What We Did

Curated within the landscape of Crystal Bridges Museum, the dramatic 50-foot Fly’s Eye Dome—one of only three original prototypes by Buckminster Fuller—was painstakingly restored and installed on the museum’s North Lawn. Conceived in the 1960s as a lightweight, portable, self-sufficient dwelling machine, the dome’s sculptural fiberglass form, patterned with 61 circular “oculi,” captures both aesthetic audacity and functional ingenuity.

What It Matters

More than sculpture, the dome stands as a living testament to Fuller’s ethos of doing more with less. Designed with built-in systems for solar and water collection, the Fly’s Eye represents a radical shift toward autonomous, resource-efficient housing—a model that anticipated and challenges today’s sustainability conversations. Positioned amid nature and paired in spirit with Wright’s Bachman-Wilson House, it invites visitors to experience architecture as ecological vision, not just design.