A new collaborative project between the Catholic University of America and the National Museum of American History will offer architecture students the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to repair and reconstruct one of Buckminster Fuller’s famed geodesic domes in the hopes of presenting such structures as a viable resilience tool to be used by designers in the ongoing fight against climate change. 

Beginning in early July, a group of students from the school’s undergrad and graduate programs will work together on the reconstruction of the more than 70-year-old The Weatherbreak design created by Fuller protégé Jeffrey Lindsay in the museum’s Flag Hall.

Under the guidance of assistant professor Tonya Ohnstad, lead fabricator Lorenzo Cardim DeAlmeida, and museum curator Abeer Saha, the group will explore its potential usage as affordable, resilient housing. This is the first time the structure will be displayed to the public since entering the museum’s collection and represents the first time that the institution has invited students to work with what is an essential historic object.

Ohnstad said: “Working with iconic American objects like Weatherbreak is an honor, to bring it back to life in three dimensions so the public can understand its scale, and the space it creates is humbling. Accessing this piece of history as a learning tool for students is a premier learning experience.”

Saha added: “This project has the potential to convey that historical artifacts can inform our search for sustainable solutions in an age of climate change. Weatherbreak represents a visionary approach to building quick, affordable and sustainable shelters; one worth revisiting at a time when more than 24 million people are displaced by extreme weather events worldwide each year.”

The structure will be assembled using its original struts and new pieces from the same aluminum alloy as the original. Students inherited a rather sparse assembly guide that only detailed the 16 different strut lengths in a color-coded single page. New York-based Architectural Systems, Inc. is now fabricating the missing pieces for assembly following the careful work students did to decode its structural design. 

The museum says faculty and students from Washington University in St. Louis will also join the project, led by Professor Wyly Brown. A test build will be conducted on April 24th and 25th in the capital. More information about the project is available via Catholic University's news page.