Welcome
"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.” – David Orr, 2011 Challenge Juror
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
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Finalists Announced The Buckminster Fuller Institute is proud to announce the finalists for the 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge, each providing a workable solution and whole systems approach to the world's most significant challenges. Find out more about each project here. |
Series of Events Dr. Michael Ben-Eli presents Sustainability by Design, From Concept to Action on Tuesday May 15th, 6:30 pm at Cooper Union in New York City. This is one in a series of events leading up to the 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Conferring Ceremony on June 6th. Find out more here. |
2012 Jurors Announced The Buckminster Fuller Institute revealed the members of the jury that will preside over the selection of the finalists, runner up and winner of the 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge. Learn more about them. Jury |
2012 Semi-Finalists 18 Semi-Finalists are in the running for the 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Prize. After a rigorous review process, the review team has handed the final deliberations to the jurors. Read more on these incredible projects on our Semi-Finalists page. |
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.
