Buckminster Fuller's Fly's Eye Dome

The Miami Design District is so much fun to explore and there are exciting discoveries around every corner. Nestled in between high end stores like Christian Louboutin and Louis Vuitton are exciting pieces of public art. It is impossible to miss this large scale art piece holding court in the center of the Palms Court. The unusual name of this art piece comes from its creator Buckminster Fuller who was an architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, and futurist. In 1965 Fuller patented his design called the Fly's Eye Dome which he called "autonomous dwelling machines." The geodesic bubbles were comprised of a series of transparent domed windows across a fiberglass partial sphere. Fuller was a forerunner of the green living movement and he intended the domes to be affordable and portable housing for people in the future. He envisioned the openings to hold solar panels and water collection systems in some of its openings, making for a self-sufficient residence. Unfortunately Fuller passed away in 1983 after only three prototypes had made been handmade. In 2011 Craig Robbins, co-founder and co-owner of the Miami Design District, obtained one of Fuller's prototypes 24 foot prototypes and planned to use it for an element of the Design District. The Buckminter Fuller Design institute was commissioned to produce this 24 foot piece in 2014 and it is now on the ground floor of the Palm Court. They were able to create the dome with materials that were not available when Fuller was making them in 1970's. The inspiration for the shape was from the compound eye's of flies but it looks like a hamster ball to me. I get a futuristic vibe from it. The dome is surrounded by a fountain and you can actually go inside and there are stairs that take you down to parking. The Fly's Eye Dome is a favorite spot for Instagram photos and selfies.

Super cool location with surrounding restaurants and sleek architectural buildings. You have to visit here when in the design district. In 1965 Buckminster Fuller designed and patented the Fly's Eye Dome, which he called an "autonomous dwelling machine". Prototypes began to be built by hand in 1977, and by 1983 three of the fiberglass spheres in various sizes (12-foot, 24-foot, 50-foot) had been produced. Fuller died before he was able to realize his vision for the structure. However, almost 50 years later, the design, a Monohex variation of the geodesic dome, can clearly be seen as a forerunner of today's green building movement. In 2011, collector Craig Robins acquired the 24-foot prototype to exhibit it and use it as inspiration for a key element of the Miami Design District. The following year, The Buckminster Fuller Institute, in partnership with Goetz Composites, ConformLab, and DRDesign, began the development of a program to complete Fuller's vision, using advanced technologies and materials not available to Fuller in the 1970s. BFI was then commissioned to produce a Fly's Eye Dome utilizing state-of-the-art materials, intelligence, and techniques, to be prominently incorporated in the Miami Design District.