Using Domes to Understand Concerns

Urban Omnibus interviews creators Janette Kim and Erik Carver about the Underdomes idea, which uses Buckminster Fuller's and Shoji Sadao's Dome Over Manhattan concept as a guiding metaphor.

"Janette Kim: Sometimes it seems that the role of the architect, when it comes to saving energy, is to source the right product or to calculate LEED points - as though the engineers and the bureaucrats alone can find the right way to minimize our energy usage. Or sometimes we push for design strategies - self-sustaining cities, locavore farms, town center densification - without interrogating some of the assumptions and belief systems behind them.

But when two contending approaches to energy are compared side-by-side, bigger issues emerge. Should we invest in market-based development of efficient products or support direct government investment in new infrastructures? Should we build zero-emissions cities in the desert, or revise the distribution networks of today? Should we buy better or consume less?"