Ruth Asawa is the artist behind some of the most beautiful wire sculptures I have ever seen. She has been at it since the 40s, studying at Black Mountain College with Josef Albers, hanging with her good friends Buckminster Fuller and Imogen Cunningham, hangin’ with her husband architect Albert Lanier in their amazing home, and she is still hard at work today.
Geodesic domes are rad. They are easy to build – fast and cheap – and they are strong! Their creator was one of the coolest guys of his day, Buckminster Fuller or “Bucky” as he is lovingly known. He quieted critics of his ingenious structure by erecting enormous geodesic domes all over the world in no time at all –sometimes in mere hours instead of months or years. Serving atop mountains, sheltering Arctic radar installations, and even covering the South Pole, they have proved to be the strongest structures ever devised. Indeed, they have survived earthquakes and hurricanes around the world, which is more than can be said for a whole lot of other structures. The geodesic dome is the perfect demonstrations of the idea of more-with-less, or “ephemeralization,” as Bucky liked to say, plus, they look really, really cool!
Click the link if you want to try to build you own mini geodesic dome … who knows, it might just lead to something great!
In 1965 a group of four friends decided to drop out of society and set up shop in the middle of nowhere in nowhere in Trinidad, Colorado. And so Drop City was created…
Gene Bernofsky (“Curly”), JoAnn Bernofsky (“Jo”), Richard Kallweit (“Lard”) and Clark Richert (“Clard”) were a bunch of recently graduated art students, and the creators of a little known movement called “Drop Art.” Inspired by the happening of Allan Kaprow, and the impromptu performances of John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg and Buckminster Fuller, their art this consisted of finding all sorts of random objects – rocks, mattresses, shoes – and dropping them from roofs to watch the reactions of passerby below. Drop Art indeed!
After graduating the friends decided to create the ultimate piece of drop art, Drop City. They began to build it themselves, but soon underground hippies, artists, and weirdos from all over the country came to help create what is considered one of the first hippie communes. They constructed domes and zonohedra to house themselves, using geometric panels made from the metal of automobile roofs and other inexpensive materials. In 1967 the group won Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion award for their constructions.
The First Dome, Curl Dome, 1965
Curl Dome after a paint job
The Hole, a two story building built partially underground
The Complex, Drop City's largest building
Cartop Dome and Theatre Building, total cost ... $7
Cartop Dome interior
The Icosadome, 1965. The first kitchen pantry, and later the chicken coop
The Kitchen Dome
Clark Richert and Carol DiJulio
The Rabbit Dome
The Theater Dome
By 1968 Drop City was abandoned by its creators, and the majority of its twelve inhabitants. In the 1990s the last of the domes was disassembled, and all that remains today are remnants and debris from the first of the hippie/artist communes.
If you want to learn more check out “Curly’s” memoirs, or read T.C. Boyle’s book, Drop City, and check out the yet-unreleased documentary on the settlement.
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