the new thinking for humanities success
Livingry Dwellings
Regarding the perspectives, which I sent to you a few months ago, I will repeat them again at the end of this set of statements, which appear below. Although the models at best are scaffolds of what the near future will look like, the notions presented in my last post go together with the Buckminster Fuller’s idea of design for Livingly. The caveat, Buckminster Fuller’s idea, of ownership becoming obsolete by default, and people traveling and living, cannot happen unless human beings change their values.
One of my own concerns has been how can humanity have a standard of living in a way, which does the least damage to the earth. As I see it, a combination of mass produced dwellings, with appropriate use of materials will develop what Buckminster Fuller called Livingry for fulfilling the basic human needs of the nine to 11, billion people, or whatever the number turns out to be living on this planet. In short the emergence of partnerships using materials gleamed from NASA, the Airplane Industry and the wisdom of local indigenous people of all cultural backgrounds. These partnerships will coordinate the use of materials, which will be based on wise use with a criteria continuum of scarcity to surplus. i. e. , carbon alloyed fibers, or bamboo. In other words, these materials will be used in the most ecological suitable manner within the context of the environment; the aim is to be as least toxic as possible…Malcolm Wells the underground architect’s statement that a house should simulate wilderness is a good place to begin. See: http://www.malcolmwells.com/
The relativity of microclimates and the cultures, which have adapted are factors, which determine the structure, and lay out of dwellings; and what materials are useable; in modern times the synthesis of materials, which have come out of research for warfare, in a wry way have contributed to the state of the art of improving the lot of humanities living situation and perhaps minimizing, if not eliminating war. Some of the people aspiring to the design of mass produced geodesic domes, will eventually be mentioned. In order to break the ice, I propose that a place to begin with the domes is in recreational areas, such as, the San Juans, the Greek islands, BAJA California Peninsula, etc. Tent companies such as Stephenson Warmlite http://www.warmlite.com/start.htm, and Nemo http://www.nemoequipment.com/nemo are to be used with Real Estates represented in these environments. Both designers have used principles and made products used by the Airline Industry and by NASA.
Eventually the emergence of mass produced domes are to take place in areas on the planet where growth of population is estimated to be higher, in Africa, such as Liberia 4.8 percent per year population growth, also in what comes under the rubric of the Near East; see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population#Rate_of_increase.
Although, it is not possible to know the details, emerging from the aforementioned co ordinations of those involved with the distribution of the suitable materials in these aforementioned domains. I speculate that the new co ordinations at first will be along the lines of the methods used by the U-Haul company launched their rental truck for people on the move in the US in the last forty to fifty years? Regarding sorting out the least wasteful way to use materials the architect Witold Rbczynski pointed out in one of his books that the materials that require a lot of energy in synthesis can often test out more suitable in the long run than one might suppose. In other words, local materials like straw or cob are not always the best design, what comes under the rubric of high tech might turn out, as the most suitable for materials in the design process of geodesic domes Witold Rybczynski Paper Heroes: A Review of Appropriate Technology
Anchor Press Doubleday 1980
In retrospect the mass production of geodesic domes will emerge by individuals taking initiative; such an example is the remarkable Yacht designer Starling Burgess the unsung hero largely responsible for making the Dymaxion car viable See: http://www.coachbuilt.com/des/f/fuller/fuller.htm. The emerging trend of the new energy use and the demographic shifts in population due to migration might bring in the use of these Livingry/ dwellings in ways yet unforeseeable. Michael John Gorman’s book on Buckminster Fuller aim was to get dwellings to be airborne falls hand in hand with his aim of ownership becoming onerous. People would be traveling around enjoying the rich cultural heritage of past and present on the planet When the new accounting system emerges along the lines of the aforementioned proposals of Hazel Henderson and Bernard Lieater, and with the use of hydrogen and it fuel cells through be it disbursed Grid as Amory Lovins would have it with his proposal of smart garage or a GENI grid, as mentioned at end … The Boston Globe review of Gorman’s take on what Buckminster Fuller was striving for is represented below. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/10/23/buckys_world/
In Buckminster Fuller’s lifetime, he was not naïve about the malaise in existing cities. He aimed to make changes in contemporary cities. In one of Fuller’s earlier books 4d Timelock he had proposals of dwellings in the alleys of major cities, which could be occupied ASAP. In one of Harry Nilsson’s album covers that he co authored with John Lennon they have a picture of the domes constructed in alleys of cities for use.
