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INNOVATIVE URBAN MOBILITY SYSTEM WINS THE 2009 BUCKMINSTER FULLER CHALLENGE

Sustainable Personal Mobility and Mobility-on-Demand Systems (SPM/MoD), submitted by an interdisciplinary team of students at MIT has been selected as the winner of the prestigious 2009 Buckminster Fuller Challenge. The team will receive a $100,000 prize at a conferring ceremony on June 6th, 2009 at 2pm at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago followed by a reception and celebration featuring a presentation by design innovator Bruce Mau.

“Given the nature of the crises we are facing, from climate change to economic collapse, what is important is to demonstrate that the approach to design and problem solving at the core of the Buckminster Fuller Challenge – while always thinking big – has the potential to bring about changes in the near-term. The winning project is a perfect example of the kind of radical, transformative change that is possible when we reconceive the old ways of doing things and take a systems-based approach to design,” said The Buckminster Fuller Challenge jurors in a statement about their decision. “SPM/MoD isn’t just about the design of these lightweight, highly efficient, electric vehicles, it is about inserting that technological innovation into the social and cultural environment and designing an intuitive system within which they function.”

To learn more about the winning strategy, visit: http://challenge.bfi.org/winner_2009

“We are thrilled with the selection of a team of students as this year’s winner. Fuller spent a great deal of his life inspiring and being inspired by university students all over the world,” said Elizabeth Thompson, Executive Director of The Buckminster Fuller Institute. “He often chose to work closely with student teams on significant projects. This prompted Fuller in 1961 to propose a ‘design science decade’ in which universities around the world would engage in a ten-year project studying global trends and needs in an effort to make the world work for everyone. MIT’s entry represents the real spirit and substance of such an endeavor applied to a new vision of personal mobility.”

In addition to the winner, the distinguished jury selected a runner up and two honorable mentions from a pool of nearly 200 entries. Dreaming New Mexico (DNM), a Bioneers project with support from Google Earth’s Outreach program, submitted by Kenny Ausubel and Peter Warshall was selected as the runner-up. DNM is based on the strategic premise that “dreaming the future can create the future.” This project provides a systemic template, methodology and collaborative mapping tools for communities to engage in place-based and bioregional planning. Cycle for Health, submitted by Joseph Agoada, Dr. John Baptist Niwagaba, and Patrick Kayemba and Mukuru BioCentres, submitted by Umande Trust and GOAL Ireland, were awarded honorable mentions for their work in Africa to dramatically improve economic conditions and human health.

The Buckminster Fuller Challenge, launched in 2007, promotes a systems approach to design pioneered by Buckminster Fuller which aims to address complex problems through comprehensive, anticipatory design thinking. Through the recognition of outstanding entries, The Challenge supports and draws attention to individuals and teams around the world whose innovative strategies have the potential to help solve humanity’s most pressing problems.

  • Posted on May 13, 2009 in Community, Signs of the Times, Sustainability  |  
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Ideo’s David Kelley on “Design Thinking”

Creativity and design are two of humanity’s greatest gifts. Yet, they are rarely understood and the ability to learn and apply them are even more rare. David Kelly, a design visionary has developed the ability to transfer his design process to others whether business vclients or students and the result may help make all of us more robust and resilient during these chaotic times that demand nothing less than quantum, out-of-the-box solutions.

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Article location:http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/132/a-designer-takes-on-his-biggest-challenge-ever.html

January 14, 2009
Tags: Design, Stanford D.school, Marriott, David Kelley

By Linda Tischler

The smell of ramen noodles wafts over the Stanford d.school classroom as David Kelley settles into an oversize red leather armchair for a fireside chat with new students. It’s 80 degrees and sunny outside in Palo Alto, and as the flames flicker merrily on the big computer screen behind him, Kelley, founder of both the d.school and the global design consultancy Ideo, introduces his grad students to what “design thinking” — the methodology he made famous and the motivating idea behind the school — is all about.Today’s task: Design a better ramen experience.

Some students seem a little mystified, as they twirl noodles around their chop sticks. What does a “ramen experience” have to do with design? Better packaging? Curlier noodles? Adding a cute little forky thing to the cheap staple of dorm rooms everywhere?

Kelley, a lanky guy with a bald head, a Groucho Marx mustache, and a heartland-bred affability, tackles the mystery head on: “I was sitting at a big dinner in Pacific Heights recently, and I told my hostess I was a designer. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘So what do you think of my curtains?’ ” That, Kelley says, is not where we’re going.

“You’re sitting here today because we moved from thinking of ourselves as designers to thinking of ourselves as design thinkers,” he continues. “What we, as design thinkers, have, is this creative confidence that, when given a difficult problem, we have a methodology that enables us to come up with a solution that nobody has before.” Continue Reading »

Nature’s Designs

Structure in Nature by Peter Pearce

Structure in Nature by Peter Pearce
The structural designs that occur in nature—in molecules, in crystals, in living cells—appear in this fully illustrated book as a source of inspiration and study of the design of man-made structures. In particular, the book reveals that when the geometrical modular systems developed by the author are applied to building design, the result is adaptive, structurally sound, and economical environments. Pearce’s work follows in the tradition established by D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson and Konrad Wachsmann, and reflects his earlier close association with Charles Eames and Buckminster Fuller.“The concepts encompassed in the book should appeal to any lover of geometry, but particularly to those interested in design.”- Walter Sullivan, The New York Times.

“—well produced and well illustrated book on structural design…His buildings bristle with angles and slopes in all directions. They look fascinating and some (though certainly not all) are rather beautiful. Most appear bizarre to the conventional eye…To many of us, Pearce’s ideas are unfamiliar, exciting, and original. They surely deserve further exploration at a practical level.” -Nature

“The book is easy to read and offers many plausible and original geometric ideas. It is lavishly illustrated and contains many useful tables listing the structures and their geometric parameters.” -Paul J. Shlichta, Physics Today