Architect Quote by Jonathon Keats
![“Architects in urban planning are talking about this but they're not talking about it yet I don't think at that level that [Buckminster] Fuller is talking about when he talked about putting a dome over Manhattan, which is to say an attempt at integrating all of these different technologies in a way…” quote by Jonathon Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/560/jonathon-keats-10822_architect_architects-in-urban-planning-are-talking_285452.jpg)
“Architects in urban planning are talking about this but they're not talking about it yet I don't think at that level that [Buckminster] Fuller is talking about when he talked about putting a dome over Manhattan, which is to say an attempt at integrating all of these different technologies in a way that makes for a city that, without having an actual dome, thermodynamically manages the heat flow for that urban environment and therefore makes it so that it is a highly efficient machine for a living or a dwelling machine as he would have preferred in terms of thermodynamically optimizing it.”
About This Quote
Source Speech: Interview on urban sustainability, 2023
A vision of cities that self‑regulate temperature using integrated technologies, akin to a dome, to become highly efficient living machines.
In simple terms: Cities could self‑manage heat like a dome.
Key Takeaway
Design urban systems that balance energy and comfort.
Themes
sustainability
urban design
technology integration
energy efficiency
Mood
optimistic
innovative
Type
visionary
technical
When to use this quote
- Urban planning
- architectural design
- energy policy
- environmental engineering
Key Concepts
Thermodynamics
systems thinking
smart cities
Questions to Reflect On
- How can we prototype thermodynamic city systems?
- What barriers exist for large‑scale integration?
A Different Perspective
Implementation costs and technical complexity may hinder adoption.
![“[Buckminster] Fuller was an independent operator coming up with these madcap ways of combining things with absolutely no strings attached and the fact that world changing now is happening within the corporation by and large, and that disruption is ironically what corporations do.” quote by Jonathon Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/ee0/jonathon-keats-10822_buckminster-fuller_buckminster-fuller-was-an-independent-op_35124.jpg)
![“[Buckminster] Fuller's idea of progress is a very 1950s organization man out of the military sort of idea of progress. So as a result, you have something like: we've got bad weather in New York City; let's put a dome over it. And so I don't want to put a dome over Manhattan and I hope that nobody…” quote by Jonathon Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/864/jonathon-keats-10822_bad-weather_buckminster-fuller-s-idea-of-progress-is_1517956.jpg)
![“I think that surprisingly few people right now know much about [Buckminster] Fuller beyond the few really iconic points. He invented the geodesic dome and he coined the term "spaceship earth" and that's pretty much the extent of what people who even have heard of him know. And I'm struck by how…” quote by Jonathon Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/0b3/jonathon-keats-10822_buckminster-fuller_i-think-that-surprisingly-few-people-rig_1416599.jpg)
![“I think that in the first place, why we can get excited about [Buckminster ] Fuller, why it's plausible that people might - why my publisher would publish this book [You belong to the universe] about it long after he's dead and irrelevant by many standards has to do with the fact that he was in a…” quote by Jonathon Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/452/jonathon-keats-10822_book_i-think-that-in-the-first-place-why-we-c_1362542.jpg)
![“To me, the reason to write about [Buckminster] Fuller is because I think that he has ideas that are incredibly pertinent.” quote by Jonathon Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/4f9/jonathon-keats-10822_buckminster-fuller_to-me-the-reason-to-write-about-buckmins_1132147.jpg)
![“[Buckminster Fuller] started talking about it far enough afterwards, an audience that was far enough from when they - when the air flow and the Zephyr and these cars in the time period that were made by mainstream automakers. It was far enough in the future, far enough after that point that nobody…” quote by Jonathon Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/9f5/jonathon-keats-10822_air_buckminster-fuller-started-talking-about_1066738.jpg)
![“I was totally taken in and totally taken by that myth starting in 1999, rather carelessly writing about this archive and starting to read [Buckminster Fuller] self-representation, misrepresentation, whatever you want to call it.” quote by Jonathon Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/77c/jonathon-keats-10822_archives_i-was-totally-taken-in-and-totally-taken_810745.jpg)
![“Where Google and [Buckminster] Fuller overlap are in the potential for putting together disparate technologies in ways that can lead to something that might be a larger solution to a larger problem.” quote by Jonathon Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/975/jonathon-keats-10822_buckminster-fuller_where-google-and-buckminster-fuller-over_672435.jpg)
![“On the other hand, the way in which that car fit into this whole very roundabout way of attempting to solve the problem of what - the problem that [Buckminster Fuller] perceived as being the cause of his daughter's death and meningitis. I mean how you get from your daughter dying from meningitis…” quote by Jonathon Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/3d8/jonathon-keats-10822_attempting_on-the-other-hand-the-way-in-which-that_562873.jpg)
![“There were other auto manufacturers that were confabulating as much as [Buckminster Fuller] was, making claims about how cars resembled this or that aspect of nature.” quote by Jonathon Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d9d/jonathon-keats-10822_aspect_there-were-other-auto-manufacturers-that_440815.jpg)
![“I would certainly never want to inflict anything on the world exactly as [Buckminster Fuller] envisioned it because there is a technocratic worldview that I find horrific.” quote by Jonathon Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d11/jonathon-keats-10822_buckminster-fuller_i-would-certainly-never-want-to-inflict_340658.jpg)
![“We clearly recognize the need for something that is what [Buckminster Fuller] represents and therefore it becomes really useful and really interesting to look at the ways in which world changing today totally misses everything that was valuable.” quote by Jonathon Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/92f/jonathon-keats-10822_buckminster-fuller_we-clearly-recognize-the-need-for-someth_100464.jpg)
![“[Buckminster] Fuller said that everything at the time was basically a horse and buggy in the form of an automobile and it had that boxiness and basically aeronautics hadn't been invented.” quote by Jonathon Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/5bb/jonathon-keats-10822_automobile_buckminster-fuller-said-that-everything_134972.jpg)
