Biosphere ( French Montreal Biosphère ) is a museum in Montreal , Quebec , Canada , owned by the Department of the Environment of Canada and dedicated to the environment and water . Located in the park of Jean Drapo on St. Helena in the middle of the St. Lawrence River .
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The museum is housed in the building of the former American pavilion at the World Expo-67 exhibition, was created by American engineer and architect Richard Buckminster Fuller and is one of the most famous geodesic domes that brought Fuller worldwide fame.
Building
The outer shell of the building of the Montreal Biosphere was built in 1967 by the project of Richard Buckminster Fuller and is a geodesic dome 76 meters in diameter and 62 meters high, built of steel rods. The building was created as the US pavilion for the 1967 World's Fair and was later transferred to the ownership of the city of Montreal. According to the original design, the structure was coated externally with a transparent acrylic film. This coating was destroyed during the fire in 1976, and it was decided not to restore it.
The image of the construction of the Biosphere is often used to illustrate the structure of fullerene molecules, allotropic modifications of carbon ; they got their name in honor of Richard Buckminster Fuller, whose "calling card" were structures of this shape.
Museum
In 1990, the Department of the Environment of Canada entered into an agreement with the City Hall of Montreal, according to which this government organization received the right to use the Biosphere design to create a museum dedicated primarily to the St. Lawrence River ecosystem . Over the next years, museum premises were erected inside the dome, and on June 5, 1995, the Biosphere Museum was officially opened, which became the country's first museum dedicated to the aquatic ecosystem.
The main goal of the museum’s functioning is to popularize the ideas of economical use of water resources, combating climate change and ensuring the renewability of natural resources.
Link
- Museum Official Site (English) (French)