The most mundane things that you use every day (think post it notes, rubber bands, concrete) often have fascinating stories behind them.
In fact, people often only notice how something's designed when it goes wrong. But the process of discovery, testing and prototyping anything, no matter how ordinary, is full of pitfalls and the occasional exhilarating breakthrough.
R. Buckminster Fuller
Born in July 1895, Richard Buckminster Fuller was one of the world's first environmental activists. He came to the conclusion that humanity was using the Earth's resources faster than they were being replaced and coined the term 'ephemeralization', meaning to do more with less.
An avid scientist, he studied the natural world's structures. This led him to design his most famous work, the geodesic dome, a spherical structure built of interlocking hexagons. Thanks to the way the hexagons fitted together, the resulting structure was both lightweight and self-supporting. A steel frame provided tensional strength while a windowpane maintained the cell's structural integrity while letting light through. A geodesic dome housed the US World Expo pavilion in Montreal in 1967 and was 76m in diameter and 62m high. It still stands today, home to the Biosphere of Environment Canada.
Concorde