to 50 years, and results with the geodesic dome as the primary housing choice worldwide. World regions will continue to use standard locally available building materials for construction, but by applying dome design principles, will reduce building costs while sustaining the eco-structure.

Civilizations and cultures survive if they protect themselves from exposure. Many populations are identified by their shelter as much as their religious beliefs. Eskimos are known for igloos, migrant Asians have yurts, and American Indians are imbedded with nature in teepees. These designs were born from necessity, not the pages of Vogue. The simple reason is round shapes improve the size and strength of the enclosure. The technological age high performance equivalent is the geodesic dome. However, the majority of civilizations have cube shaped housing ingrained in their culture for over 7500 years, while the first dome home was built less than 50 years ago. As the momentum towards cubed housing design is immense, there is a housing revolution in its infancy, with green housing and geodesic domes gaining interest worldwide, but currently a sideshow at best. The most common reason people build cube shaped houses is complacency. The timing is right to overcome this inertia.

The dome answer to shelter embodies all of Buckminster Fuller’s principles. The most serious problems can be overcome with geodesics, as domes use the least material to protect lives, consume the least energy to maintain comfortable inside atmosphere, are the safest and strongest building for any extreme heat or cold, wind, snow load or earthquake, making the single greenest method of construction. RBF predicted a future of factory manufactured housing will replace site built homes, as factories control advantages of time management and skills, expenses, precision manufacturing and economies of scale. My ultimate objective is to bring manufactured structural elements of geodesic domes to the international housing industry. Dome frames can be finished at any location, to any level of comfort, adding local materials to complete construction. My manufactured system takes any uncertainty about spherical trigonometry and geodesics away from the builder, leaving a quick, simple, easy to build frame package. Internationally, the dome components can be assembled using basic color coding.

The public and media have embraced ‘Green’ as the new building catch phrase, but seldom do pundits address shape as an important factor, thereby missing the critical synergy of strength, efficiency and sustainability found in geodesic dome systems. A dome compared to a conventional cube building often requires half of the building materials and half the energy to maintain. For a third world shelter, a 20’ by 10’ home has 200 square feet of living area, and 920 square feet of outside wall and roof area. A dome with 200 square of floor area has only 450 square feet of outside surface, resulting in 50% savings of material and corollary 50% savings on heating and cooling. Intrinsic to its design, the dome is stronger and safer than the cube with no added cost.

The BFI Challenge Award will bring credence to the geodesic dome concept as a mainstream shelter by enabling progression in the six stage process listed below to shift people’s perceptions in housing:

1) Identify long term needs based goals, objectives, and solutions.
2) Design, refine products and produce manufacturing tooling to supply solutions.
3) Gain product exposure.
4) Educate markets, including general public, educational institutions and governments, on dome benefits.
5) Target specific international hot spots for building and engage development.
6) Complete market saturation.

1) Identify. Since 1900, 22 of the 24 greatest losses of human life from natural disasters were from earthquakes and temblors. Television and internet media coverage of natural disasters across the world whose resultant damages could have been mitigated with the building of tensional shelters has heightened awareness that today’s housing solutions are in need of change. The vast majority of these people died from crushing rubble as their homes were rattled apart. China had three earthquakes in the past century which killed over 200,000 people. In Balakot, Pakistan in 2005, 73,000 people died mostly from falling building debris during a 7.2 earthquake. Pakistan’s solution wasn’t to design and enforce safer housing, but to move rebuilding of the city 15 miles away from the fault.

2) Design. Natural disasters, energy costs, climate change issues and long term availability of building materials are factors driving the design function. Wood is the most common material for framed homes, but the greatest sports complexes and convention centers are steel reinforced domes. I have developed and received geodesic dome engineering certification for both moderate and extreme natural threats, with both steel and wood frame domes. The Storm Series Domes are a low cost solution for the majority of the world crisis areas. Extreme climate threats have been addressed with the Hurricane Series Dome Systems, which meet the most violent Miami-Dade, Florida hurricane building requirements and the extreme snow load conditions in Buffalo, NY. On 9-5-2007, Blair F. Wolfram was issued U.S. Patent Application #11/849,663 Connector for Geodesic Dome Structures for the hurricane wood frame domes.

3) Gain Exposure. I have built, sold or manufactured 425 domes, 125 of which are primary residences. While most of my domes are located in the United States including three in Alaska, I have domes in Kuwait and Anguilla in the British West Indies. I have also manufactured a dome for the University of Nebraska which was built in Greenland for a polar ice core drilling operation, and have another Greenland shipment scheduled for June 2008.

4) Educate. RBF created the geodesic dome, and had success bringing its benefits to recognition through many fronts, including widespread University student involvement in development and construction. I’ve been teaching Dome School since 1982. Dome School is a one day seminar designed to educate participants on techniques and advantages of dome systems. Students range from the raw material scratch builder to licensed general contractors. The 2007 Dome School Book is an evolving 200 page document, and includes chapters on Dome Identity, Dome Engineering and Math, Hurricanes, Construction Details, and over 70 pages of floor plan designs. The next Dome School event is November 17, 2007 at the Tampa, Florida Convention Center. I am scheduling another Dome School in Pensacola, FL in April 2008, and have been approached by the Green Society for a December school to benefit the recent California fire victims.

The BFI Challenge Award will allow me to expand the schools and ultimately complete the final two stages of the dome shelter paradigm shift. Education is the most efficient means to produce change in housing perceptions, whose concepts ideally will start in elementary school. The BFI Challenge Award will be used to expand more Dome School education programs for younger ages, increase exposure to government agencies through lobbying, participate in industry trade associations, and establish a stronger internet presence.

We will also seek government participation in coordinating and building dome communities. RBF predicted acceptance of the dome would be embraced if they were built for the affluent. He observed if societies’ famous endorsed a product, the masses would desire it. Whether a dome has a hard packed earthen floor or $100 per yard carpet, the structural integrity of the system isn’t compromised.

I am financing my dome development with sales of dome products for commercial and residential use. The most profitable dome has been for homes, while screen houses and jungle gyms have proven to be popular for recreation. I will continue to market geodesic products to generate cash flow and develop market share. I am working with Douglas Ramler of the Minneapolis law firm Gray Plant Mooty on a $10,000,000 business plan to be submitted for angel investment. Our objective is to assemble a diversified team of professionals, build an efficient dome manufacturing facility, offer several speculative properties, and develop a 40 acre residential dome community.

In summary, providing the safest and most energy efficient shelter requires a shift in people’s perceptions of mainstream housing design. The BFI Challenge Award will allow me to accomplish my remaining objectives primarily by focusing on education as the trimtab to alter first the understanding, then the course of current housing forms by applying geodesic dome design principles. I will be able to accelerate educational events with Dome Schools for the public, Universities, schools, industry trade associations, government agencies, and internet websites. I will continue to fund my operation through sales of manufactured dome components, and pursue significant financing through a private equity firm, with a goal of my corporation becoming a publicly traded entity in 2015.