The Home of the Future

[@TodayIFoundOut]

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[@SouthpawDavey]

90 square feet not meters surly? Why di the US have a housing crisis? They got less people back than went to to fight in the war? UK and Europe got bombed out and needed housing but also lost millions of people. This sounds like a silly story from Dave.

[@Tintintanabulation]

Buck was a regular at a restaurant where I worked. He had large portfolios with his ideas and loved to talk. I enjoyed our conversations. Later I became good friends with the man who had contracted Buck to design and oversee the building of a three story dome house. And ended up in a relationship with the dome's second owner. But i didn't know that Buck was actually Buckminster Fuller until i was studying architecture and designing my own home. I saw his artworks in an architectural history book 😊 and recognized them as my friends from many years earlier. THEN, I found out he was the designer of the same dome house owned by my partner 😊 By the way, domes roofs leak terribly, need scaffolding fir the simplest of outside repairs and cost a LOT!

[@ll1881ll]

Yes scaffolding, no shade , leaks , inefficient use of space for furniture. But they look amazing and are so good as to wind loads ( aerodynamic)

[@ll1881ll]

What years did you know him? And where was the restaurant etc? Your knowledge and stories are valuable.

[@johnwang9914]

Just how old are you, a lot of his work was from the 1920's.

[@Jayjay-qe6um]

"War is the ultimate tool of politics." -- R. Buckminster Fuller

[@qwertyuiop1st]

I was living in a geodesic dome during a hurricane - the stronger the wind blew the more stable it became because of the hemispherical shape. Lots of caulking needed during construction though!

[@Blinkerd00d]

The make emergency shelters that have a giant dome from reinforced concrete. They are FEMA shelters that are scattered around southeast Texas.... not sure if they have them everywhere, but they certainly do here.

[@davidhollenshead4892]

The problem with the geodesic dome is cutting all those damn triangles out of 4_x_8 sheets of plywood. A huge amount of waste and a huge amount of labor to build. I knew one person who made a single dome and my mom's boyfriend made two and that was basically their comment... Cylinder Houses are a better design and use less materials, less labor and are actually stronger with more usable space than a dome for the materials used. As the warped plywood & dimensional lumber walls make a very strong but lightweight structure.... Also, as you admitted "Lots of caulking needed..."

[@qwertyuiop1st]

@@davidhollenshead4892 Came as a kit. Caulk and bolt.

[@patrickdurham8393]

The more I read up on Buckminster Fuller the more I realize he was an insane genius. Rates right up there with Nikola Tesla

[@protatoplaysgames6918]

Just wanna get this up in the comments before it gets lost. Make sure to report and not engage any bots in the comments. Do not feed them :) and ty simon for not switching everything to ai :)

[@dustintacohands1107]

But their so cute though maybe just a lil snack

[@dickhammerbush1514]

AI & bots are the future... I will be interacting with them and liking 😊

[@VaxtorT]

How do you recognize a bot?

[@anthonybraden157]

Allegedly. In your opinion.

[@protatoplaysgames6918]

@@VaxtorT some by name structure but they have a certain type of over the top style of speaking but the best way is account creation date

[@Stoned2daBone-r4g]

If you look further into Buckminster, it will take you into a rabbit hole. Really fascinating guy and it's no coincidence that I only recently learned about him.

[@Bonserak23]

I love how he would just invent his own words to explain his theories, peak creativity.

[@josekentucky86]

@Bonserak23 😂 I've been trying that my whole life. Just makes things worse

[@mrcory1236]

They have a great example of the dymaxion house at the Henry Ford Museum in detroit. It is a very interesting concept

[@mrcory1236]

Just got further into the video and realized he mentioned that, so i guess ive walked through the same example he mentioned in the video

[@poozizzle]

As I recall the Dymaxion car crash involved another vehicle that was removed from the scene before reporters got there.

