What the summary leaves out is that only two prototypes were ever built. Fuller couldn’t raise the needed capital to fund production. Fuller was a visionary, but lacked the mindset needed to control costs on a complex project.

A decade or so later, Joe Eichler built a number of suburban housing tracts in California, with houses of similar square footage, based on a rectangular-donut design including a central atrium, using low-cost construction techniques. They were affordable and (with the exception of having almost-flat roofs) well-designed. They were less innovative than Fuller’s house, but actually got built and sold. There are still neighborhoods of Eichlers, most notably in San Jose, Palo Alto and Marin County.