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The finalists for this year’s <a href="http://inhabitat.com/2006/01/02/inhabitat-loves-bucky/">Buckminster Fuller</a> Challenge have just been announced and as always we are giddy with delight over the contestant’s projects.The finalists for the 2010 <a href="http://inhabitat.com/2006/01/02/inhabitat-loves-bucky/">Buckminster Fuller</a> Competition challenging designers to come up with workable solutions to the world's most significant problems such as water scarcity, food supply, and energy consumption have just been announced, and as always we're thrilled to see this year's crop of innovative projects! They range from <a href="http://inhabitat.com/zero-energy/">zero energy</a> buildings to a <a href="http://inhabitat.com/2009/11/09/indias-barefoot-solar-engineers-are-building-a-brighter-future/">solar college</a> for women in India to a plan to rehydrate the great lakes. Here we present to you the six worthy finalists and their plans to fulfill Buckminster Fuller’s dream of bringing humanity back in balance with the earth.1
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”"<em>You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.</em>” Buckminster Fuller’s words are a perfect guideline for the contestants of this challenge, and <a href="http://inhabitat.com/architecture/">building</a> a new model is exactly what this Eco-Boulevards project is all about. A team has re-envisioned the streets of Chicago to rightfully return the 1 billion gallons of Great Lakes water that Chicagoans discard on a daily basis. Their new eco-street plan would return all waste and storm <a href="http://inhabitat.com/water/">water</a> to the lakes with a clean and efficient system that closes Chicago’s “water loop” and brings residents back into touch with the ecosystem they are surrounded by. <big><a href="http://challenge.bfi.org/2010Finalist_EcoBlvd">+ Eco-Boulevards</a></big>2
The Living Building Challenge embodies Buckminster Fuller’s message to the max.The Living Building Challenge embodies Buckminster Fuller’s message to the max. Kind of like <a href="http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/04/06/demystifying-eco-labels/">LEED</a> on steroids -- we mean that in the best way possible -- the Living Building Institute challenges builders and homeowners to create built environments that completely sustain themselves. Buildings get a stamp of approval after 12 months of proved <a href="http://inhabitat.com/zero-energy/">zero-energy, zero-impact</a> performance. <big><a href="http://challenge.bfi.org/2010Finalist_LivingBuildingChallenge">+ Living Buildings Challenge</a></big>3
The Barefoot College is on a mission to replace kerosene with solar power in rural communities across the developing world.<a href="http://inhabitat.com/2009/11/09/indias-barefoot-solar-engineers-are-building-a-brighter-future/">The Barefoot College</a> is on a mission to replace kerosene with <a href="http://inhabitat.com/solar-power/">solar power</a> in rural communities across the developing world. They were a runner up in last years Buckminster Fuller Challenge and are back again to compete. Their college teaches women in Africa and India how to be solar engineers, providing them with the skills it takes to remove toxic kerosene gas from their communities and replace it with <a href="http://inhabitat.com/energy/">renewable energy</a>. <big><a href="http://challenge.bfi.org/2010Finalist_BarefootCollege">+ Barefoot College</a></big>4
Operation Hope is dedicated to keeping Africa's savannas fertile.Operation Hope is dedicated to keeping Africa's savannas fertile. This project teaches people in <a href="http://inhabitat.com/global-development/">rural communities</a> in the grasslands of Africa holistic farming. They use a biodynamic approach to cultivation that provides people with sustenance and the land with the nutrients it needs to sustain life. They introduce livestock herds to the land and with an open grazing model are able to create a sustainable growth model for people and the earth. <big><a href="http://challenge.bfi.org/2010Finalist_OperationHope">+ Operation Hope</a></big>5
The Watergy Greenhouse project has brought living with nature to a new level.The Watergy Greenhouse project has brought living with nature to a new level. In their first prototype they developed a completely sustainable greenhouse that creates it's own <a href="http://inhabitat.com/energy/">energy</a> -- with the help of <a href="http://inhabitat.com/energy/solar-power/">solar panels</a> and a closed-loop growth system -- and brings the outside indoors for a year round garden. In their second prototype they've attached that greenhouse to a <a href="http://inhabitat.com/architecture/">building</a>, bringing their indoor ecosystem into rhythm with the habitat of people to provide food and energy for both. <big><a href="http://challenge.bfi.org/2010Finalist_WatergyGreenhouse">+ Watergy Greenhouse</a></big>6
Farmshare has turned landscapes into foodscapes and makes urban gardening a partnership between consumers, producers and the earth.Farmshare has turned <a href="http://inhabitat.com/landscape-architecture/">landscapes</a> into foodscapes by making <a href="http://inhabitat.com/urban-design/">urban</a> gardening a partnership between consumers, producers and the earth. This Buckminster Fuller Challenge finalist is a project to turn unused urban land into a food production wonderland. The project relies heavily on social media tools to bring Brooklynites together around a decentralized community farm. Someone donates a wheelbarrow, someone else an hour of weed-pulling, another a pack of seeds -- and together with the help of <a href="http://inhabitat.com/green-gadgets/">technology</a> they're growing food to be shared with all. <big><a href="http://challenge.bfi.org/2010Finalist_CalltoFarm">+ Call to Farm: FarmShare</a></big>7
