The results are in for the Annual Buckminster Fuller Design Challenge. The winning designs include robo-scooters, biocentres, and a "future map".
"The annual Buckminster Fuller Design Challenge awards $100,000 to a visionary design project, one that can be inserted into a failing system to do no less than accelerate the transition to an equitable and sustainable future. In his book on the condition of man, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, Fuller wrote that: "If you are in a shipwreck and all the boats are gone, a piano top buoyant enough to keep you afloat makes a fortuitous life preserver. But this is not to say that the best way to design a life preserver is in the form of a piano top." Today more than ever, it has become clear that much of the technology, design, and systems in use in our everyday lives?-?from our transportation system and our power grid to the way we build our homes and think about sanitation ?-?is a sea of piano tops. Fuller called for a different approach to problem solving, which he called "comprehensive anticipatory design science," that utilized systems thinking and scientific rigor with faithful reliance on nature's underlying principles."
FULL STORY: The Dymaxion Tomorrow
Urban Design for Sustainability
The way we build cities can have significant impacts on public health and equity.
Pioneering Net-Zero Building Opens in Unlikely Location
To find Oregon's first energy-neutral building, you'll have to venture 45 minutes outside progressive Portland to the Willamette Valley town of Newberg. There you'll find a first step in an effort to change our physical and cultural environments.
Unique "Bucky Dome" On View
One of the few remaining prototypes for Buckminster Fuller's "autonomous dwelling machine" - a 24 ft geodesic dome - has been restored and is on view now in Miami's Design District.
Florida Considers Legalizing ADUs
Current state law allows — but doesn’t require — cities to permit accessory dwelling units in single-family residential neighborhoods.
HUD Announces Plan to Build Housing on Public Lands
The agency will identify federally owned parcels appropriate for housing development and streamline the regulatory process to lease or transfer land to housing authorities and nonprofit developers.
Conservatives’ Decongestion Pricing Flip-Flop
When it comes to solving traffic problems, the current federal administration is on track for failure, waste, and hypocrisy.
Alberta’s Orphan Well Cleanup Plan Sparks Debate Over Use of Public Funds
Alberta’s upcoming plan to address nearly 80,000 abandoned oil wells has sparked controversy over the potential use of public funds, despite government claims that taxpayers won’t be footing the bill.
Renewable Energy Overtakes Coal for First Time
Solar and wind power generated close to a third of U.S. electricity supplies in 2024.
Pilot Project Offers E-Bike Rebates in New York State
The program will start in the Village of Ossining with plans to expand in the greater Hudson River region.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Florida Atlantic University
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
City of Piedmont, CA
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
City of Cambridge, Maryland