Geodesic dome

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The Montreal Biosphère, formerly the American

Pavilion of Expo 67, by R. Buckminster Fuller, on Île
Sainte-Hélène, Montreal, Quebec
A geodesic dome is a hemispherical thin-
shell structure (lattice-shell) based on a
geodesic polyhedron. The triangular
elements of the dome are structurally
rigid and distribute the structural stress
throughout the structure, making
geodesic domes able to withstand very
heavy loads for their size.

History

Spaceship Earth at Epcot.

The Climatron greenhouse at Missouri Botanical
Gardens, built in 1960 and designed by Thomas C.
Howard of Synergetics, Inc., inspired the domes in
the science fiction movie Silent Running

The first dome that could be called

"geodesic" in every respect was designed
after World War I by Walther
Bauersfeld,[1] chief engineer of the Carl
Zeiss optical company, for a planetarium
to house his planetarium projector. A
first, small dome was patented,
constructed by the firm of Dykerhoff and
Wydmann on the roof of the Zeiss plant
in Jena, Germany. A larger dome, called
"The Wonder of Jena", opened to the
public in July 1926.[2] Some 20 years
later, R. Buckminster Fuller named the
dome "geodesic" from field experiments
with artist Kenneth Snelson at Black
Mountain College in 1948 and 1949.
Although Fuller was not the original
inventor, he is credited with the U.S.
popularization of the idea for which he
received U.S. Patent 2,682,235A on 29
June 1954.[3] The oldest surviving dome
built by Fuller himself is located in
Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and was
built by students under his tutelage over
3 weeks in 1953. [4]
The geodesic dome appealed to Fuller
because it was extremely strong for its
weight, its "omnitriangulated" surface
provided an inherently stable structure,
and because a sphere encloses the
greatest volume for the least surface
area.

The dome was successfully adopted for

specialized uses, such as the 21 Distant
Early Warning Line domes built in Canada
in 1956,[5] the 1958 Union Tank Car
Company dome near Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, designed by Thomas C.
Howard of Synergetics, Inc. and specialty
buildings such as the Kaiser Aluminum
domes (constructed in numerous
locations across the US, e.g., Virginia
Beach, Virginia), auditoriums, weather
observatories, and storage facilities. The
dome was soon breaking records for
covered surface, enclosed volume, and
construction speed.

Beginning in 1954, the U.S. Marines

experimented with helicopter-deliverable
geodesic domes. A 30-foot wood and
plastic geodesic dome was lifted and
carried by helicopter at 50 knots without
damage, leading to the manufacture of a
standard magnesium dome by
Magnesium Products of Milwaukee.
Tests included assembly practices in
which previously untrained Marines were
able to assemble a 30-foot magnesium
dome in 135 minutes, helicopter lifts off
aircraft carriers, and a durability test in
which an anchored dome successfully
withstood without damage, a day-long
120 mph (190 km/h) propeller blast from
the twin 3,000 horsepower engines of an
anchored airplane.[6]

The 1958 Gold Dome in Oklahoma City,

Oklahoma, utilized Fuller's design for use
as a bank building. Another early
example was the Stepan Center at the
University of Notre Dame, built in 1962.[7]

The dome was introduced to a wider

audience as a pavilion for the 1964
World's Fair in New York City designed by
Thomas C. Howard of Synergetics, Inc.
This dome is now used as an aviary by
the Queens Zoo in Flushing Meadows
Corona Park after it was redesigned by
TC Howard of Synergetics, Inc.

Another dome is from Expo 67 at the

Montreal World's Fair, where it was part
of the American Pavilion. The structure's
covering later burned, but the structure
itself still stands and, under the name
Biosphère, currently houses an
interpretive museum about the Saint
Lawrence River.

In the 1970s, Zomeworks licensed plans

for structures based on other geometric
solids, such as the Johnson solids,
Archimedean solids, and Catalan
solids.[8] These structures may have
some faces that are not triangular, being
squares or other polygons.

In 1975, a dome was constructed at the

South Pole, where its resistance to snow
and wind loads is important.

