Well there we are, then. Bob Rubin got the prize, the 50-foot prototype of Buckminster Fuller’s Fly’s Eye Dome, which he’s now restored and will unveil to the world in May-June at the Festival International d’Art in Toulouse, which used to be Printemps de Septembre, but is now actually in the Spring, and Printemps de Printemps was obviously not going to work, so. Whatever they call it, and whenever it is, this is a junket I will accept.
Anyway, The Architect’s Newspaper has the story, which Phaidon’s hype-y account distorted beyond recognition.
Max Protetch had been working these domes since at least 2008, and the Buckminster Fuller Institute sold the 10-ft prototype to Norman Foster, and the 24-ft version to Miami developer Craig Robins, who Miami’d the hell out of that thing in 2011.
With architectural expertise and sympathy running as deep as his pockets, Rubin is probably the best guy to take this on. And though Fuller’s original engineering consultants Daniel Reiser and John Warren are involved, there’s no luxury yachtmaker mentioned. So maybe Rubin’s restoration will have some historical sensitivity.
Meanwhile, I will console myself with the knowledge that since the 50-foot dome is the only one you could conceivably live in, if I’d bought it, I would have been tempted to make unconscionable ahistorical modifications to it. Like windows. And a door. So I’m better off with a repro.
Robert Rubin restoring a monumental Buckminster Fuller dome. [archpaper via bfi via phaidon wtf via @wefindwildness]
Previously:
2011 Fuller’s Fly’s Eye Dome Gets Miami Makeover
2008 Welcome to the Fly’s Eye Dome
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the making of, by greg allen