Welcome
– David Orr, 2011 Challenge Juror
"We are coming to an era the likes of which we've never seen before, we're in the whitewaters of human history. We don't know what lies ahead. Bucky Fuller's ideas on design are at the core of any set of solutions that will take us to calmer waters.”
The Buckminster Fuller Challenge is an annual international design Challenge awarding $100,000 to support the development and implementation of a strategy that has significant potential to solve humanity's most pressing problems. Named "Socially-Responsible Design's Highest Award" by Metropolis Magazine, it attracts bold, visionary, tangible initiatives focused on a well-defined need of critical importance. Winning solutions are regionally specific yet globally applicable and present a truly comprehensive, anticipatory, integrated approach to solving the world's complex problems.
News + Events
Review Process Underway for Record Number of Applications to 2013 Challenge
The Buckminster Fuller Institute is pleased to announce a record number of entries to the 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge. Thank you to all the designers, artists, architects, authors, educators, students, inventors, developers, scientists, engineers, and social entrepreneurs who applied.
Applications were submitted from all parts of the world - the US, Canada, the UK, France, Bangladesh, South Africa, Peru, Uganda, Paraguay, India, Israel, Brazil, Zimbabwe, Spain, Mexico, Germany, Pakistan, Italy, the Netherlands, Latvia, South Korea, Australia, Afghanistan, Colombia, Mozambique, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Portugal, Vietnam, Egypt, Kenya, the Philippines, Turkey, Botswana, Rwanda, Switzerland, New Zealand, Lebanon, Haiti, Ireland, Romania, Indonesia, and Uruguay.
The 2013 Challenge review process is underway by the Review Team. The distinguished jury will begin their deliberation process in August to select a solution that best meets the rigorous criteria. Semi-Finalists will be announced in mid-August, Finalists will be announced in October, and the winner will be revealed at a ceremony in New York City in November of 2013. For a full description of review process and schedule, click here. And stay tuned for the winning comprehensive design!
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| 2013 Jurors Announced! Each year systems thinkers and design pioneers across a wide spectrum of human endeavor are invited from all over the world to be on the Jury and select a winner of the Buckminster Fuller Challenge. BFI is proud and excited to have announced the 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Jury. Read here about who the group includes thus far. And stay tuned for more! |
LBC In NY Times The Living Building Challenge, 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge winner, was featured in the New York Times. Read about the newest building, Seattle's Bullitt Center, to open on April 22nd and begin the one year certification process requiring both water and energy self-sufficiency, among a list of 20 demands, before it can receive the status. Click here for the article. |
Reading Resources The Buckminster Fuller Challenge will begin accepting applications for the 2013 Fellowship Program on March 1st - if you're interested in applying, here are some selected readings specifically to enrich the understanding of Design Science, sustainability, leverage points, etc – all of which speak directly to The Buckminster Fuller Challenge entry criteria and helped the Buckminster Fuller Institute form the criteria and principles. Enjoy the research here!. |
Future of Fish Teaches Design Science 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Runner Up, Cheryl Dahle, teaches us design science through her project Future of FIsh. Read about her journey to understand the global fishing crisis in the first of a series of articles on the potentials of resilient design. Click here for the full article on Core77. |
Inspired by Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller's prolific life of exploration, discovery, invention and teaching was driven by his intention “to make the world work for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or disadvantage of anyone.”
Fuller coupled this intention with a pioneering approach aimed at solving complex problems. This approach, which he called “comprehensive anticipatory design science”, combined an emphasis on individual initiative and integrity with whole systems thinking, scientific rigor and faithful reliance on nature's underlying principles. The designs he is best known for (the geodesic dome, the Dymaxion house, car, and map, and the global electric grid) were part of a visionary strategy to redesign the inter-related systems of shelter, transportation and energy.
After decades of tracking world resources, innovations in science and technology, and human needs, Fuller asserted that options exist to successfully surmount the crises of unprecedented scope and complexity facing all humanity – he issued an urgent call for a design science revolution to make the world work for all.
Answering this call is what the Buckminster Fuller Challenge is all about. Learn more about the Criteria.
