Inside Bucky’s Utopian Mind

Few of us today live in geodesic domes, and none of us drives teardrop-shaped Dymaxion cars, two of Buckminster Fuller’s most famous inventions. But his influence, thankfully, remains profound—for as a humanist thinker, and as an unquenchable optimist, he was unsurpassed.

Architectural historian Simon Sadler will delve into Bucky Fuller’s designs and visions, including that of ‘Spaceship Earth,’ next Tuesday June 5 in a free noon lecture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The talk complements ‘The Utopian Impulse: Buckminster Fuller and the Bay Area,’ an exhibit that runs through July 29.

The exhibit includes models, drawings, prints, and more, by Fuller and by Bay Area designers influenced by his work.

More than an innovative designer, Fuller (1895-1983) was a utopian who believed that mankind could create a world where people would be freed from the struggle to exist.

Technology made possible a world where “spontaneous cooperation” among people would create a “high standard of living for everyone on the planet.” But first, he argued, mankind must drop its “wrong beliefs.” Fuller’s career focused on teaching people how.

“Utopia,” he wrote, “is now possible for the first time.”

For more on Fuller at MOMA, click here.