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Environmental contemplations on Bucky’s birthday at Bellevue
Lim Chong Keat, 12/13 July 2023

In the context of world strive and economic inequalities, we might cite Shakespeare: “Oh what fools these mortals be”, and agonise over the idealism of Bucky’s incentive for “the world for you and me, not you or me”. Climate change has occupied much concern – yet oblivious to astrophysical mutations that may yet doom planet earth.

I may be allowed these ruminations as I turn 93, just overcoming non-viral debilations with the help of traditional herbal prescriptions, efficacious to enable me to continue work on the legacy of my friendship with Bucky, and to advance my memoirs “Confluencing with Bucky”, drafts completed for editing and the challenging selection of relevant photos yet to be limited for publication. In the process, it has become a priority to archive the extensive photographic material and my collections of original inscriptions by Bucky. This leads to the intention to establish the “Bellevue Buckyworld Trust” to which I would endow the Fuller collection – and to make plans for its conservation and future. It may here be timely to reveal that I have been designing architectural concepts for the future of the geomantic site of Bellevue on Penang Hill, a legacy which could be shared globally by those who appreciate the cosmic history of Bucky’s connection.

On July 11th and 12th July this year, no confluence has been planned, also as no others have offered initiatives to organise a gathering here. From previous attendees, we had vibes from Winfred Khoo and Maryam Abdullah, who was in Makkah. Only Kev Yeow planned to come to help on the archives, and it fell to the two of us to imbibe the moods of the environment which has been laced the days before with thunderstorms and heavy downpours (reminding about last year’s “Realism of Rain). Although I overslept and missed sunsight, Kev diligently recorded the views, also observing the moon and Jupiter in the predawn cloudless sky. I then complemented with later photos. As we know, our antipodal location is ahead of New England and 12 July there would begin around noon for us. 

In town Kev and I spent time on the photo archives and updates for this website. As he went back to Bellevue after 7pm he was rewarded by an amazingly spectacular rainbow over our geodesic dome at sunclipse … surely a truly cosmic message for all, which will be shared in our website.

Ever faithfully, Jaime Snyder and the Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller sent out birthday remembrances with two significant links to the Bucky Archives at Stanford (https://www.buckminsterfuller.net/resources/research-at-archive.html) and a nostalgic tour of the Fuller office in Philadelphia (https://youtu.be/e3hQWDY19Gs), recorded in 1983 shortly after Bucky’s death. I surfed the latter, glad to see Jaime and Allegra looking over memorabilia, followed by further revelations by Shirley, Kiyoshi and Amy about the trophies and the chronofiles – which became a prompt for our archives here to relate to the Fuller collections at Stanford and elsewhere as to material that may not be there. 

Relevantly, as I have been time travelling over the same period, I made observations to augment the video tour, firstly noting the RIBA Gold Medal for Bucky, and the Medal of Freedom which was first communicated to Bucky at our 4th Campuan meeting in Penang in February 1983. Allegra and Jaime showed the Indonesian collections of three-way weave baskets – and a “Penang lawyer” walking stick acquired by Bucky, an item made from the endemic palm, Licuala acutifida from Penang. I noted with interest that according to Kiyoshi, Bucky was a keen photographer and his collection numbered some 11,000 images! 

There was also a painting by Arie Smit given to Bucky. More interestingly but not mentioned were the colourful naive Peasant paintings from Penestanan hanging on the walls, which had caught Bucky’s eyes, and acquired when he was with us in Bali. These have since been donated to the Centre for Spirituality & Sustainability at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, where the Fuller Dome is located. Coincidentally Kev Yeow had visited there in August 2022 and made photos of the 14 paintings (the one by I Wayan Pugur illustrated above) which recall memories of Campuan and our Balinese artist friends – and “Canangsari”, the bamboo tensegrity dome dedicated to Anne, as in the buckyconfluence logo. The events leading to the dome will be fully recounted in my memoirs about the early meetings convened by Bucky, myself and Austin Coates in 1976 and in 1977 (when we celebrated Bucky’s birthday at the dome).

In viewing the 1983 office tour, I recalled the special gathering about the same time that October, hosted by Porter McKeever at his Pelham home attended by musician and artist friends (including Loh Siew Tuan and Prawat) … and Allegra, Jaime, Alexandra, Ben Eli, Shirley & Bill, Kiyoshi, Amy, Karen – and also Shoji and Tsuneko.

[As a closing note, I would mention and as attached below the nice message that Jaime has contributed, adding to the other two by Shirley Sharkey and Thomas Zung, for “Confluencing with Bucky”, the memoirs yet to be published]

Message for “Confluencing with Bucky” from Jamie Snyder

Bucky in Asia: I am very happy that Lim Chong Keat is publishing a memoir, which will explore, among many aspects of his own work, his longtime friendship with my grandfather Buckminster Fuller. It was of great fortune that Bucky intersected with Lim Chong Keat from 1971 as part of his ongoing circumnavigation of the planet. It was only two years later, that as a young man of 18, I had the opportunity to travel around the world with Bucky on his unceasing travel schedule to universities all over North America, Europe, and Asia. That particular trip took us to meet numerous architects throughout Asia: Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Bali, and India— where I was privileged to sit in on Bucky’s personal meeting with the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. 

As it turned out, I was fortunate to travel with Bucky to Bali a second time. The first trip was where I fell in love with Bali – and came to realise Bucky already had. In 1977 I returned to Bali to participate in the preparation of the second Campuan Conference organised by Chong Keat and Bucky. The longer trip gave me the opportunity to arrive in Bali ahead of Bucky, and have some time to get to know Ubud and Penestanan just a little bit. I was primarily there to assist Bucky, as I had been doing on his travels; still in this case I had the chance to explore and revel in this remarkable place. As it happened I arrived early enough, so I could meet up with then young filmmaker Karen Goodman – who was invited to document the event. Karen, went on to produce the American Masters PBS television special: Buckminster Fuller: “Thinking Out Loud”. I think fondly of the Campuan Conference and its significant contribution in bringing together visionary thinkers to contemplate biggest picture of the changing landscape of Life on Earth, and the challenges she faces – only much more severe at this moment in time. Bucky’s intersection with Chong Keat spawned numerous architectural endeavours and auxiliary projects, and was an important contribution to Bucky’s research into the evolution of humanity on Spaceship Earth. Along with stimulating big thoughts about the possibility of a sustainable and regenerative human engagement with the natural world, Chong Keat was a key figure in bringing Bucky’s “Design Science Revolution” to a new generation of designers and planners 

Bucky with attendees of the Campuan 4 meeting at Bellevue in February 1983, when he received news of the Presidential of Freedom, on his last visit to Penang.