{photo: A pop modern update of a geodesic dome house built on a mountain top in Ojai, California.}

Our graphic designer, Michael, finder of all cool things design, ran across a post on design:related about a geodesic dome house designed by Shawn Hausman and Jessica Kimberley. Check out the intriguing solutions to creating privacy while maintaining openness in the series of pictures posted on the blog here.

Bucky built his own geodesic dome house out of wood while he was a professor in Carbondale Illinois. A foundation is now working to restore the house. Check out some intriguing photos of its (now deteriorating) interiors and find out more about how Bucky solved some of the livability problems of having no flat walls.

The geodesic dome was invented by R.Buckminster Fuller. Our one man show about his life and ideas, R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE plays in our studio through December 7th.

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Our friend and Buck-a-neer Kirby Urner recently blogged his thoughts about our November 10th Dymaxion Portland conversation, where we invited prominent Portlanders in to share their ideas about Bucky and how his concepts translate into current NW urban policy and sustainability practice.

Here were some of his thoughts about the event

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Tonight!!! Monday, November 10 in the Ellyn Bye Studio
Just added to the panel: Economist Joe (”The Young and the Restless”) Cortright

DYMAXION PORTLAND & THE SPACESHIP EARTH
A conversation about regional resources with
David Bragdon (Metro), John Haines (Mercy Corps NW), Jill Fuglister (Coalition for a Livable Future) and Lawrence Wallack (PSU’s College of Urban and Public Affairs)

Forty years ago, Buckminster Fuller envisioned a World Game that would , “make the world work for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or disadvantage of anyone.”

Join some of Portland’s leading thinkers and policy-makers for a discussion on the region’s “Spaceship Earth” challenges (like open spaces and environmental stewardship, renewable energy population growth, equity, sustainable development, climate change, hunger and affordable/adequate shelter). Presented in conjunction with PCS’ production of R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE.

Monday, November 10, 7:30 pm
Ellyn Bye Studio, Gerding Theater at the Armory (Free and open to the public)
For more information: timd@pcs.org.| www.pcs.org

Make a night of it! Come by after the Portland Spaces/City Club Bright Lights Discussion Series featuring Congressman Earl Blumenauer in conversation with Randy Gragg (at Jimmy Mak’s, 221 NW 10th Ave, starting at 6 pm)

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{photo: Magis Chair One4star. Snagged from Portland Spaces’ Design District Blog.}

Portland Spaces’ Design District blog just posted an interesting piece about some of the ways Bucky’s design aesthetic is resurging in design arenas. Check it out.

Speaking of Bucky and design, don’t forget to join us for our fascinating (and free to the public) Panel Presentation on Bucky and design at Design within Reach on November 19th.

Here’s the details:

Designs on Portland: Designing Dreams, Engineering Desire
Wednesday, November 19, 6:30–8:30 PM
Design Within Reach Portland Studio (1200 NW Everett)

What role do design and technology play in how we imagine “the future?” How do designers balance between the manufacturing of desire and the “more with less” impulse to solve complex global issues? Join Brian Libby for a conversation with Sohrab Vossoughi, founder and president of ZIBA Design and Daniel H. Wilson, robotics engineer and author of Where’s My Jetpack? A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived. Drinks/Refreshments served.

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Here’s the highlights of our three teams who competed in the Buckyhunt photo scavenger hunt.

They each ended up focusing on different clues, but I’m delighted to say that they found the very hardest ones! Each team won dinner in the Pearl and tickets to R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE for their whole team. Congratulations to them all!

Here’s the clues and the photos they submitted for them:

1. Roam, home to a dome. We’ll start with an easy one. Bucky Fuller’s most famous invention was the geodesic dome. There’s a dome house here in Portland. Find it, and photograph one of your team in front of it.

Submission from Team Geocats:

2. Trimtab. Bucky requested that he be called Trimtab on his tombstone. Find and photograph an amazing example of a trimtab here in Portland (hint: think ports and pdx). What’s a trimtab? That’s what Google’s for…

Submission from the Dymaxion Dolls:

Although I have to admit this one’s got me a bit puzzled… a trimtab is the part of a rudder that changes in angle, creating a low pressure system that turns the ship or airplane. This appears, if I’m not mistaken, to be a ball throwing device?

3. Ephemeralization. Bucky insisted that the way to save “Spaceship Earth” was by rapidly improving technology in order to allow you to do more with less (less resources, less energy, less human labor for a better and more effective result). Photograph the best Portland example of doing more with less.

Surprisingly, no one submitted something for this clue- which I thought was kind of an easy one… Or for Clue 4, which was to interact with an icosahedron. I figured somebody might wikipedia it and discover that Soccer balls and Dungeons and Dragons dice are both icosahedrons, but…

5. Sustainable Resource Management. Bucky said that pollution was just resources not being properly re-used or harvested. Luckily in Portland we do a great job of re-using and re-claiming resources. Go to the Re-building center or SCRAP and create and photograph a Bucky-inspired structure out of some combination of materials found there.

Okay this one was really fun- there are a couple of good entries.
One from the Dymaxion Duo:

And one from the Dymaxion Dolls:

6. Nobel Nominee. Bucky was nominated for (but didn’t win) a Nobel Peace Prize. Nobels are given out in Sweden. So your mission is to find Portland’s Swedish consulate and notify them that they have been nominated for a Dymaxion Award. Photograph your delivery of the award to the consulate.

The Dynamic Duo managed to find the Swedish Consulate, which is awesome! Here’s proof:

7. Dymaxion House. Bucky envisioned modular, pre-manufactured houses that could be airlifted into location and afforded by even the poorest of the poor. Though we haven’t quite achieved airlift-able housing, we’ve certainly got some very creative solutions to the pre-fab affordable housing problem here in Stumptown. Find (or create) a favorite example and photograph one of its affordable yet efficient features.

This one didn’t get a submission. I felt sure that one of the Manufactured House showrooms on 82nd would get a visit….

8. I Seem to Be a Verb. Bucky once said “I seem to be a verb.” His daughter Allegra, an emeritus professor of dance, described him as someone who “danced in his mind.” Go to one of Portland’s many public parks and create a dance that captures one of Bucky’s core ideas or principles. Capture it on film, with at least one bystander watching your dance, and name the photo after the principle being demonstrated.

Check out what the Dymaxion Dolls captured for this one, complete with startled bystanders:

9. Find the man. There are Bucky look-alikes all over the Portland area. Go find one, and photograph him/her in front of a recognizable Portland landmark.

Alas, no one found a Bucky look alike in Portland. But for future reference, our Outreach Director, Tim duRoche looks an awful lot like Bucky’s younger self (natty suit and all). You’ll find him wherever the cultural elite… meet.

Thanks to everyone who played and followed along. We were delighted to see the creativity you displayed!

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