You can hardly miss noticing the National Science Centre when you travel along the Kerinchi link from the Jalan Duta toll plaza down to the Federal Highway. The NSC is a huge complex that sports a gigantic, green geodesic dome.
I dropped by the NSC and took a good look around the place. The exhibits were interesting enough but in my opinion, they were never meant to interest me. School children perhaps, but not old cocks like me.
Strange that none of the literature at the NSC actually gave credit to the man behind the dome. So there was no appreciation at all of the late R. Buckminster Fuller. No mention of his name, no mention of his work, no mention of his contributions. Did the NSC hijack Bucky's dome and call it its own? I find this sad and an injustice to his memory.
Even sadder was the discovery that the geodesic dome may also have been incorporated into the design of the nearby Securities Commission building without anyone acknowledging it. The Securities Commission is actually right next to the NSC and you can see that the roof-top resembles a small segment of the dome. I don't believe you can build a circular-shaped roof-top that strong enough otherwise. As I said, nothing mentioned at all of the origin of this roof. Ah well, that's Malaysia for you.
Note: While googling the Securities Commission on the Internet, I came across this photo of the SC building. It's a view from the air, so you can see the roof much more clearly.I also managed to see a publicity brochure on the Securities Commission. It talked about the building, how it was constructed, how intelligent it was, etc etc etc,
and still nothing mentioned about the roof except that it was made of glass. I'm extracting a small part from this brochure to show you the roof from the interior. Again, you'll be able to see its structure. Is it a geodesic dome or is it not??
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