Today in 1895, the birthday of Buckminster Fuller, who Britannica calls an “engineer, architect and futurist.”
Fuller was best known for developing geodesic domes, and for some of the wildest ideas ever proposed by a public intellectual.
Like putting a massive dome over much of Manhattan.
This may sound like an article out of The Onion, but when you hear the reasons behind Fuller’s idea, you might… ok, it still might sound far-fetched.
But Fuller was responding to some real problems of the time: the increasing concerns about air pollution, the rising costs of running huge cities like New York and the growing sense that technology could probably solve those problems.
He and architect Shoji Sadao proposed a massive see-through dome, close to two miles in diameter and reaching a mile into the air.
The dome would let light in, though it would also reduce glare and it would be made of shatter-proof glass.
Fuller pitched it as a giant energy conversation project: under the dome, you wouldn’t need to heat and cool individual buildings because the energy from everyday utilities like ovens and incandescent lightbulbs would be enough to maintain a comfortable temperature.
Since it was all under a dome, there would be a lot less heat loss than in the non-domed world.
But that wasn’t all.
The Dome Over Manhattan, as it was called, had a system to collect rainwater, a kind of dome-wide cistern.
And it would keep out snow, which meant that part of Manhattan wouldn’t have to spend time and money sending crews and plow trucks out to clear the roads and sidewalks.
The savings on plows, he thought, would cover the upfront costs of building the dome.
Not many people took the idea seriously, and any who did were probably put off by those upfront costs, which would have been extensive.
But the idea has gotten new attention in recent years, when a lot of thinkers are trying to find ways to make cities more livable, especially in a changing climate.
Fuller was evidently not too concerned that the world had passed up another one of his ideas: he moved right on to designing floating cities.
Tomorrow is the Stroud Brick Throwing and Rolling Pin Competition.
It started in 1960 in both the English community of Stroud and Stroud, Oklahoma, which both had brick-making industries.
Not long after, they added two new Strouds – in Australia and Ontario, Canada – and a rolling pin throwing competition.
While adults throw bricks and rolling pins, kids get to throw rubber chickens!
The 1960 Plan To Put A Dome Over Midtown Manhattan (Gothamist)
This Was Buckminster Fuller’s Plan to Cover Manhattan With a Giant Dome (The Daily Beast)
Stroud Brick Throwing and Rolling Pin Competition