R. Buckminster Fuller spent much of the early 20th Century looking for ways to improve human shelter by:
- Applying modern technological know-how to shelter construction.
- Making shelter more comfortable and efficient.
- Making shelter more economically available to a greater number of people.
After acquiring some experience in the building industry and
discovering the traditional practices and perceptions which severely
limit changes and improvements in construction practices, Fuller
carefully examined, and improved, interior structure equipment,
including the toilet (similar to the ones now used in airplanes), the
shower (which cleans more efficiently using less water), and the
bathroom as a whole. He studied structure shells, and devised a number
of alternatives, each less expensive, lighter, and stronger than
traditional wood, brick, and stone buildings.
He could do this, in part, because newer building materials were
available, and partly because his structures use the principle of
tension instead of the usual compression. About these homes, Fuller
writes in 1928, "These new homes are structured after the natural system
of humans and trees with a central stem or backbone, from which all
else is independently hung, utilizing gravity instead of opposing it.
This results in a construction similar to an airplane, light, taut, and
profoundly strong." (4D Timelock)
In 1944, the United States suffered a serious housing shortage.
Government officials knew that Fuller had developed a prototype single
family dwelling which could be produced rapidly, using the same
equipment which had previously built war-time airplanes. They could be
"installed" anywhere, the way a telephone is installed, and with little
additional difficulty. When one official flew to Wichita, Kansas to see
this house, which Beech Aircraft and Fuller built, the man reportedly
gasped, "My God! This is the house of the future!"
Soon, unsolicited checks poured in from people who wanted to purchase
this new kind of house, but Fuller was never able to get it into full
production. This was due to many obstacles such as only union
contractors were able to hook the houses up to water, power and sewers
in many cities. However, because the houses were already wired and had
the plumbing installed by the aircraft company, many construction trade
unions made it clear that they would not work on the houses. There were
also in-house differences between Fuller and the stockholders. Fuller
did not feel the house design was complete; there were problems he
wanted to fix. But the stockholders wanted to move ahead. However, the
main obstruction was obtaining the financing for the tooling costs,
which were purposfully not included in the negotiations with Beech. No
bank would finance the project with union problems and stockholder
battles.
After the war, Fuller's efforts focused on the problem of how to
build a shelter which is so lightweight, it can be delivered by air.
Shelter should be mobile which would require great breakthroughs in the
weight-reduction of the materials. Technology would have to follow
nature's design as seen by the spider's web which can float in a
hurricane because of its high strength-to-weight ratio. New shelter
would have to be designed that incorporates these principles and that
was Fuller's intent.
The Concepts Behind the Dome
One of the ways Buckminster Fuller ("Bucky") would describe the
differences in strength between a rectangle and a triangle would be to
apply pressure to both structures. The rectangle would fold up and be
unstable but the triangle withstands the pressure and is much more
rigid--in fact the triangle is twice as strong. This principle directed
his studies toward creating a new architectural design, the geodesic
dome, based also upon his idea of "doing more with less."
Fuller
discovered that if a spherical structure was created from triangles, it
would have unparalleled strength.
The sphere uses the "doing more with less" principle in that it
encloses the largest volume of interior space with the least amount of
surface area thus saving on materials and cost. Fuller reintroduced the
idea that when the sphere's diameter is doubled it will quadruple its
square footage and produce eight times the volume.
The spherical structure of a dome is one of the most efficient
interior atmospheres for human dwellings because air and energy are
allowed to circulate without obstruction. This enables heating and
cooling to occur naturally. Geodesic shelters have been built all around
the world in different climates and temperatures and still they have
proven to be the most efficient human shelter one can find.
More specifically, the dome is energy efficient for many reasons:
- Its decreased surface area requires less building materials.
- Exposure to cold in the winter and heat in the summer is decreased
because, being spherical, there is the least surface area per unity of
volume per structure.
- The concave interior creates a natural airflow that allows the hot
or cool air to flow evenly throughout the dome with the help of return
air ducts.
- Extreme wind turbulence is lessened because the winds that contribute to heat loss flow smoothly around the dome.
- It acts like a type of giant down-pointing headlight reflector and
reflects and concentrates interior heat. This helps prevent radiant heat
loss.
The net annual energy savings for a dome owner is 30% less than
normal rectilinear homes according to the Oregon Dome Co. This is quite
an improvement and helps save the environment from wasted energy. Domes
have been designed by Bucky and others to withstand high winds and
extreme temperatures as seen in the Polar regions.
Many dome manufacturers on the list in this section offer various
designs in geodesic dome housing with little assembly time required.
Some houses can be assembled in less than a day with others taking up to
six months. Many also come in dome kits that you can build yourself or
with the help of friends. The options are many. It all depends on how
complex you want the design to be. Please feel free to contact them for
more information.
The Public's First View of the Domes
R. Buckminster Fuller's first world wide acceptance by the
architectural community occurred with the 1954 Triennale where his
cardboard dome was displayed for the first time. The Milan Triennale was
established to stage international exhibitions aimed to present the
most innovative accomplishments in the fields of design, crafts,
architecture and city planning.
The theme for 1954 was Life Between Artifact and Nature: Design and
the Environmental Challenge which fit in perfectly with Bucky's work.
Bucky had begun efforts towards the development of a Comprehensive
Anticipatory Design Science which he defined as, "the effective
application of the principles of science to the conscious design of our
total environment in order to help make the Earth's finite resources
meet the needs of all humanity without disrupting the ecological
processes of the planet." The cardboard shelter that was part of his
exhibit could be easily shipped and assembled with the directions
printed right on the cardboard. The 42-foot paperboard Geodesic was
installed in old Sforza garden in Milan and came away with the highest
award, the Gran Premio.
Fuller's domes gained world wide attention upon his Italian premiere
and by that time the U.S. military had already begun to explore the
options of using domes in their military projects because they needed
speedy but strong housing for soldiers overseas. With the interest of
the military and coming away from the 1954 Triennale with the Gran
Premio, domes began to gain in public appeal and exposure.
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