On another note, although, the intentions might be genuine an example of the flotsam and jetsam still going on in the architectural profession is represented in this below talks about the building of future will be in factories. I suspect the factories of the future will be in open air will be different than the factories, which are currently used
By Majeski, John Publication: Real Estate Weekly Date: Wednesday, July 2 2008
Perhaps the word best describes Italian architect David Fisher's design for an 80-story skyscraper in Dubai that would become the planet's first tower with the ability to move. The so-called "shape-shifting" Dynamic Tower would allow each floor to rotate independently around a central and static core. Work on the $700 million project will begin in the next few weeks while a second and smaller tower of 70 stories--Moscow's Rotating Tower--has entered the "advanced design stage." Eventually, Fisher plans on expanding to New York City and elsewhere in the world. The Dubai and Moscow projects will be completed in 2010 and will move thanks to wind turbines located between each of the floors.” I was thinking, 'How can we use the wind instead of fighting the wind?"' Fisher said before a horde of international journalists at last week's unveiling at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. The floors will move so slowly that those inside will not notice the change at all, Fisher said. When asked about how plumbing connections would work on a moving building, he compared the technology to connectors used to refuel airlines in the air. Dynamic Tower's first 20 floors will consist of office space, floors 21 through 35 will feature a luxury hotel and floors 36 through 70 will be resident apartments. The remaining top 10 floors are reserved for penthouse villas. Living in this Jetsons-like environment will not come cheaply. Fisher said the spaces will cost $3,000 psf, meaning units will run between $3.99 million (1,330 s/f) and $38.7 million for a villa (12,900 s/f). The penthouses are custom-made and will include an indoor swimming pool, voice activated features and a special elevator that will bring cars right to residents' doors, Fisher said.In addition to wind turbines, solar panels will be incorporated to generate energy for not only the building but off-site, too.So where did Fisher come up with an idea for a moving building? Inspiration struck years ago when he was in a Manhattan apartment that had views of both the East and Hudson rivers. He began wondering how everyone could have fantastic and changing views."I call this building, 'Designed by life, shaped by time,'" Fisher said of Dynamic Tower, whose major investor is Dubai businessman Sheikh Mejren bin Sultan.The moving floors will not only provide changing landscapes to those inside, but it will also alter the form of the overall building. And motion is not the only thing that sets Fisher's vision apart. The tower will be assembled completely from prefabricated parts, cutting down construction costs by 10 percent and reducing each floor's completion time from six weeks to one week, Fisher said. The buildings' factories are in Italy."The buildings of the future will be done in a factory--like everything else," Fisher said.Unlike the Dubai tower, the bottom floors in the Moscow project will not rotate and will be filled with office and retail space. The Mirax Group of Moscow is investing in and developing that structure.When asked what assurance people have that the ambitious buildings will actually come to fruition, Fisher acknowledged that he has never built a skyscraper before."I consider myself lucky," he said, elaborating that it may have helped him to think outside of the box architecturally.Fisher, who studied and taught architecture at the University of Florence, is most experienced in prefabrication and construction technologies sector. But in no uncertain terms, Fisher said his plans will revolutionize the industry. "Today's life is dynamic, so the space we are living in should be dynamic as well, adjustable to our needs that changing continuously, to our concept of design and to our mood," he said. "In other words, buildings will be alive."
Recently Mikhail Gorbachev has pointed out what is happening with solar energy using countries, as a boundary.http://www.geni.org/globalenergy/library/technical-articles/generation/solar/globalgreen.org/PR-solar.pdf
I extend Gorbachev’s analysis to include the values of energy savings of Buckminster Fuller’s proposals on domes within domes as illustrated in Chapter 6 World Game Page 198 Fuller gives an example of automatic air conditioning due to the Bernoulli effect due too the domes curvature… On a hot summer day in New York City more heat ends up thrown out into the street due to the air conditioned units and the high rise building have a trapped inversion of air, which is quite stagnating. Mind you, many other points of contention on the energy saving values of geodesic domes when properly built are asserted by RBF in the aforementioned chapter. Critical Path St. Martin’s Press 1981
I surveyed the literature and clearly the mass production of domes for Livingry does not yet exist. Alas! Yet, there are examples of people designing in the spirit of what Fuller was proposing. Jay Baldwin, who worked with Buckminster Fuller for many years, has designed a pillow dome with the aim to grow food on rooftops in urban areas. Some of the salient points of this design is the tefzel, which is a Dupont trademark is a translucent membrane and will prevent the deterioration from UV light, and yet will let in just the right amount of light to grow plants; in other words the climate control is quite elegant. I might ad, that most green houses in the US are heated by oil. The state of Massachusetts gets 80% of its tomatoes from oil based hot houses from Tennessee, and that is in the dead of summer http://www.nature.my.cape.com/greencenter/pdf/dome1985.pdf
Norman Foster another protégé of Buckminster Fuller has many innovative projects; his reputation is international. On appearances the stature of Norman Foster’s achievements would suggest, that he has great capability to mass produce geodesic domes, yet the question remains, if his organization can muster it. Buckminster Fuller was fond of saying that it was the integrity of the individual that made the difference in the final analysis!
