Tensegrity Buckyball challenge at Green School

Learning by doing is one of the things John feels most passionate about and when he and the Green School high school students had a chance to jump into the world of building Buckyballs, it was an awesome example of that principle in practice.

From the Green School teachers involved in the challenge:

“The Tensegrity Buckyball challenge came to the high school one week ago and captured the interest of kids, teachers and parents. In recent weeks John Hardy has been experimenting with tensegrity structures and domes, drawing on inspiration from his memories of Buckminster Fuller visiting Bali.  He recalls coming across Fuller in a meditative state in one of his  famous ‘Buckyballs’ in Campuhan, Ubud, being interviewed by a film crew.  Similarly, our team experienced trance like moments during  the construction of the Buckyball kit that John Hardy shared with Green School.  We considered and deliberated on many different ways to configure the 12:20 pentagon  to hexagon ratio out of the 120 sticks of bamboo that was delivered to Green School.

During the week long project there were many different hands involved, but none more prominent than that of a student from Germany who claimed, “This is a real learning experience and not many people get the chance to do this, nor would be able to do this!”  The Buckyball is displayed on the soccer field in front of  the tent.  It is held together by opposing force cable tension and requires no fastenings.  It is truly a remarkable structure.  Go have a look!”