05. Temcor Geodesic Dome. Temcor; Torrance, CA; 1971.

The Temcor company—which fabricated such extant geodesic domes as the Pioneer Auditorium in Reno, Nevada (1968)—was co-founded by Donald Richter, a student of renowned designer R. Buckminster Fuller, creator of the term “geodesic dome.” Fuller’s inspiration for this idea, and the first true geodesic dome, was the Zeiss Planetarium in Jena, Germany, completed in 1926. The Planetarium was a hemispherical dome composed of a net of flat steel rods, covered in concrete.

Fuller’s greatest innovation, more so than any one building, may instead be in the standardization and popularization of the concept. Composed of a complex network of triangles which distribute stress evenly across the whole structure, the geodesic dome gives immense structural strength while using a minimum of material.

Though original in many ways, the geodesic dome does, in fact, exist within a continuum of greenhouse and glass building construction dating back hundreds of years, and continuing on after Fuller in the lightweight structures of Frei Otto, Ove Arup and Max Mengeringhausen.

"Tools of the Trade: 19th- and 20th-Century Architectural Trade Catalogs," Case 4, Ryerson & Burnham Libraries, August 4, 2015-October 12, 2015.

Link to R&B Archives Digital Collections record