A short early segment from Pinchbeck's series The Pinch, in conversation with a friend identified only as Sarabeth, on the design of modern society. She argues that domes suit human beings while boxes do not, observing that seats of power such as the White House and the Vatican sit under domes while everyone else is stacked in cubes, and says that living in a dome gives her more fluid access to her own mind. Taking up Buckminster Fuller's position that human problems are design problems, she proposes an Imaginarium combining art-making, experiment and exhibition in one space, mandatory green roofs on sound buildings, and schools that hold permaculture and gardening design competitions instead of endless testing. She also sketches a circular town plan with dwellings that open directly outdoors.
Guest: Sarabeth
In brief
- Sarabeth argues that domed architecture reflects knowledge and autonomy while rectilinear boxes are a means of controlling populations.
- She invokes Buckminster Fuller's claim that human problems are design problems and calls for a design revolution reaching into manufacturing.
- She proposes retrofitting existing cities rather than replacing them, starting with mandatory green roofs on structurally sound buildings.
- She argues that schools should run gardening and permaculture design competitions in place of standardized testing, so that workable ideas spread.
- She contends that alternative communities organized around relationships tend to fail, and that building infrastructure which balances shared space with privacy and solitude is the more reliable path.
Full text
hey folks I'm here for the pinch with my friend Sarah Beth and we're talking about design and Sarah was going to ask you about like what do you think of the design of modern society like the cars and the streets and and the the boxes and all that stuff um I I don't like boxes I prefer domes and I think I it's pretty clear that people who have gained some kind of knowledge and insight into how things work position themselves in Doms and if they want to control everybody else they stack them up in boxes I mean the White House is a dome like the vaans a dome whatever and um about cars I don't see why they have to be so hard I mean they made out of like hemp fiber or something like that maybe maybe my understanding of physics is is a little bit off because I if they were super soft and bouncy they could bounce all around but then the inside could be covered with all kinds of Bubbles and I I don't know I think that there's that we're doing things wrong um so you we were talking a little bit about bugm Fuller and his ideas like how do you think those are applicable to our situation today because he was saying that that human problems are design problems and I agree I really like the concept of the Imaginarium which is kind of like you know where you have a place where you can make art and experiment with ideas and share them in the same location so that would involve creating that kind of system would involve redesigning Urban space but I'm also really focused on because the urban space exists it's not like we're just going to tear it down right away I mean I think we should have mandatory green roofs on buildings that have are structurally sound okay so let's get this idea down that um in a way like uh we've just been this inertia of this industrial society it's gotten us to this point like we didn't know we could change things do you think that people could have like it could be a design Revolution where people would be thinking about all the different ways we could design things and really changing our whole manufacturing system yes I think that's a really good place to start and with children as soon as you said that I imagined schools where they would be you know having contests to design systems that work better have gardening contests Eco uh what do you call that um permaculture design competitions and stuff like that you know instead of having just like endless tests like hey let's actually figure out ways and then of course people with good ideas their ideas would trickle down and they could teach people how to implement them and show them how to do it and stuff one simple idea that I really like is the idea of using recycled styrofoam to build the inter casings of Domes and then you cover it with a completely flame retardant kind of drying Stone type of material I don't know I don't remember exactly what it's called but I did see that they took you feel You' be happy if you live in a dome I would I I would be much more creative and have much more fluid access to my own mind I think I don't nobody likes being boxed in right so the cubes are holding us back right now yeah it's it's hard to think outside of the box when you're in a box I mean for me I I live in a dome so what if people want to people want to contribute to this design transformation design Revolution how could they do it um as individuals I guess you would have to figure out who you know who has access to land and or materials and try to find a way to funnel the ideas into the where those resources are maybe get yourself a little project going that people have to like create new alternative communities like utopian answers experiment with all the design options yeah this is what I was getting at instead of approaching it like we need to get together and create a community which is becomes kind of like a commune or something like that and and and makes it about the relationships between the people I don't really think that's going to work what I think would work is building the infrastructure inside of which people could coexist more harmoniously and and building an infrastructure that would maximize human potential and Community time would be maximized as well as people's ability to have solit Solitude and privacy so you know I would have like I love circles have a big round center of town you know and then have a big round library and a big round Art Museum and a big round Imaginarium or whatever and then have you know as you go further out like you know you would have then individual Dwelling Places and even in the individual Dwelling Places the center room could be wouldn't be connected cuz in circles you don't really have it connected but have the living room a little you know have an an indoor an an outdoor an indoor hallway you know that connects it but also the ability to walk outside from any room so that let's say you were going from the bathroom to the kitchen you could either walk through the rooms and through the hallways or you could just go outside and reappear where you want to be as it's designed now you have to kind of acknowledge people and walk past people and there's not as much privacy which then makes the community time more pressured cool we're here with Sarah Beth for the pinch uh we'll be back soon
Automatic transcript, lightly edited for readability. Originally published on the Liminal News channel.