Dymaxion AirOcean World

The 1982 edition of Buckminster Fuller’s iconic Dymaxion Map.

“Also know as the “Dymaxion Map,” the Fuller Projection Map is the only flat map of the entire surface of the Earth which reveals our planet as one island in one ocean, without any visually obvious distortion of the relative shapes and sizes of the land areas, and without splitting any continents. It was developed by R. Buckminster Fuller who “By 1954, after working on the map for several decades,” finally realized a “satisfactory deck plan of the six and one half sextillion tons Spaceship Earth.” – Buckminster Fuller Institute.

This revolutionary depiction of the ‘globe’ is the result of a dedicated effort by Buckminster Fuller to present our planet in a more coherent and unbiased form. He used the term Spaceship Earth to frame humanity (the inhabitants) as a collective force preparing to confront the challenges of the future.

The image omits political borders, identifying only select cities and islands. A spectrum of vibrant colors highlights the mean low annual temperature, with a key at the bottom of the sheet. This term must be used loosely, since the title is oriented deliberately so the map can be viewed from either side.

According to text in the lower right, this is a facsimile of the 1954 edition of Fuller’s Dymaxion Map, published by the School of Design at North Carolina State College in Raleigh. The copyright of this edition has been updated to 1982, by which point Shoji Sadao had made significant contributions to the map’s development.

Sources: Buckminster Fuller Institute; Open Culture; Stanford University;