Richard Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller was a famous inventor, architect, designer, philosopher, and visionary who forever altered the course of design and construction with his forward-thinking ideas. Fuller was an innovator in many ways; from the geodesic dome he first built to his vision of "Spaceship Earth," he advocated for sustainability and efficiency long before it was cool to do so.

Fuller's early life and curiosity with design and invention began in Massachusetts, where he was born in 1895. His journey to architectural innovation, however, was not a smooth one. He spent several years bouncing from job to job after being expelled twice from Harvard University and then had a personal crisis that made him consider death. Instead of doing nothing, he set out on "an experiment, to find what a single individual [could] contribute to changing the world and benefiting all humanity."

In the 1940s, Fuller became famous for developing the Dymaxion House, a low-cost, high-efficiency, and environmentally friendly design for a home. The Dymaxion Car, an aerodynamic vehicle optimized for speed and efficiency, was invented by him later.

The geodesic dome, however, is what ultimately made Fuller famous. In the 1950s, he came up with this versatile, inexpensive, and long-lasting design that could cover enormous areas without the need for internal supports. His huge geodesic dome for the United States Pavilion at the 1967 Expo in Montreal is still widely regarded as a masterpiece.

Fuller's innovative work was recognized with a number of awards and accolades. Among these were the American Institute of Architects' Gold Medal in 1970 and President Ronald Reagan's Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983.

Fuller passed away in 1983, but his influence lives on in the work of architects, designers, and intellectuals all over the globe. In this time of climate change, his futuristic views on environmental design and sustainability, encapsulated in the notion of "Spaceship Earth," are more important than ever.