In the beginning there was Bucky Fuller.
That would be Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895 – 1983), “futuristic” architect, engineer, and inventor, who, among his other accomplishments, developed the “geodesic dome” building design. The dome (usually a half-dome when used in building) is made up of lattice-like overlapping circles across the hemisphere’s surface, creating a network of triangles each of which contributes to the structure’s overall strength, wind deflection, and stability. See, and you thought they were just rounded buildings. In fact, much of Fuller’s research and experimentation was done in collaboration with artist Kenneth Snelson at—wait for it—Black Mountain College in the late 1940s. With Snelson’s design help, Fuller actually constructed an experimental geodesic building on the school’s campus. Fuller patented his design in 1954.
And that was the year before a fellow named Clyde Kinser started up an operation he called Kinser Home Insulation of Asheville.
The manufacturing shop on Bingham Road in Asheville 78
| January 2015
Kinser actually sold his insulation door-to-door; he’d make a sale, then send a crew out the following day to perform the installation. It was instant service and a handto-mouth existence. Kinser also paid attention to his customers’ input; in nearly every case they were looking for additional ways to make their homes tighter, warmer, and more fuel-efficient. It wasn’t long before Kinser added aluminum-framed doors and windows to his inventory; next came vinyl siding and related products. Having thus diversified, Kinser renamed his company. He called it Kinco. Clyde had two boys, Robert and Wayne. From the standpoint of creating a family business, which had always been Clyde Kinser’s ambition, his sons’ talents dovetailed beautifully. Robert, a structural engineer, had been working for the government at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Mark was sales and marketing oriented. Their respective talents dovetailed with their father’s overall vision and successful pulse-taking of the market. A born entrepreneur, Clyde had already started and run several successful businesses. One was Peppertree Resorts, a chain of vacation communities, each consisting of separate housing units. Peppertree originally built its units as A-frames, which were undergoing a faddish popularity at the time. But early on it was discovered that A-frames had a number of disadvantages—wasted space, difficult accessibility to the second story loft area, and, above all, heating inefficiency—that made them particularly unsuitable for resort use.