[@davidhollenshead4892]

The driver who was fired to drive the Dymaxion got into a race with a driver from GM, and lost control of the Dymaxion car when the other driver cut him off. There was nothing sinister here, just two young men being idiots while working as drivers... Note: the final version was to have non-linear steering, so that making the driver turn the steering wheel an increasing amount as the steering goes farther from going in a straight line. So you would need to move the wheel a little to correct your heading on the freeway, but to make sharp slower turns you would need to turn the wheel a lot. Which would address the handling issue.... As for the "aerodynamics affecting the safety of the car", that shows that Simon doesn't think too much about what he narrates. As the aerodynamics made the car more stable, with most cars of the era becoming dangerous at top speed due to the design of the front fenders... I could make you a modern Dymaxion that would transport 8 people at 70 mph getting over 30 mpg, but most people would be afraid of it without a snazzy & possibly manipulative marketing campaign. As people have stupid ideas about cars which is why the worst car for the environment, the Toyota Prius, is considered the best despite that its manufacture caused much more pollution than the Chevy Volt or Bolt... As the Japanese automakers don't care if they use a lot of materials that come from dirty mining and they dump their toxic waste where they want, most recently off the coast of Somalia. Which happened after trawlers mostly from Japan, but some from other Asian nations stole all the fish. And yes, Toyota, Honda, etc. claimed that their contractor had a "licence from the Somalia Government" the same thing the owners of the trawlers claimed, even though there was no "Somalia Government" at the time, only warlords...

[@MrG9002]

We have two of his geodesic domes here in Vancouver Canada. A large full dome was a centerpiece for the Expo 86 world fair and a conservatory filled with exotic plants, fish, birds and so on at the top of Queen Elizabeth Park. Both structures still standing and functional and still sort of futuristic.

[@user-ih7gc7dt9l]

Cool! I visited them in 1988 and wondered if they were still there.

[@MrG9002]

@@user-ih7gc7dt9l Still standing, still as good as ever

[@michaeldowson6988]

Plus the two partial domes at Robson Square. We love skylights here!

[@MrG9002]

@@michaeldowson6988 Nice one! I forgot about those.

[@TheKulu42]

I think those houses made during World War II would have been fine for providing lots of homes quickly after a natural disaster or as a way to provide shelter to the homeless. If Fuller had designed homes that looked more conventional and were designed with expansion and ultimately individualization in mind, he might have had more success.

[@ronmorrell9809]

A friend of mine built a geodesic dome house with excellent insulation and hot-water floor-heating. It was a warm refuge from cold winters for his small children, at very minimal heating cost. I don't know how it worked in the summer, but suspect the relatively small surface area was again a boon.

[@Artyomthewalrus]

Honestly, my dream is to build a geodesic dome - them things make fantastic greenhouses. Maybe not practical for industrial use of course

[@Shaostoul]

Sincerely, thank you for this! Since 2017 I've been trying to figure out how to develop a video game capable of ending poverty in real-life. Essentially following the concept of maximum gain of advantage from minimal energy input, but for everything we can manage to teach, help with, and provide through a video game. It's crazy thinking back through everything I've done and how unintentionally close I've followed in the footsteps of those I didn't know about. I've been aware of buckyballs and my dad built an aluminum geodesic dome still in our backyard. Now this with the term dymaxion and seeing these homes he's designed... I'm essentially trying to do the same thing through the game! What a wonderfully weird reality we inhabit. I guess in a way he's helping me achieve my dream of ending poverty in pursuit of uniting humanity and by extension you with this wonderful video (and all your others.) Love ya man, hope life's treating you well.

[@dektarey4024]

Uhm... uh? I dont want this to come across as an insult, but i simply cant think of a better word for it. You're a lunatic. A videogame is never going to end poverty in reality. The idea alone would get you thrown into an asylum. Its absurd enough to make me believe you've had a stroke writing this.

[@lisaconstant4956]

My grandpa work for Beachcraft in Wichita KS before, during and after WW2. He retired in the 70's. I never heard about this. Very interesting.

[@beckyowens2586]

I had no idea there was a geodesic dome home in in Carbondale Illinois. That's just like an hour away! Not even quite an hour!

