Fly's Eye Dome, Miami

Buckminster Fuller imagined a portable home that could generate its own power and collect its own water. In Miami's Design District, a 2014 edition of his Fly's Eye Dome stands over the stair to a car park, according to the district's public-art listing. Fuller designed and patented the dome in 1965 and called it an "autonomous dwelling machine", Dezeen reported in 2014, seeing it as a prototype for low-cost portable housing. Dezeen describes transparent domed windows across a fibreglass partial sphere, with some openings meant to hold solar panels and water-collection systems. According to the Miami Design District, prototypes were built by hand from 1977 and by 1983 three had been made, of 12, 24 and 50 feet.

Developer Craig Robins acquired the 24-foot prototype in 2011. The Buckminster Fuller Institute says it was commissioned about twelve months before its December 2014 unveiling (Dezeen places the commission in 2012) to build a new edition. DRDesign, Conform Labs and Goetz Composites made a 3D parametric model from the original parts, cut tooling on a five-axis CNC machine and engineered the composite parts to the Miami-Dade County Building Code, including hurricane durability. The dome visitors see is therefore a 2014 edition of the design, not Fuller's own prototype. Dezeen notes a redesigned lower truncation and a new joining system to prevent water penetration.