Naming himself "Guinea Pig B," Buckminster Fuller vowed that his whole life would be an experiment "to see what an unknown individual . . . might be able to do effectively on behalf of all mankind."
That decision was made in 1927, as he stood by the freezing waters of Lake Michigan contemplating suicide; his first child had recently died and, at age 32, Fuller was bankrupt and jobless. What saved him -- and became the driving force of a career encompassing architecture, philosophy and mathematics -- was the revelation that his life belonged not to himself, but to the universe.
Conceptualizer of "Spaceship Earth," designer of the geodesic dome and an environmental advocate who urged people to "think global, act local," this American was one of the 20th century's most unorthodox thinkers -- influential and always controversial. "Buckminster Fuller: Your Private Sky," a major retrospective now at the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, sets out the dreams and designs of this man whose sole desire was "to make the world work."