J. Baldwin James Tennant Baldwin ( born 1934 ) ( whose books and articles have been published under the names J. Baldwin , Jay Baldwin , and James T. Baldwin ) is an American industrial designer and writer . A one-time student of Buckminster Fuller , Baldwin 's work has been inspired by Fuller 's principles and ( in the case of some of Baldwin 's published writing ) has popularized and interpreted Fuller 's ideas and achievements . In his own right , Baldwin has been a figure in American designers ' efforts to incorporate solar , wind , and other renewable sources of energy . In his career , being a fabricator has been as important as being a designer . Baldwin is noted as the inventor of the geode sic `` Pillow Dome . `` Life and work J. Baldwin was born the son of an engineer . Baldwin has said that , at 18 , he heard Buckminster Fuller speak for 14 hours non-stop . This was in 1951 at the University of Michigan , where Baldwin had enrolled to learn automobile design because a friend of his had been killed in a car accident that Baldwin attributed to bad design . He worked with Fuller prior to graduation from U. of M. in 1955 . During his student years , Baldwin worked ( in a unique job-sharing role ) in an auto factory assembly line . He went on to do graduate work at the University of California , Berkeley . As a young designer in the late 1950s and early 1960s , he designed advanced camping equipment with Bill Moss Associates . Thereafter , he taught simultaneously at San Francisco State College ( now called San Francisco State University ) , San Francisco Art Institute , and the Oakland campus of California College of Arts & Crafts for about six years . The period 1968-69 found him both a visiting lecturer at Southern Illinois University and the design editor of the innovative Whole Earth Catalog . ( The Catalog came out in many editions between 1968 and 1998 , and Baldwin continued to edit and write for both the Catalog and an offshoot publication , CoEvolution Quarterly , later renamed Whole Earth Review . ) In the early 1970s , Baldwin taught at Pacific High School . Baldwin was at the center of experimentation with geodesic domes ( an unconventional building-design approach , explored by Fuller , that maximizes strength and covered area in relation to materials used ) . He also dove enthusiastically into the application of renewable energy sources in homes and in food-production facilities , working with Integrated Life Support Systems Laboratories ( ILS , in New Mexico ) and with Dr John Todd and the other New Alchemists involved with the `` Ark '' project . Baldwin 's initial involvement with solar energy was during that very experimental , ad-lib phase when much was moving from principles or theory into actual development . In the 1970s , at ILS , he was the co-developer of what has been touted as the world 's first building to be heated and otherwise powered by solar and wind power exclusively . Baldwin referred to his own rural home as `` a three-dimensional sketchpad . `` During the Jerry Brown administration , Baldwin worked in the California Office of Appropriate Technology . Since the 1970s , Baldwin has continued to work as a designer in association with numerous organizations and projects . He organized for himself a mobile design studio and machine workshop ( in a van pulling an Airstream trailer ) to drive to various projects across America . With the ears of a wider audience in the 1980s , Baldwin developed an incisive critique of the American automobile industry , which he viewed as over-focused on superficial marketing concerns and farcically under-concerned with real innovation and improvement . He was also a constructive critic of the emerging industries manufacturing `` soft technology '' equipment like wind turbines . In the 1990s , Baldwin wrote a book about Buckminster Fuller , his ideas , experiments , and influence , Bucky Works : Buckminster Fuller 's Ideas for Today . In the late 1990s , he worked with the Rocky Mountain Institute ( Snowmass , Colorado ) in the research , design , and development of the ultralight , ultra-efficient `` Hypercar '' — a prototype by way of which independent designers hope to show the way for the world 's auto manufacturers . With conceptual development having begun in 1991 , the current version of the Hypercar uses a small generator to power an electric motor in each wheel . Given his long-term role as a `` technology `` editor , something should be mentioned about the scope of Baldwin 's focus on technology . His interests remained broader than that represented in the shifting media and popular focus of the mid 1980s and later , which inclined to highlight the micro chip and electronic devices based on it . Baldwin has continued to point out the value of ( and need for evaluation of ) technologies within a larger perimeter . Certainly shelter and transportation technologies have always interested him . So have tools , and whether a device or tool or process was freshly innovative or age-old in concept , if it enabled a person to “do the job” with wood , metal , fiberglass panels , soil , trees , or whatever , it remained worthy of Baldwin’s attention . Whereas the personal computer often ( though not necessarily ) inclines its operator toward imagination , almost in the sense of entertainment , Baldwin has remained equally interested in doing , in application . And while he has never ceased to be interested in the products of the factory , Baldwin has always wanted to empower individuals and small teams of people to accomplish something . Baldwin , as one of the notable designer technologists whose cross-disciplinary approaches have opened new territory , was featured in the 1994 documentary film Ecological Design : Inventing the Future . The film viewed these designers as `` outlaws '' whose careers have necessarily developed `` outside the box '' of their time , largely unsupported by mainstream industry and often beyond the pale of mainstream academia , as well . J. Baldwin invented ( and has built ) a permanent , transparent , insulated structure , of aluminum and Teflon , he calls a `` Pillow Dome '' — said to have withstood 135-mph winds and tons of snow . The Pillow Dome weighs just one-half pound per square foot . Baldwin continues to practice design ( as exemplified in the unique and aerodynamic 'mobile-room ' Quick-Up camper he has put on the market ) and to teach design at the college level . In recent years , he has taught at California State University at Sonoma and at California College of Arts & Crafts . Quotes `` Human handling and manipulating of materials and the tools that work them , as well as making and testing your own prototypes , ensures that nothing gets lost or diluted in the translation from thought to thing . `` `` Two or three-dimensional CAD renderings can neither predict nor project complex and often subtle interactions with the actual world . They can help refine an idea , but they cannot innovate or identify opportunities for synergetic advantage . `` Books Author : Bucky Works : Buckminster Fuller 's Ideas for Today , 1997 , ISBN 0-471-19812-9 Co-editor ( with Stewart Brand and others ) : Whole Earth Catalogs , 1968-1998 . Co-editor ( with Stewart Brand ) : Soft Technology , 1978 . Editor Whole Earth Ecolog : The Best of Environmental Tools & Ideas , 1990 , ISBN 0-517-57658-9 External links J. Baldwin - Solutioneering Hypercar Concept Pillow Dome Description Solar Energy and Solar-integrated Architecture Categories : 1934 births | Living people | Industrial designers | Buckminster Fuller 