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Buckminster Fuller was one of our world's first futurists and global thinkers. He was an architect, a comprehensive generalist, "an emerging synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist and evolutionary strategist."

One of Fuller's lifelong interests was using technology to revolutionize construction and improve human housing. In 1927, after inventing an easily built, air-delivered, modular apartment building, he designed the "Dymaxion House," an inexpensive, mass-produced home that could be airlifted to its location. The word "dymaxion" became synonymous with his design philosophy of "doing more with less," a phrase he later coined to reflect his growing recognition of the accelerating global trend toward the development of more efficient technology.

After 1947, one invention dominated Fuller's life and career: the geodesic dome. Lightweight, cost-effective, and easy to assemble, geodesic domes enclose more space without intrusive supporting columns than any other structure; they efficiently distribute stress; and can withstand extremely harsh conditions. Based on Fuller's "synergetic geometry," his lifelong exploration of nature's principles of design, the geodesic dome balances compression and tension forces in building.

From the moment of his 1927 decision to make his life an experiment in individual initiative, Fuller addressed himself to the largest questions he could formulate. He sought to discover what it would take to "make the world work"—that is, to provide adequate food, energy, and shelter for 100% of humanity to enjoy a high standard of living.

Fuller's global thinking led him to coin the terms "Spaceship Earth" and "One-Town World." His comprehensive approach inspired such publications as the Whole Earth Catalog.

It is easy to imagine that when Fuller began his experiment in 1927 very few people were talking about the individual's ability to "make the world work," yet he made that premise central to his entire life's work. While it would be impossible to identify a direct connection between Fuller's work and the changes taking place throughout the world, it is easy to see that this basic notion is cropping up everywhere. Today, just 50 years after the beginning of his experiment, we see the phrase "making a difference" just about everywhere—in corporate, commercial, social, and personal communications.This new orientation in our society holds that the actions of the individual can and do create positive social change.

Following are some favorite Buckminster Fuller quotes:

When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.



Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons.



Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value.



We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.



One in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest.



Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the thought is staggering.



God is a verb, not a noun.



Love is metaphysical gravity.



My ideas have undergone a process of emergence by emergency. When they are needed badly enough, they are accepted.



Tension is the great integrity.



Ninety-nine percent of who you are is invisible and untouchable.



The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun.



How often I found where I should be going only by setting out for somewhere else.



Don't fight forces, use them.



Integrity is the essence of everything successful.



Everyone is born a genius, but the process of living de-geniuses them.



I look for what needs to be done. After all, that's how the universe designs itself.



Dictators never invent their own opportunities.



What usually happens in the educational process is that the faculties are dulled, overloaded, stuffed and paralyzed so that by the time most people are mature they have lost their innate capabilities.



Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment.



A designer is an emerging synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist and evolutionary strategist.



~ R. Buckminster Fuller