http://www.fosterandpartners.com/Practice/Default.aspx
Tony Gwilliam, who I met at the 1976 World game, has an intuition that astounds me on the elegance of design. In 1976 he showed us a video on how his design team worked together represented h the makings of a home in a suitcase, which was called Maintainer, and I might ad a shower was included. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that he is still working on the ecological village plan in Bali and marketing Tea Houses http://www.rcolt.org/Living%20Treasures%20Archives/gwilson8c.htm
Don Richter, who worked with Fuller, has the successful design company Temcor with designs all over the planet. The South Pole is covered with a geodesic dome designed by Temcor. Stay tuned for possible turns to play coming up. http://www.temcor.com/
Einar Thorsteinn an architect, who is living in Berlin working as a visual artist/thinker, has the fortune to have learned from Frei Otto, and Buckminster Fuller; they understood nature’s design. He has proposed a village on glacier mountaintops of Iceland, where the geysers flow freely. http://www.einarthorsteinn.com/h-city.html
I end this presentation with an aspiration that the young of heart (all ages) take on the challenge of making the world work for everyone. Buckminster Fuller, often said, if the humanity survives it will be due to love, truth and youth…
Atlases
file:///Users/nickconsoletti/Documents/One%20Planet%20Many%20People.html
http://na.unep.net/OnePlanetManyPeople/index.php
http://www.earthprint.com/publications.php?catid=Natural%20Resources
Africa atlas
http://www.unep.org/dewa/Africa/AfricaAtlas/PDF/en/Africa_Atlas_Full_en.pdf
http://atlas.aaas.org/flash/
Synergy is about relationships; what I propose below is an attempt to probe into the some of the questions regarding efficient planning, which would contribute to making everyone a success. I do not know what is the most important priority. From my point of view the determination of issues, and their implementation by humanity happens best in a self-organizational manner, whatever it maybe.
Lifelong learning (all ages) needs to be whole-heartedly supported as stated in the book "Turning Leaning Right side Up: Putting Education Back On Track" by Russell Ackoff and Daniel Greenberg Wharton Publishers 2008. The aforementioned writers make many salient points, the most striking to me, that the financial expenditure of the "educational industrial complex's infrastructure is a financial drain, along with the military industrial complex" The financial expenditures are beyond belief. A good place to begin for students is to underwrite their debt, whoever owes the debt, and whatever the cost. If communities/individuals are left alone to self organize, in due course genuine projects demonstrating competence will be launched. An example of a worthwhile project is communication between planetariums, where the communication of relevant data using google earth i. e. Lets take the planning issues, along the lines of ecology and energy uses by humanity. One proposal: three thousand planetariums on the planet connected to google earth broadcasting the pertinent data on large screens for people participating on decision making schemes, let say of Stafford beer's book "Team Syntegrity" or whatever emerges from the such exploration. Joe Clinton, who worked with R Buckminster Fuller on a NASA project, proposes with other colleagues linking with google earth see: http://www.planetarium.net/. There are probes by many individuals into questions regarding ecological issues, what ever they may be, as well as how we distribute energy that is so everyone has a good standard of living.
One controversy regarding a planetary grid system, which Buckminster fuller proposed, which his students are rigorously exploring. This GRID would connect electricity use around the planet. A good example of what this grid system would represent is articulated in Malcolm Greenstuart's proposal for linking of Solar Energy through the Desert of Australia into China vis -a- vis linked benign converting solar systems. For elucidation see: www.cosmicaccounting.net. Moreover, Peter Meisen has taken it upon himself to represent a model of what a global electrical grid system would look like http://www.geni.org/, along the lines of the proposals of R. Buckminster Fuller. On the other hand Amory Lovins, who started the Rocky Mountain Institute proposes a dispersed grid system, which includes, the local use of fuel cells and hydrogen, Lovins argues this dispersed grid system is much more secure, than the so far very cursorily mentioned by me, planetary grid system: http://harvardmagazine.com/2004/01/the-hydrogen-powered-fut.html
So far, the thinking of Richard Buckminster Fuller has influenced mostly everyone mentioned. Bernard Lietaer also inspired by Fuller, who was involved in designing the EURO has a set of proposals regarding the new planetary accounting system emerging: http://www.lietaer.com/home.html, as well, as Hazel Henderson: http://hazelhenderson.com/. In short, the aforementioned are proposing an integration of societies values with a human concern for everyone on the planet with an attempt to calculate new accounting ledgers that makes everyone a success.
The World Health Organization defines health: "one who is recovering from insult and or assault and one how is seeking and solving problems". The website, which is mentioned below in my estimation has made a significant contribution to humanity. This contribution is the work of Dr Andrew Saul, as represented on his web site http://wwwdoctoryouself.com/ Big PHARMA seems to me opposed to the proposals of orthomolecular medicine, or nutritional medicine, which is elucidated on Saul's website, one of the inspirations for Saul's inception of the above website was initiated by the chemist Linus Pauling, who mightily probed into the notion of the new nutritional medicine. Yet the question remains
posted by Nick Consoletti | 10:58 AM
|
0 comments
