R. Buckminster Fuller

Synergetic Stew

Explorations in Dymaxion Dining

Buckminster Fuller is globally known as a design scientist, architect, author, poet, engineer, and a true visionary, way ahead of his time. As a surprise gift for his eighty-sixth birthday, he received Synergetic Stew: a compilation of cooking recipes contributed by his friends and colleagues, sharing personal anecdotes and humorous recollections of Fuller’s life, such as a reminiscence about Bucky’s somewhat peculiar but enthusiastic love for tea, in all its variations. Scattered throughout the book are enticing texts and poems from Fuller himself, including even a recipe for tomato ice cream.

This book is a glimpse into Fuller’s life, told by his peers and embedded in nearly a hundred achievable recipes. A few of them are joyful odes towards Fuller’s oeuvre, such as Shirley Sharkey’s GEODESICANDY, the Microbiotic Diet by John Cage, or Amy Edmondson’s Allspace-Filling Whole Wheat Bread. In addition to the facsimile, Fuller’s grandson Jaime Snyder reflects upon often overlooked facets of Bucky’s character, revelead through anecdotes of his relationship with food. Short profiles of all contributors complete the reprint.

On the occasion of Buckminster Fuller’s 125th anniversary in July 2020, this reprint is released in a limited edition.

Buckminster Fuller is globally known as a design scientist, architect, author, poet, engineer, and a true visionary, way ahead of his time. As a surprise gift for his eighty-sixth birthday, he received Synergetic Stew: a compilation of cooking recipes contributed by his friends and colleagues, sharing personal anecdotes and humorous recollections of Fuller’s life, such as a reminiscence about Bucky’s somewhat peculiar but enthusiastic love for tea, in all its variations. Scattered throughout the book are enticing texts and poems from Fuller himself, including even a recipe for tomato ice cream.

This book is a glimpse into Fuller’s life, told by his peers and embedded in nearly a hundred achievable recipes. A few of them are joyful odes towards Fuller’s oeuvre, such as Shirley Sharkey’s GEODESICANDY, the Microbiotic Diet by John Cage, or Amy Edmondson’s Allspace-Filling Whole Wheat Bread. In addition to the facsimile, Fuller’s grandson Jaime Snyder reflects upon often overlooked facets of Bucky’s character, revelead through anecdotes of his relationship with food. Short profiles of all contributors complete the reprint.

On the occasion of Buckminster Fuller’s 125th anniversary in July 2020, this reprint is released in a limited edition.


“The book’s visual design is as quirky and enlightening as Fuller’s work itself.”
– Financial Times

“The book’s contributors are a who’s who of 20th-century art and science, ranging from Ruth Asawa to Margaret Mead, all of whom share a love and fondness for 'Bucky' that emanates from every page.”
Hyperallergic


Foreword by Jaime Snyder

With contributions by Bil Baird, Peter Brown, John Cage, Lim Chong Keat, Elizabeth Choy, John Ciardi, John Denver, Amy Edmondson, Ted Ehmann, Werner Erhard, Ronald Feldman, John and Isobel Fistere, Medard Gabel, Eugene Garfield, Neva Goodwin, d'Arcy Hayman, Henry J. Heimlich, Miranda Kaiser, Anne Kordus, Kuyoshi Kuromiya, Mae Lee, Paula Martin, Margaret Mead, Karl Menninger, Yehudi Menuhin, Martin and Margy Meyerson, Ann Mintz, Don Moore, Ed Muskie, Libby Newman, Isamu Noguchi, Gerard K. O'Neill, Steve Parker, Eleanor and George Pavloff, Cedric Price, Kariska Pulchalski, Harrison Salisbury, Shirley and Bill Sharkey, Peter Simoneaux, Jamie Snyder, Hester Stearns, Connie Thelander, Thomas Tse-Kwai Zung, Dennis Tyler, Amei Wallach, Hope Watts, Kathryn Withlow

15,2 × 22,8 cm, 6 × 9 in

128 pages, 57 illustrations

ring binder

2020, 978-3-03778-643-7, English
CHF 25.00

R. Buckminster Fuller

Richard Buckminster Fuller was born on July 12, 1895, in Milton, Massachusetts. After spending most of his youth in Massachusetts and on Bear Island in Maine, he fell out of Harvard and into the US Navy during World War I. He married Anne Hewlett, the daughter of a prominent New York architect, in 1917 and spent around five years working with his father-in-law on new techniques of housing construction after leaving the navy. From 1927 on he became independent and committed himself to completely rethinking the question of shelter—relentlessly challenging every assumption about structure, function, materials, technology, aesthetics, services, distribution, mobility, communication, collaboration, information, recycling, politics, property, and social norms. He started from first principles to develop a radical philosophy of doing “vastly more with vastly and invisibly less.” The constant goal was a much more efficient and equitable distribution of planetary resources to enable the survival and ongoing evolution of the human species. His work paralleled, radicalized, and critiqued the mainstreams of modern architecture and still defies categorization today. He was a nonstop teacher and communicator around the globe in every possible medium—becoming probably the single most exposed designer and design theorist of the twentieth century. He died on July 1, 1983, in Los Angeles at the bedside of his wife, who died thirty-six hours later.