IN 1927 the suicidal manager of a building materials company, Richard Buckminster (鈥淏ucky鈥�) Fuller, stood by the shores of Lake Michigan and decided he might as well live. A stern voice inside him intimated that his life after all had a purpose, 鈥渨hich could be fulfilled only by sharing his mind with the world鈥�.
And share it he did, tirelessly for over half a century, with houses hung from masts, cars with inflatable wings, a brilliant and never-bettered equal-area map of the world, and concepts for massive open-access distance learning, domed cities and . The tsunami that Fuller鈥檚 wing flap set in motion is even now rolling over us, improving our future through degree shows, galleries, museums and (now and again) in the real world.
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鈥淔uller deserves his visionary reputation. He grasped in his bones the dynamism of the universe鈥�
Indeed, Fuller鈥檚鈥漜omprehensive anticipatory design scientists鈥� are ten-a-penny these days. Until last year, they were being churned out like sausages by the design interactions department at the , London. Futurological events dominate the agendas of venues across New York, from the Institute for Public Knowledge to the . 鈥淪cience Galleries鈥�, too, are popping up like mushrooms after a spring rain, from London to Bangalore.
In You Belong to the Universe, Jonathon Keats, himself a critic, artist and self-styled 鈥渆xperimental philosopher鈥�, looks hard into the mirror to find what of his difficult and sometimes pantaloonish hero may still be traced in the lineaments of your oh-so-modern 鈥渄esign futurist鈥�.
Be in no doubt: Fuller deserves his visionary reputation. He grasped in his bones, as few have since, the dynamism of the universe. At the age of 21, Keats writes, 鈥淏ucky determined that the universe had no objects. Geometry described forces.鈥�
A child of the aviation era, he used materials sparingly, focusing entirely on their tensile properties and on the way they stood up to wind and weather. He called this approach 鈥渄oing more with less鈥�. His light and sturdy geodesic dome became an icon of US ingenuity. He built one wherever his country sought influence, from India to Turkey to Japan.
Chapter by chapter, Keats asks how the future has served Fuller鈥檚 ideas on city planning, transport, architecture, education. It鈥檚 a risky scheme, because it invites you to set Fuller鈥檚 visions up simply to knock them down again with the big stick of hindsight. But Keats is far too canny for that trap. He puts his subject into context, works hard to establish what would and would not be reasonable for him to know and imagine, and explains why the history of built and manufactured things turned out the way it has, sometimes fulfilling, but more often thwarting, Fuller鈥檚 vision.
This ought to be a profoundly wrong-headed book, judging one man鈥檚 ideas against the entire recent history of Spaceship Earth (another of Fuller鈥檚 provocations). But You Belong to the Universe says more about Fuller and his future in a few pages than some whole biographies, and renews one鈥檚 interest 鈥� if not faith 鈥� in all those graduate design shows.
Oxford University Press
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淭he tomorrow person鈥�
