Bucky Bar: a Tribute to Buckminster Fuller
February 18, 2010
19 February 2010, corner Witte de Withstraat/Schiedamse Vest, Rotterdam. Open: 10:00 pm.
Jay-Z and Rihanna get it straight, in times of crisis, we need to find shelter. The umbrella is the simplest form of shelter, a personal, private, and dry space in a soggy world. If one umbrella is a private space, what happens when we join 10 together, or 100?
Buckminster Fuller showed us how minimal energy domes could open a way to a more environmentally sustainable future, could an umbrella dome lead the way to a more socially sustainable future? The Bucky Bar is a full-scale model of such a future. A spontaneous public building made from the most common of materials, assembled with the resourcefulness of skill of architects. It shows the power of space for spontaneous gathering, for improvised shelters to host conversations, debates, games or even parties. The Bucky Bar launches the DUS/SUA unsolicited agenda for the City of Rotterdam as part of the Architecture of Consequence exhibit at the Netherlands Architecture Institute.