Geodesic Domes

[iwrock]

Does anyone here live in one?




Been in one? Is it cool? Odd?


I want to know.

[Mistress]

Ah the delights of Buckminster Fuller. I used to go to the Seaqarium in Miami where they had one. It was pretty neat to sit under that dome.

[Dee8go]

Better than a pyramid? They have special healing powers!

[Chad300tdt]

My parents and my wife's parents both looked into getting geodesic dome homes. They are economical in the right setting but take getting used to. Everything is designed for square rooms with vertical walls. It's tough to get ready made things to furnish one. Maybe there are better products available nowadays. This was about 18 years ago.

I have recently been interested in homes built using alternative materials or modular construction. Some cool options would require moving out of my area. It seems that anything outside the cookie cutter development style home doesn't go well in more populated areas.

I was also in the "Spaceship Earth" dome in Epcot.

[Dee8go]

I used to think it woul dbe fun to live in one. Did you ever used to read The Whole Earth Catalog? There were lots of alternative forms of housing described in there.

[Botnst]

Ever read Robert A. Heinlein's classic short story, “—And He Built a Crooked House”?

[Dee8go]

No, I never read any of his books or stories, surprisingly. I used to love SF, but never read any of his.

[Chad300tdt]

Originally Posted by Botnst

Ever read Robert A. Heinlein's classic short story, “—And He Built a Crooked House”?

I just read it online. That was an enjoyable story. Thanks for the tip.

[300EVIL]

http://www.county.milwaukee.gov/MitchellParkConserva10116.htm

I've been to "The Domes" here in Milwaukee. One is a desert, one is a tropical rainforest and the other one looks like a set from Wizard of OZ. It's neat because they stay that way all year. Imagine being in a desert with a foot of snow on the ground just outside.

[t walgamuth]

I was hired to figure out how to support a balcony in one built for the purpose of holding meetings for Amway or such.


They are like a lot of kit homes, by the time you finish them out they are not any cheaper than conventional construction and they are very very tricky to subdivide. Avoiding unusable space is tough if trying to create a house from one.

They are cool looking though and make great covers for large things in which round is a good shape, like storing salt!

There is a double or triple dome here that a doctor built. He designed it himself and finished it out with some very nice Architectural artifacts such as doors, fireplaces, etc. When he moved away about three years ago he put it on the market. It still is for sale. He spent a barrell of money on it and is asking a very low by comparison price for it.

I once saw Bucky lecture in person at Kent state and spent the night in an air supported structure, back in my college days, trying to get a young girl (about my age at the time) to do things with me, that she really should not have done, (and she didn't). Bucky was a very good, inspiring speaker.

I think it was before the students were shot there.

Tom W

[Chad300tdt]

I think the Geodesic home would be eaiser to get used to than driving the Dymaxion Car that Fuller designed.

I read that the 1933 Ford and the Dymaxion car used the same drive train and engine. I think it looks like a "wienermobile" or part of a plane.

[Whiskeydan]

Tab's (my better half) parents built the 3200sq ft dome they currently live in.
Acoustics are really weird inside as there is an obvious focal point just outside the upstairs guest bedroom.

Looks like a roofers nightmare.

Really odd, dated structure in my opinion.

[R Leo]

Heard Bucky lecture once in the late '70s right here in rivercity. But, to me, domes seem like a gin-yoo-wine PITA to do anything with other than house a radar antenna or a biosphere..

[cmac2012]

Originally Posted by Whiskeydan

Tab's (my better half) parents built the 3200sq ft dome they currently live in.
Acoustics are really weird inside as there is an obvious focal point just outside the upstairs guest bedroom.

Looks like a roofers nightmare.

Really odd, dated structure in my opinion.

Even back in the Whole Earth Catalog days, people were saying they were a major PITA to roof. I can imagine they have their uses but housing is not one that jumps to mind.

A Hot Springs resort I used to live and work at, Harbin Hot Springs, north of Napa, built a center for the massage school there, or rather the massage school built it, and it was a disaster.



Ended up costing over $5 million (?!?) and was not too efficient in the floor space dept. I went up to have a look see during construction (I had moved away maybe 4 years before) and I could hardly believe the assininity of it. Imagine a volleyball balanced on a large teacup, say 5 inches in diameter. That was how they were building the damn thing. It would have made much more sense to drop a vertical line to the ground from the mid point of each dome but for some reason, they were fixed on making them near spherical. The end result looks like the method I describe but underneath that has to be some serious space wastage, or odd ball store rooms, at any rate.

The massage school eventually had to let go of the buildings, Harbin is using them for guest rooms now, and the school is up for sale. The founder of the school, Harold Dull, is a serious trip, has some notoriety for devising the water massage known as "Watsu" -- his term, but he obviously has no sense when it comes to architecture.

[t walgamuth]

Yipes!

We were taught in school that such things weren't design.

Things like "I think I will design a house that looks like a snowflake" or "a hot dog" or whatever.

Proper design starts with a list of desired functions and the site...and goes from there.

Tom W