Montreal Biosphere
Buckminster Fuller + Shoji Sadao · Montréal, Canada · 1967
Built as the United States pavilion for Expo 67, the Montréal Biosphere is a giant geodesic dome developed by Buckminster Fuller and Shoji Sadao. A triangulated steel space frame forms a near-spherical enclosure whose original transparent skin created a controlled interior climate. Although the acrylic membrane was lost to fire in 1976, the exposed structural lattice survived and later became the defining architecture of the environmental museum. The building remains one of the clearest large-scale demonstrations of Fuller’s geodesic principles.