelling structure.