access to information

[Dick Fischbeck]

Buckminster Fuller is well known for his determined effort to address the global shelter shortage by using his concept of Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science

Design science strategy focuses on using the world's resources to the greatest advantage possible. One measure of a dwelling's success is its performance per kilogram of material. By increasing a material's performance through design, and thus the efficacy and efficiency of both the cost and labor of construction, the possibility for sheltering all the world's population will also increase. Fuller made great progress in his efforts to address the problems of shelter. The geodesic dome is a milestone in the history of shelter. The RanDome is an advancement in building design that will take Fuller's geodesic shells to new levels of functionality and versatility. The RanDome is a new kind of geodesic shell which is far simpler than existing space enclosing building strategies. RanDomes are mass-produced and assembled from a variety of materials. RanDomes are inexpensive, strong, long lasting and weatherproof - exactly the type of structure to address the global problem of inadequate shelter. The RanDome achieves these benefits by changing, fundamentally, how we view the basic building element. The RanDome structure is not an assemblage of edges and faces, as are traditional shell structures. It is assembled from a number of overlapping cones called vertex elements. A RanDome has all the structural benefits of a traditional geodesic shell structure but without the complexity of design, manufacture and construction. The RanDome construction strategy is intuitive. It is a Trimtab improvement on mass shelter construction by virtue of elegant simplicity. This building strategy needs no advanced educational degrees or construction experience. It transcends literacy, language and cultural barriers. Everyone, even children, can now build a sturdy, weatherproof and healthy shelter.