Archive: Buckminster Fuller

In the 1960s, the architect and author Buckminster Fuller was a sensation on the university lecture circuit. Delivering over 400 talks a year in a time of social upheaval, he enchanted students with visions of how human society could provide for all at the expense of none. What we had to do, he said, was be naive and follow nature’s design principles.

Fuller’s legacy as an educator is inextricably linked to his architectural creations. Growing up in Montreal, I would listen to my father rhapsodize about Expo 67, a world’s fair held on the Saint Lawrence River. There was a driverless monorail, Soviet satellites and luminaries including Jackie Kennedy and Maurice Chevalier. Built on natural and artificial islands, it drew nearly 50 million people and was one of the most successful ...