American, architect, engineer, mathematician, poet, cosmologist, and innovator Richard Buckminster Fuller offered to the Humanity his great concept and practical implementation of a geodesic dome in 1940s. But this American genius never suspected that his invaluable invention can literally save the World Civilization. And this statement is not an exaggeration.
Geodesic Dome
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Geodesic Dome - Shelter Against Terrorist Attacks with
Conventional Weapons and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Concept by Boris Tiraspolsky in cooperation with Louis Pokorny
Introduction
Historical formation of modern Towns and expanded out of them Cities is based on a concept of a better security for a population. Old Europe being a Historic Stage of incessant wars during the last millennium developed an architectural design of a Town being surrounded by a few rows of high walls with towers. It is called a "town-fortress". The general structure of all old European Towns still reflects the needs for security of population looking for protection against the "evil" forces of invasion in the past.
All these "watch towers", "east", "west", "south" and "north walls", "canals", "bridges", all divisions on "downtown", "midtown" and "uptown", along with narrow passages of streets are live rudiments of fortifications of a "town-fortress" in the past. There is another typical detail in the design of a historic part of a European Town: every house was always built as a small "fortress" of its own. And every house in a Town was a small "castle".
The paramount concept of security in a Town was always a Castle of the Sovereign. The very best location for a Castle of the Sovereign was on a high hill or a cliff. It was a separate impregnable fortress with the highest walls in a Town, independent supply of provision and additional shelter for people. A Castle of Sovereign had secret passages for an escape of survivors in case "of worst case scenario": the Town would be conquered by invaders.
The concept of a "town-fortress" is one of the most important and successful political, economic, social and cultural developments of our Civilization. Without a "town-fortress" we would have not ever seen the great arts of ancient Greece and Rome. Without a "town-forces" we would have never experienced the beauty and Spirit of Medieval and Renaissance. Without a "town-fortress" we would have not had development of our Universities, many of our Trades and Arts, and especially Performing Arts. Without a "town-fortress" a majority of European Nations would have never been united as Nations. Without a "town-fortress" the History of our Civilization could have literally ceased to exist a long time ago.
The History of the United States has been a History of a "natural fortress". The United States have been always reliably protected with the "walls" of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. We, Americans, were fortunate! We always have felt secure and not regarded to "town-fortresses" for our own population on our own soil. Alas! This infant time of a "natural fortress" is over!
In the beginning of the 21 century we, Americans, have become as vulnerable as the European population before development of a concept of "town-fortress". The only difference is that our whole Country is under attack, and every Town and City is a target for a Weapon of Mass Destruction. Moreover, our Enemy is not interested in anything smaller then a total annihilation of our population.
An extreme situation of the War on Terrorism demands to take extraordinary and unprecedented steps in protecting our Country and in particular, our Towns and Cities with a high density population. We must turn each and every Town and City in the United States into an impregnable "town-fortress" in order to save ourselves, our Civilization, and the "Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity".
Using the architectural design of a geodesic dome that would enclose our Towns in a controlled environment, and utilizing geodesic domes as a network of both ground and underground bomb shelters against the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) seems to be the only possible way to save our cultural and technological treasures, historic sites, and most important, high density, populated urban areas against the barbaric forces of Terrorism. A large sized geodesic dome developed by the genius mind of Richard Buckminster Fuller is a Savior of modern Towns and Cities.
Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983)
Architectural Design of a Geodesic Dome by Richard Buckminster Fuller
"R. Buckminster Fuller spent much of the early 20th Century looking for ways to improve human shelter by:
• Applying modern technological know-how to shelter construction.
• Making shelter more comfortable and efficient.
• Making shelter more economically available to a greater number of people."
"Buckminster Fuller’s efforts focused on the problem of how to build a shelter which is so lightweight, it can be delivered by air. Shelter should be mobile which would require great breakthroughs in the weight-reduction of the materials. Technology would have to follow nature’s design as seen by the spider’s web which can float in a hurricane because of its high strength-to-weight ratio. New shelter would have to be designed that incorporates these principles and that was Fuller’s intent."
Geodesic Dome Structure
"One of the ways Buckminster Fuller would describe the differences in strength between a rectangle and a triangle would be to apply pressure to both structures. The rectangle would fold up and be unstable but the triangle withstands the pressure and is much more rigid–in fact the triangle is twice as strong. This principle directed his studies toward creating a new architectural design, the geodesic dome, based also upon his idea of "doing more with less." Buckminster Fuller discovered that if a spherical structure was created from triangles, it would have unparalleled strength. The sphere uses the "doing more with less" principle in that it encloses the largest volume of interior space with the least amount of surface area thus saving on materials and cost. Fuller reintroduced the idea that when the sphere’s diameter is doubled it will quadruple its square footage and produce eight times the volume.
The spherical structure of a dome is one of the most efficient interior atmospheres for human dwellings because air and energy are allowed to circulate without obstruction. This enables heating and cooling to occur naturally. Geodesic shelters have been built all around the world in different climates and temperatures and still they have been proven to be the most efficient human shelter one can find."
Later in the 1970s Richard Buckminster Fuller documented the feasibility of a geodesic dome two miles in diameter that would enclose mid-town Manhattan in a temperature-controlled environment, and pay for itself within ten years from the savings of snow-removal costs alone.This extraordinary futuristic project never came to fruition. However, even Buckminster Fuller could not imagine that due to an unparalleled strength, efficiency and the relatively low cost of geodesic domes they could be utilized as Bomb Shelters against the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD): nuclear, biological, chemical, both as ground and underground units. Richard Buckminster Fuller would have been very surprised to learn that his great architectural discovery of the geodesic dome is capable of saving millions of lives and may save our Civilization in the 21st century.