[@AlexFalkenberg]

The home has been refurbished and should be open for tours again now (I went to college at SIU in Carbondale). I think they're still looking for funding to create a new visitor's center.

[@beckyowens2586]

@@AlexFalkenberg I was thinking about going to check it out but I hate driving in Carbondale lol. Hobby Lobby, Yamato, home. I don't get off the main road if I don't have to lol.

[@andywellsglobaldomination]

By the mid 1970s there were three or four geodesic domes built where I was in Lauderdale County, Alabama. None of them survived the turn of the century.

[@nLinggod]

The world needs more people like him

[@davidhollenshead4892]

I have found that being like Bucky isn't taken very well by most White people. As well as studying Science, Mathematics, Information Technology, I have experience in the skilled trades including Carpentry, Masonry, Residential Electrical, Plumbing, Auto Repair & Restoration, Metal Work, Welding, etc. My experience is that White People in the US are hostile to a Halfbreed like me having this large of a skill set, while also being able to discuss Human history, the environment, etc. etc. and does not go down well... Even when I hide being in the 98% percentile, so aggressive coworkers don't know my skill set, when they overhear in conversation with a coworker on how I converted a 1973 VW Westphalia camper to use a water cooled inline four cylinder engine to make a VW camper that had a top speed of over 80 mph, and which could cruise at 70 mph while getting 30 miles per gallon. With the one quirk is that I no longer needed 1st gear except when needing to drive very slowly. At one job while working as a production machinist, I had to deal with a co-worker who claimed that I was a liar, no one could have so many skills, and the owners son who claimed that I couldn't know how to use a computer as "everyone knows American Indians have an IQ of 80"...

[@richardfeldkamp1707]

In the mid 70's there were 2 large format paperback books put out, Domebook and Domebook2. These took Fuller's concepts and magnified and adapted them to all sorts of geodesic buildings from regular domes, ellipsoids, and so on. They were geared to the mathematically and mechanically adept hippy.

[@brianhanson9367]

Still have mine

[@siobhancolombo1627]

I HAVE to find copies! Do you guys have a title...?

[@richardfeldkamp1707]

@@siobhancolombo1627 Domebook and Domebook2, like in my post

[@jasonbird5005]

Yall need to do a show only on this guy and his dymaxion ideas. Genius.

[@samaraclark]

Love this video because I learned something new about my home town. Simon please keep up with all the hard work you and your writers do for all your videos.

[@davidhollenshead4892]

Uh this is the one channel where he is working as a narrator, which is why the content and how it's presented is so different...

[@jodyrewa688]

The bathroom is brilliant

[@kathrynsamuelson1983]

My sister and then brother-in-lae met him in the early 70s when he was at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He told my sister that Carbondale was the center if the universe.

[@HeppKattProductions]

Bucky’s original home STILL exists. I lived just a couple blocks away from it when I was in college at SIUC. So I wouldn’t exactly say it was a failure.

[@RandomGreymane]

Somewhere I have a response letter from “Bucky” when I sent him a question about making a dome playhouse. My dad almost ruined it when he started to erase the original pencil lines showing around the inked lines. Thankfully we stopped him. I honestly don’t recall where it’s gone to but I know I still have it.

[@ZippoX05]

I've been in one of those houses, super cool

[@tcnymex]

I've never seen a geodesic dome that doesn't leak. They are notorious.

[@davidhollenshead4892]

And they are very wasteful to build. You have to cut up 4_x_8 sheets of plywood into one or two triangles. A cylinder house is more efficient and stronger. See my post above...

[@2MuchPurple]

Really fascinating! Fuller was still alive when I was young, and still a celebrity of sorts. One thing though, in the 1950s you could buy a nice new "ranch" house in a California suburb for around $5000, which were being built by the thousands back then. My parents had one. AMany or the surviving ones are woryh over a million today. So, Fuller's designs would have been more costly than that.

[@2MuchPurple]

More than $5000, that is.

