Octet Truss

This morning some of us met at KL Sentral's food court to discuss Bucky. After the session I went on my walk-about of KL for photos to update my KL blog. Of course, I didn't have my brolly with me and I had to take shelter from the rain along Bukit Bintang. I looked up and noticed that the place I was sheltering under was made up of a number of tringular structures joined together.

In "Buckminster Fuller's Universe; His Life and Work" by Lloyd Steven Sieden, Sieden mentioned that when Bucky was in kindergarten, he was given dried peas and toothpicks (the traditional toy building material of the day). '... the other children immediately began reproducing structures which mirrored the buildings they observed in daily life. Naturally, their frameworks were rectangular, supported by right angle corners held firm by the dried peas. However, with no accurate visual experiance to rely upon, young Bucky began creating a structure which satisfied his sense of touch rather than imitated adult construction. Accordingly, his framework was composed of stable triangles and was, in fact, a rudimentary model of the octet truss, which he would invent and patent in 1961. .... Even today, few people who are not involved in the construction industry appreciate the importance of the octet truss. ...'

So the next time you see such a structure, you know that its Bucky's idea.