Dymaxion

Dymaxion House as installed in Henry Ford Museum

The word Dymaxion is a term that Buckminster Fuller associated with much of his work — prominently his Dymaxion House and Dymaxion Car. The word is a portmanteau of the words dynamic, maximum, and tension[1]

A name was needed for the display of Fuller's first architectural model, later to be known as the Dymaxion house, at the Marshall Field's department store in Chicago. To create the name, wordsmith Waldo Warren was hired by Marshall Field's[2] and spent two days listening to Fuller, getting a feel for his idiosyncratic use of language — latering playing with the syllables typical of Fuller's speach until he and Fuller agreed on the word "Dymaxion".

Fuller was excited about the word and used it for many of his inventions during the decades to follow, including the Dymaxion house, the Dymaxion Deployment Unit, the Dymaxion car, and the Dymaxion World Map. Dymaxion also came to describe a polyphasic sleep schedule he followed, consisting of four 30 minute naps throughout the day.

Fuller eventually renamed his elaborate journal — a highly specific, highly-detailed self-documentation of his life — as the Dymaxion Chronofile.

References

  1. ↑ Sieden, Lloyd Steven (2000). Buckminster Fuller's Universe. Basic Books. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-7382-0379-9.
  2. ↑ Olive Hoogenboom (February 2000). "R. Buckminster Fuller". American National Biography.