Accepting the Challenge

First held in 2008, the BFI Challenge is an annual competition that seeks out bold, visionary designs to solve complex global issues. In line with R. Buckminster Fuller's innovations, these designs interweave large-scale systems – such as transportation and environmental conservation – with sustainable resources and, most importantly, they have practical applications.

This year, the BFI Challenge took place in Chicago, and Smart Cities Group from MIT Media Lab took the prize for their proposal "Sustainable Personal Mobility and Mobility-on-Demand Systems," which addressed urban concerns like pollution and congestion by creating electric and foldable vehicles that residents can pick up and put away at charging racks across the city. Learn more about the winners, honorable mentions, and their projects from the BFI website,

Our very own New Play Producing Fellow Travis Ballenger attended the BFI Challenge conferring ceremony in Chicago, where he met many people who have been influenced by, as they affectionately call him, Bucky.
Read what he has to say about the experience.

Extras & Insights is funded, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities.