R. Buckminster Fuller Dome Home

The R. Buckminster Fuller and Anne Hewlett Dome Home at 407 S. Forest Avenue is one of the most architecturally significant small buildings in Illinois. Fuller — inventor of the geodesic dome, the word "Spaceship Earth," and dozens of other design innovations — lived and worked here from 1960 to 1971 while teaching at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

The dome is a modest structure by any measure — it looks more like a large igloo than a grand monument — but its cultural and historical significance is considerable. Fuller used the house as a kind of living laboratory for his ideas about efficient, lightweight shelter. It has been preserved largely intact and is now managed as a museum by the R. Buckminster Fuller & Anne Hewlett Dome Home Trust. Tours can be arranged in advance.

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Buckminster Fuller invented the geodesic dome in 1948, and this house at 407 S. Forest Avenue is the only dome home he ever actually lived in. Fuller and his wife Anne moved here in 1960 when he joined the faculty at Southern Illinois University, and they lived in the dome until 1971. The structure was built using dome panels Fuller designed himself, assembled by students in a matter of days. It is now a National Historic Landmark.