[@naricaution356]

I've been to a movie theater in Central California consisted of several geodesic domes scattered around the property, as the actual theaters. Like, the 3:15 showing would be in dome #8. It was a huge surprise being a teenager and having my mom offer to go to the movies, but failing to mention which theater we were going to. I forget the city it was in, but it was worth the extra drive time from Sacramento.

[@HiddenDeveloper]

Wow what a great movie!

[@johnwang9914]

And yet what worked with the mass production of homes after the war was to have architects develop a library of conventional home designs that were all approved by the various jurisdictions so developers could just choose pre-approved plans with some prefabricated components for assembly. The flaw with Buckminister's approach was that they all looked the same. Adopting the design library approach now might be a solution to the current affordable housing crisis though the library would likely have to be expanded to apartment buildings and other higher density living concepts.

[@thomaslarson459]

There's actually a geodesic dome in my hometown. We'd pass it every day on the way to school. Still there as far as I know.

[@MrMikeBerryman]

He is the real world Howard Stark.

[@QBCPerdition]

There is a geodesic dome house just a few blocks from where i live. Every time i walk past it, i wish i could take abtour through it, but id never go knock on abstranger's door and ask for a tour of their home. So i keep waiting for it to come on the market so i can get inside.

[@rayceeya8659]

The town I grew up in had one of those geodesic dome houses.

[@herbiehusker1889]

I always wanted to live at Epcot Center.

[@LordBongwater]

Come on, what you really want is to live on the Death Star 😂😂 admit it

[@mattyt1961]

@@LordBongwater it is just bad marketing... call it a moon and everyone wants to go there... call it death star and all of sudden it is evil...

[@jhausman1]

The DDU (grain elevator concept) is erroneously conflated in the description of Fuller's 4D house, and again in the description of the later Wichita House. These are 3 separate things.

[@disideratum]

There is a great book about Bucky I don't think was mentioned by Jonathon Keats (who's also I believe a "Living Treasure") called "You Belong to the Universe". There are quite a few books about Bucky but Keat's work really captured his spirit. I highly HIGHLY recommend it.*and I'm not affiliated with the author, publisher, etc. I just really liked the book!

[@johnlansing2902]

The story of how Mr Fuller helped the United States with the DEW line buildings and making sure no one would challenge his patents is worth a read .

[@SadPuppySoup]

Simon, there is one of those houses the first one still standing but not in good shape a urban explorer here on youtube found. I don't remember the channel it's been a year or two since I seen it but it was one of those houses for sure.

[@megaflux7144]

top of a generation. literally the best of us.

[@douglassbabin4376]

We got to see the one at Henry Ford. Construction lobbyists also squashed the Lustron homes. Found a few of them though.

[@hdaiiiz1090]

You should do a video on the Venus project & Jacque Fresco

[@cheshirelokiison4164]

We need this for the current housing crisis.

[@546268]

What about the Eden project? One of the biggest geodesic dome structures

[@fourcatsandagarden]

when I was a kid I got to tour a model of one of these houses! probably at the henry ford museum. lol.

[@bradbrandon2506]

So nice I watched it twice.

[@CatsMeowPaw]

I inspected a geodesic dome house in Australia and the flaws were obvious. The building was unpartitioned for the most part. Upper bedrooms in the dome were fully open to all the noises of the living room. There were no corridors. You had to walk through one room to get to the next. Most walls were curved meaning you had to commission expensive custom built furniture. It was a terrible design.

[@Libertaro-i2u]

That was probably more to do with the layout than the shape of the building. I've seen some homes with layouts that actually work well.

[@davidhollenshead4892]

A friend made one for himself & his boyfriend, it worked great for them. As most are designed for a single person or couple. It was heated with an almost central located wood stove that burned less than a cord of lumber per bad Michigan winter... My mom's boyfriend made two, one was his workshop and the other his home. With a central staircase his had well defined rooms and a good layout for a family of three to five... However, his adult son was almost killed in a car accident, so he left his domes unoccupied for a few years when he moved across the country to help look after his son while he recovered. The friend / neighbor who said he would look after it allowed the pipes to freeze which took out the plumbing, and the lack of hot water heat totally both domes with black mold. It was worth it as his son recovered enough to become a college professor....