On October 1, 1982, one of the most

famous geodesic domes, Spaceship
Earth at Epcot in Walt Disney World
Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, just outside
of Orlando, Florida, opened. The building
and the ride inside of it are named with
one of Buckminster Fuller's famous
terms, Spaceship Earth, a world view
expressing concern over the use of
limited resources available on Earth and
encouraging everyone on it to act as a
harmonious crew working toward the
greater good. The building is Epcot's
icon, and is also included in the park's
logo.

In 2000, the world's first fully sustainable

geodesic dome hotel, EcoCamp
Patagonia, was built in Chilean
Patagonia[9], opening the following year
in 2001. The hotel's dome design is key
to resisting the region's strong winds and
is based on the dwellings of the
indigenous Kaweskar people. Geodomes
are also becoming popular as a glamping
(glamorous camping) unit. The first site
in the UK to use them was Ekopod in
North Cornwall in 2009.

Methods of construction

Long Island Green Dome

Wooden domes have a hole drilled in the

width of a strut. A stainless steel band
locks the strut's hole to a steel pipe. With
this method, the struts may be cut to the
exact length needed. Triangles of exterior
plywood are then nailed to the struts. The
dome is wrapped from the bottom to the
top with several stapled layers of tar
paper, to shed water, and finished with
shingles. This type of dome is often
called a hub-and-strut dome because of
the use of steel hubs to tie the struts
together.

Panelized domes are constructed of

separately framed timbers covered in
plywood. The three members comprising
the triangular frame are often cut at
compound angles to provide for a flat
fitting of the various triangles. Holes are
drilled through the members at precise
locations and steel bolts then connect
the triangles to form the dome. These
members are often 2x4s or 2x6s, which
allow for more insulation to fit within the
triangle. The panelized technique allows
the builder to attach the plywood skin to
the triangles while safely working on the
ground or in a comfortable shop out of
the weather. This method does not
require expensive steel hubs.

Temporary greenhouse domes have been

constructed by stapling plastic sheeting
onto a dome constructed from one-inch
square beams. The result is warm,
movable by hand in sizes less than 20
feet, and cheap. It should be staked to
the ground to prevent it being moved by
wind.
Steel framework can be easily
constructed of electrical conduit. One
flattens the end of a strut and drills bolt
holes at the needed length. A single bolt
secures a vertex of struts. The nuts are
usually set with removable locking
compound, or if the dome is portable,
have a castellated nut with a cotter pin.
This is the standard way to construct
domes for jungle gyms.

Domes can also be constructed with a

lightweight aluminium framework which
can either be bolted or welded together
or can be connected with a more flexible
nodel point/hub connection. These
domes are usually clad with glass which
is held in place with a PVC coping. The
coping can be sealed with silicone to
make it water tight. Some designs also
allow for double glazing or insulated
panels to be fixed in the framework. This
allows a fully habitable building to be
formed.

Concrete and foam-plastic domes

generally start with a steel framework
dome, wrapped with chicken wire and
wire screen for reinforcement. The
chicken wire and screen are tied to the
framework with wire ties. A coat of
material is then sprayed or molded onto
the frame. Tests should be performed
with small squares to achieve the correct
consistency of concrete or plastic.
Generally, several coats are necessary on
the inside and outside. The last step is to
saturate concrete or polyester domes
with a thin layer of epoxy compound to
shed water.

Some concrete domes have been

constructed from prefabricated,
prestressed, steel-reinforced concrete
panels that can be bolted into place. The
bolts are within raised receptacles
covered with little concrete caps to shed
water. The triangles overlap to shed
water. The triangles in this method can
be molded in forms patterned in sand
with wooden patterns, but the concrete
triangles are usually so heavy that they
must be placed with a crane. This
construction is well-suited to domes
because no place allows water to pool on
the concrete and leak through. The metal
fasteners, joints, and internal steel
frames remain dry, preventing frost and
corrosion damage. The concrete resists
sun and weathering. Some form of
internal flashing or caulking must be
placed over the joints to prevent drafts.
The 1963 Cinerama Dome was built from
precast concrete hexagons and
pentagons.

