Considered one of the great inventors and architectural minds of the 20th century, R. Buckminster Fuller is best known for his popularization of the geodesic domes. Geodesic domes—which can be found everywhere from Epcot Center to Antarctica to sports stadiums to your local public park where they often used to cover picnic areas—cover more square footage on the planet than the work of any other architect.
Along with building domes, “Bucky” Fuller also created the Dymaxion map, the Dymaxion car, the Dymaxion house, and at one time had the longest entry in the annual Who’s Who publication. He was also the published author of over 30 books, a poet, a lecturer, a holder of dozens of patents, a designer, a philosopher, and a futurist.
In 1959, Fuller moved to the small southern Illinois town of Carbondale and joined the faculty of that city’s Southern Illinois University. It would be Fuller’s only academic appointment; he would be with the university for the next 12 years. When he and his wife, Anne, moved to town, Fuller also had build the only dome he himself would ever live in and the only home he’d ever own.
Built on the corner lot of South Forest and West Cherry Streets, the home was built in just one day, April 19, 1960. The dome could be erected so quickly since, on the morning of its build, its pre-fab, triangular plywood pieces arrived on the back of a truck. With Fuller himself on site, the futuristic, golf ball-looking abode quickly took shape.
The finished dome was a one-bedroom, two-bath home of roughly 1,100 square feet on the ground floor with an additional 400 square feet of additional living space created vita the construction of an internal platform that, when installed, would serve as the home’s second story. This upper loft, which covered about half of the Dome’s main floor space, was accessible by a rather narrow stairway. It would serve as Bucky’s home study or, in a pinch, could be used as a second bedroom.
It has been speculated that Fuller, a devoted sailor, adopted the home’s vibrant outside color scheme (two shades of blue and white) to suggest sailboats on water. Inside, the couple filled their home with an eclectic assortment of family heirlooms, exotic artifacts from some of their worldwide travels, and gifts from some of their very famous friends including a hanging wire sculpture by Ruth Asawa and various modern furniture pieces by Fuller friends Charles and Ray Eames.
The Fullers lived in the “Bucky Dome,” as it came to be known, for the next decade. Around 1970, Bucky transferred his office to SIUC’s sister campus in Edwardsville and, after two years there, took a new position in Philadelphia. Fuller died in 1983, only hours after his wife Anne passed away.
When the Fullers left Carbondale, they sold their home to their friend Mike Mitchell, who owned it for the next 28 years. Mitchell lived in the dome himself for two years and then made it a rental property.
However, despite Mitchell’s best efforts and those of his many renters, the home slowly fell into disrepair. In 2001, it was purchased by SIUC professor Bill Perk, who established it as a museum and a not-for-profit. For the next 20 years, Perk and his band of fellow “Bucky-philes” worked diligently to restore the home to it original condition and to the way it appeared—inside and out—during the years the Fullers resided there.
Along with stripping off the home’s after-the-fact shingles and repainting its exterior, on the inside, the “Bucky Board” has been gifted from the Fuller Estate many of the home’s original furnishings. Today, the home is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Currently, the board is working in the building of a visitor’s center, directly across from the home, so that visitors to the dome can get a full understanding of Fuller’s life, philosophy, importance and time in Carbondale.
