Among the fundamental building blocks of architecture – the cube, pyramid, arch and so on – one shape is unique. The dome has no straight lines, edges, angels or flat surfaces. But this form is also supremely functional: the geometry of domes is such that they enclose the greatest space within the least surface are of any possible design. Once reserved for houses of God, domes have inspired architects and congregations for 2,000 years, crowning temples, churches, synagogues and mosques throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

One of the first builders to realize the power of the dome was the Roman general Agrippa, whose Pantheon was a magnificent temple dedicated to all of Rome’s gods. Rebuilt by the Emperor Hadrian in AD 118, the Pantheon is topped by an oculus or eye, which projects a dramatic shaft of sunlight onto the floor, sweeping across the interior like a slowly moving spotlight throughout the day.

Renaissance genius Filippo Brunelleschi, who spent much of his life working on the dome of Florence’s Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, restored the dome to prominence. “Il Duomo” sparked a revival of the form, influencing Andrea Palladio, Christopher Wren, and Thomas Jefferson.

Five centuries later, a renaissance man of a different sort, polymath inventor R. Buckminster Fuller, took the ancient shape into a new era with his geodesic dome, an elegant honeycomb of pyramids with there upright sides forming a hemisphere. Inexpensive, easy to erect and so lightweight they often do not need a foundation, geodesic domes offer the greatest strength-to-weight ratio of any architectural form.