[@Dallen9]

I.E. why Casa Mañana Theatre in Fort Worth exists, granted it's only a Hemisphere of based on R. Buckminster Fuller's sphere design. it's also one of the few in door Round robin theater stages in the world. Also the theater where they figured out how to set concerts for sports stadiums and the acoustics not sound like poop when you whip out your phone.

[@siliconinsect]

Just move to East Cleveland and save what's left of Millionaire's Row. Get yourself a mansion with a buzzer system for servants for less than $100k. Great vid as usual!

[@kingkayla1073]

I thought this was gonna be about Epcot

[@justingoble4980]

Liked the name thing! That was a cool add!

[@sarahissersohn5495]

Methinks Richard Scarry had seen, and been inspired by, the dymaxion car! (The books w/ Lowly the Worm, who lived in Busytown, also home to the iconic Pickle Car!)

[@davidhollenshead4892]

Yes, I remember that in his book from my childhood... Also my grandmother wanted a Dymaxion...

[@RAS_Squints]

These houses are also seen in Fallout 4 as the houses in Sanctuary Hill

[@dektarey4024]

Unless you've got your hands on a very, very different copy of Fallout 4, i think you might be remembering wrong.

[@MatchstickDaddy]

Looks like on a hot day you can grill some burgers on the outer walls of that thing

[@null.psyche]

As Simon started the topic description in the beginning I thought this was going to be about Lustron Houses

[@patrickbrumm420]

have you seen The Sphere in Las Vegas? That's worth a MegaProjects!

[@daviejay]

A beautifully tragic idea given the human condition.

[@nunya___]

3:20 He forgot that money rules the world, governments and everyone else serves those that have the money. "Equal and fair" are not on their agenda and also, it's a poor motivator in general.

[@Libertaro-i2u]

Not to mention, without the prospect of being rewarded for being more productive and or innovative, things stagnate and people are not motivated.

[@MsCharlie2007]

Bruh had that ADHD haaarrrrrd. And wielded it like a weapon. Love it.

[@baggieknight8411]

Anyone remember the movie "Bio Dome" with Pauly Shore

[@Valthoran90]

Crappy how unions were against all this.

[@GillyWhitfootHaysend]

Simon, I love love love your videos but lol I always thought The Home of the Future was the Lustron. With that on my mind, this became my own clickbait title rofl

[@rorybuckminster1329]

Apparently, my great uncle was a pretty dope guy

[@hailtothegeeks]

House on a mast? Did it inspire Jetsons' house?

[@benjamingamache6441]

"The future, THE FUTURE! this is what your grandkids are gonna be smoking!"

[@IcyBrown]

and his designs definitely looked like he and his parents smoked something

[@Morgil27]

Those houses looked rather small. I feel like anyone living in them can't own too many physical possessions.

[@sab3295]

That picture in the thumbnail looks like the basketball hall of fame. I live in Springfield ma. I’ve never been to the new one ( but it’s been there for years so is it really new?? ) I’ve been to the old one though.

[@shubus]

Yes, I would love to live in a geodesic dome house. Alas, my opportunity to build one escaped me. There are still a few geodesic dome companies out ther offering kits and are of very high quality if anyone has an interest.

[@luigiviking3667]

Super cool but that ending what

[@murrayscott9546]

I'n British Columbia, Canada,..where there is no shortage of trees Vets demanded and claimed and built. ;

[@murrayscott9546]

Sounds like Ayn Rand - with a dick.

[@mlykjy123]

The main thing I took away from this that unions ruin everything.

[@davidhollenshead4892]

How sad to be that prejudiced and judgmental... Just because a few unions in the skilled trades were opposed to something different doesn't mean that unions are bad. Remember most zoning and building codes don't allow for a dome or cylinder house... Besides, Bucky himself was a Union Card Holding Machinist...

