The Geodesic Dome (圆顶层) — the House of the Future? R. Buckminster Fuller spent much of the early 20 th century looking for ways to improve human shelter by applying modern technological know-how to shelter construction, making shelter more comfortable and efficient, and 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, the shower, 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. In 1944, the United States suffered a serious housing shortage. Government officials knew that Fuller had developed a prototype of 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 purposefully not included in the negotiations with investors. 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 that 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 assimilates these principles and that was Fuller's intent. One of the ways Buckminster Fuller would describe the differences in strength between a rectangle and a triangle would be 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 incomparable 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 (球形的) 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