Richard Buckminster Fuller, known as "Bucky" to all his friends, was an important innovator of the 20th Century. One of the greatest things about Bucky Fuller is that no professional category can hold him. A man of many talents, he was an inventor, architect, engineer, and author as well as a mathematician, economist, and philosopher. He invented the geodesic dome, coined both the word "synergy" and the moniker "Spaceship Earth." He was a remarkably creative thinker who gained a cult-like following. He was a true visionary, a Renaissance man, often called a 20th century Da Vinci, a modern Ben Franklin, and a jet-age Emerson. In his world, cars had three wheels, houses were to be delivered by blimps, and cities were to be built inside floating spheres. .
In 1927, at the age of 32, Buckminster Fuller stood on the shores of Lake Michigan, prepared to throw himself into the freezing waters. His first child had died. He was bankrupt, discredited and jobless, and he had a wife and new-born daughter. On the verge of suicide, it suddenly struck him that his life belonged, not to himself, but to the universe. He chose at that moment to embark on what he called "an experiment to discover what the little, penniless, unknown individual might be able to do effectively on behalf of all humanity." Over the next fifty-four years, he proved, time and time again, that his most controversial ideas were practical and workable. .
During the course of his remarkable experiment he:.
- was awarded 25 U.S. patents.
- authored 28 books.
- received 47 honorary doctorates in the arts, science, engineering and the humanities.
- received dozens of major architectural and design awards including among many others, the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects and the Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects .
- created work which found itself into the permanent collections of museums around the world.
