June 8, 1958

Visions of the future from 1958: People will live in geodesic domes (note that the floor plan on the dome displayed at the home show has no bathroom).  At left, predictions for 2000: Cars will be banned from the urban cores of America's large cities, everyone will use solar power  transmitted without wires and freeways will be double-decked. Downtown workers will leave their autos at huge parking structures on the fringes of the city and take mass transit to their jobs. "Each structure, from the largest to the smallest, will have blast-resistant cores which will protect inhabitants against storms, man-made blasts and other disasters." --J.J. Svec, Building Construction Illustrated Email me Arye Michael Bender writes: I was a film major at Southern Illinois University, when Buckminster Fuller, designer of geodesics, was in residence.  He was a funny, fast talking little man, with a very unique vision.  His favorite phrase at the time was, 'Anticipatory and comprehensive'. Some years later, I actually knew someone who lived in a geodesic dome.  His name is Donald Walters, but he's better known as Swami Kriananda. The dome did have a bathroom, but leaked in the rain. Although his specific designs for homes and cars did not find their way into the mainstream, we all in some degree, live in Bucky Fuller's world today.  His influence is everywhere from Disney World, to the very fabric of carbon composite designs, to the global village of the Internet.  His works were both comprehensive and anticipatory.