Given the complicated geometry of the

geodesic dome, dome builders rely on
tables of strut lengths, or "chord factors".
In Geodesic Math and How to Use It, Hugh
Kenner writes, "Tables of chord factors,
containing as they do the essential
design information for spherical
systems, were for many years guarded
like military secrets. As late as 1966,
some 3ν icosa figures from Popular
Science Monthly were all anyone outside
the circle of Fuller licensees had to go
on." (page 57, 1976 edition). Other tables
became available with publication of
Lloyd Kahn's Domebook 1 (1970) and
Domebook 2 (1971).

Dome homes
Fuller hoped that the geodesic dome
would help address the postwar housing
crisis. This was consistent with his prior
hopes for both versions of the Dymaxion
House.

Residential geodesic domes have been

less successful than those used for
working and/or entertainment, largely
because of their complexity and
consequent greater construction costs.
Professional experienced dome
contractors, while hard to find, do exist,
and can eliminate much of the cost
overruns associated with false starts and
incorrect estimates. Fuller himself lived
in a geodesic dome in Carbondale,
Illinois, at the corner of Forest Ave and
Cherry St.[10] Fuller thought of residential
domes as air-deliverable products
manufactured by an aerospace-like
industry. Fuller's own dome home still
exists, the R. Buckminster Fuller and
Anne Hewlett Dome Home, and a group
called RBF Dome NFP is attempting to
restore the dome and have it registered
as a National Historic Landmark. It is on
the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1986, a patent for a dome construction

technique involving polystyrene triangles
laminated to reinforced concrete on the
outside, and wallboard on the inside was
awarded to American Ingenuity of
Rockledge, Florida. The construction
technique allows the domes to be
prefabricated in kit form and erected by a
homeowner. This method makes the
seams into the strongest part of the
structure, where the seams and
especially the hubs in most wooden-
framed domes are the weakest point in
the structure. It also has the advantage
of being watertight.

Habitable aluminium-frame geodesic

dome homes are emerging in Norway
and Austria. In 2012, an aluminium and
glass dome was used as a dome cover to
an eco home in Norway[11] and in 2013 a
glass and wood clad dome home was
built in Austria.[12]

In Chile, examples of geodesic domes

are being readily adopted for hotel
accommodations either as tented style
geodesic domes or glass-covered
domes. Examples: EcoCamp Patagonia,
Chile;[13] and Elqui Domos, Chile.[14]

Disadvantages

Buckminster Fuller's own home, undergoing

restoration after deterioration
Although dome homes enjoyed a wave of
popularity in the late 1960s and early
1970s, as a housing system, the dome
has many disadvantages and problems.
A former proponent of dome homes,
Lloyd Kahn, who wrote two books about
them (Domebook 1 and Domebook 2) and
founded Shelter Publications, became
disillusioned with them, calling them
"smart but not wise". He noted the
following disadvantages, which he has
listed on his company's website: Off-the-
shelf building materials (e.g., plywood,
strand board) normally come in
rectangular shapes, therefore some
material may have to be scrapped after
cutting rectangles down to triangles,
increasing the cost of construction. Fire
escapes are problematic; codes require
them for larger structures, and they are
expensive. Windows conforming to code
can cost anywhere from five to fifteen
times as much as windows in
conventional houses. Professional
electrical wiring costs more because of
increased labor time. Even owner-wired
situations are costly, because more of
certain materials are required for dome
construction. Expansion and partitioning
is also difficult. Kahn notes that domes
are difficult if not impossible to build with
natural materials, generally requiring
plastics, etc., which are polluting and
deteriorate in sunlight.

Air stratification and moisture

distribution within a dome are unusual.
The conditions tend to quickly degrade
wooden framing or interior paneling. A
company called New Age Construction in
Alabama claims that an addition of a
cupola eliminates the moisture
condensation that is common in domes.

Privacy is difficult to guarantee because

a dome is difficult to partition
satisfactorily. Sounds, smells, and even
reflected light tend to be conveyed
through the entire structure (but in some
cases this can be used to advantage).
As with any curved shape, the dome
produces wall areas that can be difficult
to use and leaves some peripheral floor
area with restricted use due to lack of
headroom. Circular plan shapes lack the
simple modularity provided by
rectangles. Furnishers and fitters design
with flat surfaces in mind. Placing a
standard sofa against an exterior wall
(for example) results in a crescent
behind the sofa being wasted.

