The dairy games to day 19 3 2021 Stephanie: Buckminster Fuller saw the potential of the geodesic dome as a solution

Stephanie: Buckminster Fuller saw the potential of the geodesic dome as a solution to the post-war housing crisis, proposing it could be applied to the design of single-family dwellings. Tell me a little more about his utopian vision, and your interest in the modernist project more broadly.
Keg: Yes, Fuller’s vision for the geodesic dome at that time was to solve the American housing crisis, but it was also a celebration of industrialisation. The steel domes could be built cheaply and easily by machines in modular parts, then fit together to form the triangulated dome surfaces and make strong, rigid structures. His vision explored how the ease and low-cost of manufacturing and building these domes would revolutionise affordable housing. We now know that wasn’t quite the case, and American suburbs aren’t fields of domes as he envisioned.

My interest in the geodesic dome comes from Fuller’s vision, more than the reality. When I was in architecture school, I was often drawn to utopian designs, but, in practice, it is rare to be able to build these speculative designs in real life. However, I do think these ways of critiquing or rethinking current practices can present new ways of doing things, and help create better futures.

As an inflatable form, Impossible Utopia negates the rigidness of a geodesic dome but embraces histories of inflatables and their links to utopian ideas. The late 1960s saw inflatable experiments by artists, architects and activists as ways to explore alternative living solutions and create political and performative actions. While being rather playful, inflatables can also hold space for speculative thinking and be poignant political symbols. In my practice, I am also interested in how inflatables are not permanent, they can just as easily be deflated and moved, and don’t claim ownership over land. This is especially an important consideration when designing for and building on unceded land.