It is evident from the Dymaxion Map that three-quarters of Spaceship Earth is covered with water. Taking account of this, Fuller designed organic cities that could float on water.
In Critical Path (p.333) he expounds some of their properties:
"Floating cities pay no rent to landlords." (A cheerful thought.)
"They are situated on the water, which they desalinate and recirculate in many useful and nonpolluting ways. They are ships with all an ocean ship's technical autonomy, but they are also ships that will always be anchored... Floating cities are designed with the most buoyantly stable conformation of deep-sea bell-buoys. Their omni-surface-terraced, slope-faced, tetrahedral structuring is employed to avoid the lethal threat of precipitous falls by humans from vertically sheer high-rising buildings."
Once again, geometry is at the heart of this design. By contrast with the sphere,
"the tetrahedron has the most surface with the least volume of all polyhedra. As such it provides the most possible 'outside' living. Its sloping, external surface is adequate for all its occupants to enjoy their own private 'outside', tiered-terracing, garden homes. These are most economically serviced from the common, omni-nearest-possible centre of volume of all polyhedra."
Fuller produced two main designs: a general one, Tetra City, and a more specific one, Triton City.
© Paul Taylor 2001