Dome builders using cut-board sheathing

material (common in the 1960s and
1970s) find it hard to seal domes against
rain, because of their many seams. Also,
these seams may be stressed because
ordinary solar heat flexes the entire
structure each day as the sun moves
across the sky. Subsequent addition of
straps and interior flexible drywall
finishes has virtually eliminated this
movement being noticed in the interior
finishes.

The most effective waterproofing

method with a wooden dome is to
shingle the dome. Peaked caps at the top
of the dome, or to modify the dome
shapes are used where slope is
insufficient for ice barrier. One-piece
reinforced concrete or plastic domes are
also in use, and some domes have been
constructed from plastic or waxed
cardboard triangles that are overlapped
in such a way as to shed water.

Buckminster Fuller's former student J.

Baldwin insists that no reason exists for
a properly designed, well-constructed
dome to leak, and that some designs
'cannot' leak.[15]

Related patterns
The building of very strong, stable
structures out of patterns of reinforcing
triangles is most commonly seen in tent
design. It has been applied in the
abstract in other industrial design, but
even in management science and
deliberative structures as a conceptual
metaphor, especially in the work of
Stafford Beer, whose "transmigration"
method is based so specifically on dome
design that only fixed numbers of people
can take part in the process at each
deliberation stage.

Largest geodesic dome

structures
Many geodesic domes are among the
largest clear-span structures in the
world. According to the Buckminster
Fuller Institute in 2010,[16] the world's 10
largest geodesic domes by diameter are:

Seagaia Ocean Dome (シーガイアオー

シャンドーム): Miyazaki, Japan
(31.9551°N 131.4691°E), 216.5 m
(710 ft)[16] — Demolished in 2017.
Nagoya Dome (ナゴヤドーム): Nagoya,
Japan (35.1859°N 136.9474°E),
187.2 m (614 ft)[16]
Superior Dome: Northern Michigan
University. Marquette, Michigan, USA
(46.5603°N 87.3938°W), 163.4 m
(536 ft)[17]
Tacoma Dome: Tacoma, Washington,
USA (47.2367°N 122.4270°W), 161.5 m
(530 ft)
Walkup Skydome: Northern Arizona
University. Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
(35.1805°N 111.6529°W), 153 m
(502 ft)[18]
Round Valley Ensphere: Springerville-
Eagar, AZ, USA (34.1204°N
109.2849°W), 134 m (440 ft)
Former Spruce Goose Hangar: Long
Beach, California, USA (33.7513°N
118.1889°W), 126 m (413 ft) — Now
owned by Carnival Cruise Line.
Formosa Plastics Storage Facility:
Mailiao, Taiwan (23.8007°N
120.1947°E), 122 m (400 ft) — Eleven
domes.
Union Tank Car Maintenance Facility:
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
(30.5827°N 91.2344°W), 117 m (384 ft)
— Demolished in 2007.
 Lehigh Portland Cement Storage
Facility: Union Bridge, Maryland, USA
(39.5590°N 77.1718°W), 114 m (374 ft)

One other large dome in Venezuela was

missed on the original Fuller Institute list,
while two others built later are also now
in the top 10. Currently, several geodesic
domes are larger than 113 m in
diameter.[19]

Poliedro de Caracas ("Caracas

Polyhedron Arena"), Caracas,
Venezuela (10.4338°N 66.9385°W),
143 m (469 ft)[20]
San Cristóbal mine (MSC) Dome,
Colcha "K" Municipality, Bolivia
 (21.1246°S 67.2096°W), 140 m
(460 ft)[21]
Ruwais Refinery Dome, Ruwais, United
Arab Emirates (24.1459°N 52.7392°E),
135 m (443 ft)[19]

