Abstract This paper argues that R. Buckminster Fuller was inarguably one of the most important visionaries of the 20th century - if not one of the most misunderstood and least appreciated. It looks at how he was a veritable guru of design, architecture, and alternative modes of living.
From the Paper "Around this time, Fuller began working at the legendary North Carolina school, Black Mountain College, alongside such major avant-garde figures as John Cage and Charles Olson. This is where he would begin work on his most famous project, the geodesic dome. He would go on to construct one of the earliest models of the dome at Bennington College in 1945. Four years later, Fuller managed to construct the first geodesic dome in the world - an amazing feat of architecture, in that the building was able to sustain its own weight without limits. The dome was about fourteen feet in diameter. It was made out of vinyl plastic skin and aluminum aircraft tubing. It was molded into the form of a tetrahedron. "