Bubble office building, 1958.

This bubble office building was made of transparent plastic and was held up by pressure created from a small fan and kept aloft by airlock doors. Electricity bills are lowered by natural lighting, which was probably a little too effective. The sail like object is an umbrella, used to shade the staff as they toil.

Actually, this is not quite as silly as it looks. The dome was designed and built by the G.T. Schjeldahl Company which sold these "Schjeldomes" to be used as swimming pool covers, storage buildings and the like. It was also the basis of their design for research balloons, and the company was hired by NASA in the early 1960s to build satellite structures and supports made from a similar product. Early satellites, such as Echo 1 were entirely designed for NASA by G.T. Schjeldahl. http://www.nasm.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?id=A20030090000 . the Company is still operating today in Minnesota, employing around a thousand people. Their offices have roofs.