The Buckminster Fuller Institute has announced 15 semi-finalists for its 2015 Fuller Challenge, which calls for “innovative solutions to some of humanity’s most pressing problems."
As the 8th cycle of the competition, this year’s Fuller Challenge drew the strongest application pool to date, receiving entries from 136 countries. Out of the many entries, one winner will receive a $100,000 prize to support the development and implementation of their design.
The proposals were evaluated by the Challenge Review Committee, which focused on how the works are “visionary, comprehensive, anticipatory, ecologically responsible, feasible, and verifiable.”
The 2015 Buckminster Fuller Challenge semi-finalists are:
596 Acres: Living Lots is an adaptable, open source land-access platform and dynamic community empowerment initiative that works to identify and transform unused urban spaces.
Agrarian Trust is nurturing the birth of a paradigm shifting, cooperatively owned agricultural commons system, using various mechanisms to ensure intergenerational stewardship of America’s farmland.
Algae Systems: The Water/Energy Nexus has developed an innovative “industrial ecology” process using algae to provide cost-effective wastewater treatment, remove CO2 from the atmosphere, and yield clean water, bio-fuels, and fertilizers.
bioMason “grows” durable, environmentally sustainable bricks from globally abundant, renewable nutrients and minerals in a process that mimics the formation of coral reefs through bio-mineralization.
Casa Pueblo de Adjuntas: Forest School combines grassroots conservation, ecological education, and community development in an inspiring model for ecological stewardship built upon a 35-year track record in Puerto Rico.
Community Architects Network has grown a facilitation network across 19 countries in Asia, using the participatory design process as a vehicle for transformational community change and upholding their motto to “let the people be the solution”.
Drylands Resilience Initiative and HAZEL aims to fuse design, science, and policy and to support coordinated, whole-systems decision-making at multiple scales by providing both granular and holistic data analyses of water flows in the built environment.
GreenWave presents a radical new form of aquaculture: multi-species 3D ocean farming, which entails a low-cost, high-yield, zero-input system that filters water, sequesters carbon, restores habitats, and creates economic opportunity.
Mahila Housing SEWA Trust: Climate Resiliency Initiative will build upon an impressive history of community development work, engaging diverse stakeholders in order to identify appropriate technologies for climate resilience in poor urban communities in South Asia.
The Nubian Vault Programme: A Roof, A Skill, A Market has systematized, adapted, and replicated an ancient Nubian vault structure into a low-cost, sustainable, economically empowering housing solution for both rural and urban areas in the Sahel region of Africa.
Omega Global Initiative has evolved a broad-reaching vision involving algal biofuel production, water recycling, solar energy production, aquaculture, and more, seeking to adapt a highly integrative system for diverse locations worldwide.
One People One Reef combines traditional knowledge and conservation practices with modern science in order to find comprehensive solutions to declining fisheries and degraded reefs in Pacific-island communities.
Project Drawdown unites over 200 individuals and institutions in a coalition to research, analyze, and catalyze climate solutions, quantifying their impacts and using an open-source database to work towards drawdown of excessive CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Sandele Eco-Retreat and Learning Centre takes a comprehensive approach to eco-tourism, working closely with the local population toward community development, ecological conservation, and education in an inspiring model for the future of community-owned tourism.
Warka Water 3.2, inspired by Ethiopian vernacular architecture and basket weaving as well as Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome, is a lightweight, modular tower made from locally available bamboo and natural fiber ropes, which harvests water from ambient air to provide clean water to rural communities.
News and project descriptions via the Buckminster Fuller Institute.
