I have always been a fan of this place, although location may play a large part of it.

www.ghostwood.org

Seems it would be hard to hang up a picture and have it look straight. Maybe if you grew up in a geodome, such things wouldn't matter.

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1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma

I can see the benefits of a dome structure but for me living in one would be the equivalent of driving this.

http://www.reedberry.com/wienermobile.html

A guy who runs a coffee shop there, an oldtimer, has lived there at least 20 - 25 years, told me that the plans came from some new graduate and he reckons the fellow never thought anyone would actually build it.

As I look it over in my memory, the scale was more like a volleyball balanced on a 3 or 4 inch diameter cup. I mean it's bad enough to have the downside of round walls and ceilings, but to have limited floor space as well, what's up with that?

I'm thinking the only way domes would work would be to have a series of connected ones, bedrooms would be a separate dome, etc. and that would not likely be too energy efficient.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Well, if an architect and a carpenter both think domes are no good as dwellings, then i think thats an indictment of the concept as unsatisfactory. Maybe they seemed like a better idea when everybody was doing acid . . .

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

I had a friend who's father is/was an engineer. He designed his own dome house. Not a single square wall in it! It was actually quite roomy inside and had a very comfortable feel to it.

I've always loved Spaceship Earth. It just re-opened in fact after going through a major rehab.

There's one on the south side of the intersection of State Roads 535 and 536 in Kissimmee FL, about 15 minutes SE of Disney...but it's fallen into disrepair as it hasn't had anyone or any business in it in several years. Last I heard it's been condemned due to extensive mold. Really a shame too.

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-James

'85 280GE...sold
'96 Impala SS ~ 6-speed 396
'14 Cadillac Vagon. . . . . . . . . . "Life without knowledge is death in disguise." - Hans-Peter Geerdes

I attended a lecture by Bucky at St. John's Cathedral in NYC in the early 70's during lunch hour when I worked for AP at Rockefeller Center.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

If the dome is big enough the spaces could work very nicely with the center one big open space.

Tom W

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Fuller and Henry Kaiser teamed up to build the Hawaiian Village Dome on the current grounds of the Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort. Do Ho performed under it for 10 years.

I visited the large geodesic in Montreal after it burned. It still had a lot of presence.

Tom W

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

If a dome is aesthetically pleasing to you then go for it. I'll stick to the traditional box.

Finishing inside one with walls and such is a very large pain though. Drywall for example is a B!tch. You are drywalling triangles that may be 4' on a side. Of course drywall comes in 4x 8 ,10,12,14,16 sheets (and now 56" wide too), anyway you are cutting one or two pieces from a sheet and throwing about half of it away.

After a short while of this type of thing you begin to realize the delicious effeciencies of conventional construction. The construction technics and materials are so dovetailed as to become a chicken and egg question as to which let to which.

In my designs I am always exploring what can be done that has a unique design appearance without deviating too far from conventional materials and techniques. You do, after all need to be able to find people to build things, and they will be equipped with normal tools that they can buy at the lumber yard. They also will want to know that they can buy the materials there too.

And that is just the ceiling. Any wall built to come up under a dome will have to meet the ceiling. There will be no nailers in the places you want them and the top plate will be a series of short pieces of 2x 4 cut tofit the ceiling form, not to mention each vertical stud will have to be cut to length and one end will have to be cut at an angle. Figuring ten times the labor for simple things is probably not out of line. Some things will be simple ....wiring for example probably won't be too bad. By too bad I mean probably not more than twice the normal amount of labor.

Insulation too, imagine cutting fiberglass to fit inside each triangle. And there will be no ventilation of the sheathing possible, so the shingles will heat up and not last as long as normal....metal roofing? you say? good luck.

Now when you go completely over board with something like building from straw bales or making walls with wine bottles laid in mortar, (or geodesic domes) you are completely on your own, figuring out how to do each and every thing with building materials that were designed for something completely different.

That is why some folks can spend their entire lives building a house.....not that there is anything wrong with that if that makes them happy. It just won't work for an Architect or builder who is needing to make a living.

Just take a look at the last 20 years or so of Antonio Gaudi's life, building the Sagrada Familia cathedral. (He died penniless after being hit by a street car and mistaken for a bum because of his disheveled appearance).

Tom W

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

I live in a traditional, box-like house and have been putting up crown moulding for some time now. I can assure you that most houses lack square, plumb walls, at least in the truest sense of the words!

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

Imagine that times one hundred.

Tom W

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

You must cope.

http://images.google.com/images?q=coping+saw&hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title