Book Description

The documents in this series originated with a proposal made by R. Buckminster Fuller to the International Union of Architects (I. U. A.) at their VIIth Congress in London, England in July, 1961, launching the World Design Science Decade. He proposed then that the architectural schools around the world be encouraged by the I. U. A. to invest the next ten years in a continuing problem of how to make the total world's resources which [in 1961] serve only 40% serve 100% of humanity through competent design despite a continuing decrease of metal resources per capita. In essence, The World Design Science Decade series of documents suggests, in great detail, ways in which world architectural schools, and specifically their students, should initiate, and assume The Design Science Decade. The total series includes many of Fuller's most prescient ideas. A note from the series editor, John McHale: "Though the language of some of the texts may seem difficult at first approach, it should be borne in mind that one of our major problems in thinking today [1965] is the use of language systems which still represent a fixed, structurally compartmentalized world view. The terms available to us for the expression of dynamic, rather than static, concepts are far from satisfactory. Fuller's language is particularly representative of the 'transitional state' (of the western world) between the older, traditional, noun-centered culture to its present day, changing, verb-centered culture'. In his search for an adequately descriptive terminology he tends to employ concepts and usages from many different fields juxtaposed in ways which may be unfamiliar to those more customarily restrained within the vocabularies of particular disciplines." Description by the Buckminster Fuller Institute, courtesy of The Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller