Review by Choice Review
This is a popular, nonacademic introduction to the ideas and work of Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome, architectural prophet, and futurist. Although it contains biographical details, it is not biographical. Each chapter deals with a different aspect of Fuller's work and thought. The most interesting chapter is about Fuller's "Dymaxion" house, which the author recently disassembled for transportation to the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village complex. Other early chapters cover Fuller's automotive designs and transportation inventions, geodesic domes, and geometrical design ideas. These have more detail and better organization than the book's later chapters on megastructures, "Spaceship Earth," and the future of work. Written by an associate of more than three decades, this work is unabashedly a "celebration" of Fuller and his ideas rather than a critical appraisal. Problems with Fuller's constructions and concepts are too often shrugged off as minor and unimportant or blamed on the conservatism of outside forces. The work contains a large number of previously unpublished photographs and supersedes Robert W. Marks's The Dymaxion World of Buckminster Fuller (1960) as an introduction to Fuller and his ideas. All levels. T. S. Reynolds Michigan Technological University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A useful, informal introduction to visionary engineer Buckminster Fuller's ideas, discoveries and inventions, this survey is illustrated with some 200 photographs, drawings and plans that help demonstrate how Fuller nurtured concepts from paper napkin to finished gizmo. Baldwin, an editor of Whole Earth Catalog and Whole Earth Review, is an inventor who worked closely with Fuller (1895-1983) and who has designed and built experimental domes. Along with Fuller inventions and blueprints such as the aluminum, aerodynamically modeled Dymaxion car, the geodesic dome, "Lightful House" 12-deck residential towers and energy-efficient corrugated cottages with silo tops, Baldwin explains synergetics, Fuller's system purporting to describe the coordinates and energy flow of the universe. He also discusses the World Game Institute, founded by Fuller in 1972, which conducts workshops demonstrating how a small fraction of the world's military expenditures could be redeployed to eliminate starvation and malnutrition, stabilize the population and provide clean, safe energy. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Architect, mathematician, engineer, inventor, educator, and more, Buckminster Fuller was twice kicked out of Harvard. Eventually, he joined the navy, which appealed to his sense of organization and interest in engineering and invention. Baldwin met Fuller at the University of Michigan while a freshman design student and studied and worked with him for the next 30 years. His book, which reflects its subject's eclectic nature, tries to capture both the breadth and depth of Fuller's ideas and creations. Photographs of the early prototypes are intriguing, and Baldwin's comments that many of Fuller's engineering concepts are just now becoming viable due to the development of appropriate construction materials shows us how far ahead of his time Fuller was. The structure of this book is somewhat unclear, but the content is always fascinating. For popular science collections.-Hilary Burton, Lawrence Livermore National Lab., Livermore, Cal. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