[@Plinko99]

Listening to Simon on 2x speed is like reentering orbit at the wrong angle. You can do it but you probably won't make that mistake twice

[@speedyjago]

I watch everything but music videos on KZbin at 2x...and listen to Casual Criminalist on Spotify at 1.75x...

[@jc1982discovery]

Have covered the lustron homes yet?

[@robertscott9935]

I saw the Buckminster Fuller Dymaxion House a few times in the Henry Ford (museum) in Dearborn, Michigan. It was never a fully-de eloped dwelling just a conceptual mockup. For example, it has no insulation, just that paper thin aluminum skin. So, yeah. No way. But it was a way to put a few interesting ideas out there,

[@Libertaro-i2u]

And intriguingly, the Dymaxian House resembles a yurt!

[@garyclark3843]

I guess that means you'll never see the twins in one. Ask, Simon, and you shall receive.

[@Rich-fr2yv]

The Dimaxium car was unbelievably terrible

[@davidhollenshead4892]

BS. It was better than the V8 Ford car that it got its engine, transmission, brakes and drive axle from. You really should learn about a subject before posting obvious BS. Bucky already had worked out the solution to the steering, but the bad publicity and Bucky's nature to work on so many diverse projects spelled its doom...

[@SafetySpooon]

Am I the only one seeing Munchkin houses....:?

[@ashleybowles7732]

Expo 67 is that you

[@jbradleysao]

Go Dawgs!

[@Corsuwey]

As usual, it's hip to be square!

[@legbert123]

5:12 Until social media!

[@dylanwoods1470]

I will definitely live there if the rooms are cheap and spacious judge me on the comments

[@brucetidwell7715]

The problem with Utopian dreams is that "perfect" is such a highly subjective word. I don't think it would be satisfying but I would like to experience that shower. I can't visualize how it actually works.

[@rjswas]

Typical case, sadly, of a creative and innovative mind, getting shut down at every corner, by greedy or simple minded people (both the same in my opinion), i would really like that bathroom that is easy to clean, the fact that people STILL use tiles and all that makes me laugh, so pretty they say.... yeah but so freaking annoying to keep clean.

[@Phatxual]

What I got from this; so April Fool's Day wasn't a thing in the 40's?😅😂

[@michaelduncan2759]

You forgot about the invention of Landstown and his community of housing.

[@auro1986]

live in a house made of metal and know what it's like living in a microwave oven

[@Libertaro-i2u]

Yeah, the Dymaxian House is basically a metal yurt.

[@Noah-hd2je]

Never trust anyone who wants to make the world a better place.

[@ScottMelville-w4g]

On the morning of September tecond lol

[@Libertaro-i2u]

Geodesic dome homes are undoubtedly cool, and if designed and constructed correctly, can be better than box shaped houses. Nearly every problem with geodesic domes is easily fixable. For example, the right sealant can prevent leaking.

[@biod8998]

Today, the Montreal Biosphere is more of an eyesore than anything else really, along with the toilet bo... I mean the Olympic Stadium.

[@markrowland1366]

Thankyou for presenting this. I won a fully salaried scholarship in architecture aged twenty one. I withdrew when I discovered the difficulty of working in a government organisation.

[@TheRattyBiker]

Next video: How Unionisation killed Industry.

[@ll1881ll]

Please stress that the geodesic dome was not his idea or invention. He erroneously ( illegally patented it) . The Swiss inventor gained little recognition.

[@sbeast1216]

Was there a bet on how many yimes he could say Buckminster Fuller?! Wtf?! 🤦🏾‍♂️

[@js8971]

Isnt buckminsterfullerine a mineral made by extreme heat and pressure... Like asteroids and fission etc.... (dont ask...)... 🤪

[@barryliebich3993]

When you said ww2 let pause and think his technology was used in submarines

[@billmullins6833]

While Fuller was undeniably brilliant, he manifestly was NOT a good engineer. The hallmark of a good engineer is that their designs are PRACTICAL. Fuller's designs were not practical. Further good engineers are not perfectionists. One of the guiding principles of every good engineer I ever worked with was "good enough" or "close enough". As Voltaire put it "Better is the enemy of good."