R. Buckminster Fuller: Pattern-Thinking
Pattern-Thinking reassesses the work of Buckminster Fuller—unique hybrid between theoretician, architect, designer, educator, inventor, and author—as advancing contemporary models of design research, practice, and pedagogy. Drawing extensively on Fuller’s archive, the book follows his unique process of translation between the physical and conceptual dimensions of design, to redefine our understanding of the relationships between geometry, structure, language, and intellectual property.
Rather than being organized around a chronology of distinct narratives, Pattern-Thinking follows these parallel explorations as the basis for Fuller’s artifacts and inventions. In the space between lines, models, words, and patents, it traces his ambition to measure physical experience in an ever-expanding pattern of relationships, while coordinating these into a conceptual network of words and concepts that shape the basis for his thinking. Advocating a multidisciplinary and political perspective, Fuller’s transversal logic expands the knowledge base of contemporary models of design, which seek to find broader participation and to address new publics.
www.lars-mueller-publishers.com/r-buckminster-fuller-pattern-thinking
Date: 02.03.20
On Pattern-Thinking:
A Conversation on R. Buckminster Fuller
Daniel López-Pérez and Lars Müller
with Stan Allen, Jesse Reiser, and Jaime Snyder
Thursday, February 13, 2020, 6:00pm
Betts Auditorium, School of Architecture
Princeton University
Daniel López-Pérez holds a PhD in the History and Theory of Architecture from Princeton University and is an associate professor and founding faculty member of the Architecture Program at the University of San Diego. López-Pérez is the author of R. Buckminster Fuller, Pattern-Thinking (Lars Müller Publishers, 2020) and edited Fuller in Mexico / Fuller en México! (Arquine, 2015) and R. Buckminster Fuller: World-Man (Princeton Architectural Press, 2013), awarded Design Book of the Year 2013 by Architect magazine.
Lars Müller is a Switzerland based designer and publisher, and as Lars Müller Publishers, has produced over 600 titles to date. Müller is also an educator and has taught at various universities in Switzerland and in Europe, and recently at UCLA.
Stan Allen is the George Dutton '27 Professor of Architecture, Architectural Design at Princeton School of Architecture and is a practicing architect and principal of SAA/Stan Allen Architect.
Jesse Reiser is a Professor of Architecture at Princeton School of Architecture and principal of RUR Architecture DPC—the designers of Geoscope 2.
Jaime Snyder is an educator, writer, filmmaker, and a co-founder / former Executive Director of the Buckminster Fuller Institute. Snyder also serves as the active Executor of the Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller. As his grandson, he studied and worked with Fuller until his passing in 1983.
Lecture made possible by the Jean Labatut Memorial Lectures in Architecture and Urban Planning Fund. The School of Architecture, Princeton University, is registered with the AIA Continuing Education System (AIA/CES) and is committed to developing quality learning activities in accordance with the AIA/CES criteria.
LA Times: 2021 Best Art Books and Creative Gifts
“Packed with illuminating archival illustrations, this deep dive into one of the 20th century’s greatest design-thinkers covers everything from his analysis of the cornea of the human eyeball to international economic structures. The geodesic dome is only the most famous work the polymath came up with. Daniel López-Pérez, an architecture professor at the University of San Diego, explores Fuller’s search for nonlinear ways of understanding to harness the power of design.”
www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2021-11-04/2021-best-art-books-creative-holiday-gifts
Buckminster Fuller. Pattern Thinking
Lecture: Escuela de Arquitectura y Estudios Urbanos, Universidad Tortuaco Di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina
August 4, 2021
INNOVATE SERIES:
R. Buckminster Fuller, Pattern-Thinking
Harvard’s Graduate School of Design
with Hanif Kara and moderated by Iñaki Ábalos, Chair of the Department of Architecture, with responses by Andrew Witt, Assistant Professor in Practice of Architecture and Ingrid Bengtson (March '15).
In celebration of R. Buckminster Fuller’s 120th anniversary (1895-2015), “Pattern Thinking” explores the relationship between artifacts and inventions in his work, and their legacy in contemporary practice. Fuller’s explorations into the physical “pattern” of Shelter, Structure, Cartography and even the Universe will be juxtaposed to his conceptual “thinking” of terms such as Dymaxion, Geodesic and Tensegrity as a way to argue for their irreducibility.
Through the lens of Fuller’s transversal “pattern thinking”, a number of artifacts and inventions will be explored from their literal to their most conceptual manifestation: “Dymaxion” as a mathematical, projective, cartographic, and political model of efficiency; “Geodesic” as a formal, structural, environmental, and social model of shelter; “Tensegrity” as a structural, natural and universal model of order… Daniel López-Pérez will present historical and contemporary documentation that traces Fuller’s trajectory of exploration spanning four decades, while Hanif Kara will speak about their analysis (local and global, stick and surface, linear non-linear) and reflect upon Fuller’s legacy in contemporary projects and current design trends.
The talk will be moderated by Iñaki Ábalos, Chair of the Department of Architecture, with responses by Andrew Witt, Assistant Professor in Practice of Architecture and Ingrid Bengtson (March '15).