Celebrating 5 Years of the Challenge
Left: Interior of 41 Cooper Square. Right: Jason McLennan and Eden Brukman of The Living Building Challenge receiving the 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge OmniOculi award sculpture.Photos by Sean Walsh.
The word is out, The Living Building Challenge was awarded the 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge prize Wednesday, June 6th at a day event at Cooper Union in New York City. The Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI) is thrilled to have celebrated its fifth year awarding what Metropolis Magazine named "Socially-responsible design's highest award".
Left: Final Contenders Jason McLennan and Cheryl Dahle. Right: Allegra Snyder speaking with documentary filmmaker Sam Green. Photos by Sean Walsh.
A gathering of our network of whole systems thinkers and pioneers in sustainability joined for drinks and hors d'oeuvres on the rooftop of The Strand Hotel on June 5th. The next day began with demonstrations of their work from the two 2012 Challenge final contenders; Jason McLennan presenting The Living Building Challenge, and Cheryl Dahle describing her incredible approach to problem solving through Future of Fish. A roundtable discussion followed, in which the two final contenders participated along with Challenge Jurors Kenny Ausubel, Helen and Newton Harrison, and Janice Perlman, as well as Cooper Union Architecture professor David Turnbull, and Sustainability Laboratories’ Michael Ben-Eli.
Left: Roundtable discussion with panelists from left David Turnbull, Cheryl Dahle, Janice Perlman, Jason McLennan, Kenny Ausubel, and Michael Ben-Eli. Right: Jason McLennan presenting The Living Building Challenge. Photos by Sean Walsh.
Left: Cooper Union's Lydia Kallipoliti. Center: David McConville, Allegra Snyder, Elizabeth Thompson, and Cheryl Dahle. Right: 2012 Juror and Bioneers founder Kenny Ausubel. Photos by Sean Walsh.
The OmniOculi award sculpture and a $100,000 prize was then presented to Eden Brukman and Jason McLennan after a keynote address from Dr. John Todd, where he beautifully addressed the relationship between ecology and economics. If you were unable to make it to Cooper Union on June 6th, the whole day was recorded and will be available online in the near future. Meanwhile, you can watch a video of this year's four finalists here.
Left: 2012 Jurors Janice Perlman and John Fullerton. Center: Dr. John Todd giving the keynote speech. Right: Newton and Helen Harrison. Photos by Sean Walsh.
Leading up to the 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge award ceremony, a series of events was held at The Buckminster Fuller Institute and Cooper Union as the commencement of a series of collaborative programming. The series began with BFI hosting Enric Ruiz-Geli for an hour-long lecture on the Millennium Project, followed by Sustainability by Design: From Concept to Action, Project Wadi Attir, a presentation by Dr. Michael Ben-Eli at Cooper Union.
Thank you to everyone that joined us in celebrating and awarding the two finalists of the 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge, and in inaugurating the collaboration of BFI and Cooper Union Institute for Sustainable Design (CUISD). And a special thanks to those who continue over the years to support us in our shared missions to "make the world work for 100% of humanity." We will be hosting more events through the summer and fall; we hope you will join us, so please stay tuned!
Left: Post-Award Ceremony Rooftop reception at 41 Cooper Square. Right: Eden Brukman of The Living Building Challenge. Photos by Sean Walsh.