See also
Cloud Nine (tensegrity sphere)
Concrete dome
Domed city
Buckminsterfullerenes, molecules
which resemble the geodesic dome
structure
Geodesic airframe
Geodesic grid
Geodesic tents
Gridshell
Hoberman sphere
Hugh Kenner, who wrote Geodesic
Math and How to Use It
Monolithic dome
Pentakis dodecahedron
Radome
Shell structure
Silent Running 1972 science fiction film
prominently featuring geodesic domes
Sindome - online Cyberpunk RPG that
takes place in a giant geodesic dome
Space frames
Stepan Center
Synergetics
 Truncated icosahedron
Truss

References
1. First Geodesic Dome: Planetarium in
Jena 1922 incl. patent information
Archived March 19, 2013, at the
Wayback Machine
2. "Zeiss-Planetarium Jena:
Geschichte" . Planetarium-jena.de.
Retrieved 2015-08-30.
3. For a more detailed historical
account, see the chapter "Geodesics,
Domes, and Spacetime" in Tony
Rothman's book Science à la Mode,
Princeton University Press, 1989.
4. "The Woods Hole Dome" . Retrieved
2019-07-02.
5. "Audio interview with Bernard
Kirschenbaum on DEW Line domes" .
Bernardkirschenbaum.com.
Retrieved 2010-10-17.
6. Fuller, R. Buckminster; Marks, Robert
(1973). The Dymaxion World of
Buckminster Fuller. Anchor Books.
p. 203. ISBN 0-385-01804-5.
7. Archives, Notre Dame (17 September
2010). "Mid-Century Modern" . Notre
Dame Archives News & Notes.
Retrieved 15 July 2019.
8. Geodesic domes are most often
based on Platonic solids, particularly
 the icosahedron.
9. [1]
10. "Carbondale, Illinois, Forest and
Cherry - Google Maps" .
Maps.google.com. 1970-01-01.
Retrieved 2010-10-17.
11. "naturhuset - Vi skal bygge et
Naturhus og en selvforsynende hage
pĺ Sandhornřya i Nordland. Prosjektet
er sterkt inspirert av arkitekt Bengt
Warne, den russiske Bokserien The
Ringing Cedars series og vĺr inderlige
kjćrlighet og dype respekt for Moder
Jord" . Naturhuset.blogg.no.
Retrieved 2015-08-30.
12. KristallSalzWelt Archived 2016-03-
04 at the Wayback Machine
13. "EcoCamp Patagonia Domes »
EcoCamp Patagonia" .
Ecocamp.travel. Retrieved
2015-08-30.
14. [2] Archived July 21, 2013, at the
Wayback Machine
15. (Bucky Works: Buckminster Fuller's
Ideas for Today)
16. "World's 10 Largest Domes" .
Buckminster Fuller Institute. Archived
from the original on April 12, 2010.
17. "Superior Dome | Wildcat Athletics at
Northern Michigan University" .
Webb.nmu.edu. Retrieved
 2010-10-17.
18. WWSI. "Western Wood Structures,
Inc. - Glulam Beams, Arches and
Bridges" .
Westernwoodstructures.com.
Retrieved 2010-10-17.
19. "Domes of over 100m" .
geometrica.com. Retrieved
2019-05-04.
20. "Postwar developments in long-span
construction" . britannica.com.
Retrieved 2017-06-07.
21. "The Largest Storage Dome in South
America" . geometrica.com.
Retrieved 2017-06-07.
External links

Geodesic dome
at Wikipedia's sister projects

Definitions
from
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Media
from
Wikimedia
Commons
Textbooks
from
Wikibooks
Data from
Wikidata
Geodesic dome at Curlie
The R. Buckminster Fuller FAQ:
Geodesic Domes
Geodesic Dome Notes : 57 dome
variants featured (1V to 10V) of
various solids (icosa, cube, octa, etc.)
Article about the Eden Domes (PDF file
5.1 MB)
Geodaetische Kuppeln (Geodesic
Domes) by T.E. Dorozinski
3D Warehouse - Geodesic Collection
Catalog(s) of free 3D digital models for
Google SketchUp and Google Earth
A meta-geodesic dome - made of
quads instead of triangles, by F.
 Tuczek

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