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Air-Drop Ecology
Towards a Regenerative Dymaxion Prototype
Pittsburgh, PA
Joshua Lee
Fall 2019
Fuller was remarkably tuned in to issues that were only beginning to arise when he was working. The ecological and social problems have now only become more urgent. The simple and integral Dymaxion principle of doing more with less is crucial to keep in mind when designing in our contemporary situation. I think however, that in this particular instance there is an embedded complexity that while not necessarily simple on the outset lends an intelligence to the project which can be extrapolated to ever greater effect.
While the goals of Fuller were primarily material efficiency and sustainable living, I am proposing alterations to the project which - while not always realistic - take many of the core ideas and propel them beyond sustaining our condition, instead looking to turn the ticking environmental clock in the opposite direction. An understanding of contemporary technologies in addition to vernacular modes of attunement to an evironment allow for this to happen in a variety of conditions.
The project places itself within a speculative future where most of our indigenous landscapes have all but withered away, and as a species with particular agency we must develop new ways of living with and for the environment. Instead of necessarily being attuned to their current context, the structures are attuned to their current situation, regenerating a context around them.
I’m proposing a speculative reinvention of Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion House within the framework of a Regenerative Architecture.
Building off of the framework and core concepts that Fuller proposed for his revolutionary housing concept, I seek to take those and move them forward to a contemporary and urgent proposal pushing forwards the current understanding of sustainability and building in our future to come.
The project seeks to integrate concerns of materiality, practicality, ecological awareness, natural sensitivity, and speculative realism.
The Regenerative Dymaxion home will create a symbiotic living environment for human and non-human actors, all intervening in the landscape it sits upon. Through the life and migration of these structures a slow regeneration of local ecologies will take place.
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Joshua Lee
Fall 2019
Fuller was remarkably tuned in to issues that were only beginning to arise when he was working. The ecological and social problems have now only become more urgent. The simple and integral Dymaxion principle of doing more with less is crucial to keep in mind when designing in our contemporary situation. I think however, that in this particular instance there is an embedded complexity that while not necessarily simple on the outset lends an intelligence to the project which can be extrapolated to ever greater effect.
While the goals of Fuller were primarily material efficiency and sustainable living, I am proposing alterations to the project which - while not always realistic - take many of the core ideas and propel them beyond sustaining our condition, instead looking to turn the ticking environmental clock in the opposite direction. An understanding of contemporary technologies in addition to vernacular modes of attunement to an evironment allow for this to happen in a variety of conditions.
The project places itself within a speculative future where most of our indigenous landscapes have all but withered away, and as a species with particular agency we must develop new ways of living with and for the environment. Instead of necessarily being attuned to their current context, the structures are attuned to their current situation, regenerating a context around them.
I’m proposing a speculative reinvention of Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion House within the framework of a Regenerative Architecture.
Building off of the framework and core concepts that Fuller proposed for his revolutionary housing concept, I seek to take those and move them forward to a contemporary and urgent proposal pushing forwards the current understanding of sustainability and building in our future to come.
The project seeks to integrate concerns of materiality, practicality, ecological awareness, natural sensitivity, and speculative realism.
The Regenerative Dymaxion home will create a symbiotic living environment for human and non-human actors, all intervening in the landscape it sits upon. Through the life and migration of these structures a slow regeneration of local ecologies will take place.
