Black Mountain College

Description

Timour Kosters:

"Founded: By John Andrew Rice in North Carolina as a radical alternative to traditional education.

Notable Participants: Buckminster Fuller, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Willem de Kooning.

Description: A progressive school that blurred the lines between living, learning, and creating.

Ideas/Technology: Produced groundbreaking work in architecture, art, and music. Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome, for instance, became an icon of sustainable design, while Cage’s experimental compositions redefined music.

Before Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome became an icon of sustainable design, it was an experiment at Black Mountain College. Before John Cage redefined music, he was testing his ideas in its studios. This small, unconventional school in North Carolina became a breeding ground for ideas that would shape art, architecture, and beyond.

Black Mountain College rejected the hierarchy of traditional universities. There were no deans, no rigid departments—just a belief that learning happened best when people worked side by side. Its multidisciplinary approach fostered an environment where ideas collided and evolved into something entirely new. It was an attempt to dissolve boundaries between disciplines—and between education and life. This aspect is definitely something we’re inspired by at Edge City.

Although Black Mountain College was a permanent institution, for many people, their experience was temporary (similar for Auroville and SFI below) — they could come for a summer or a semester to go deep on a particular idea. It is inspiring to us to think about how, over time, edge cities can become permanent hubs as well."

(https://attheedges.timour.xyz/p/prototyping-the-future-at-the-edges)