Comments on: The People’s Meeting Dome Deconstructs the Geodesic Dome’s Sacred Geometry

By: bthinker

bthinker — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 02:12:31 +0000

@rmonie I designed it better, not constructed as of yet though. Arched aluminum Ibeams, Keystone, Aircraft cable suspension, use of both expansion and compression springs. The whole is translucent lightweight nonoxidizing, and makes use of shape for heat distribution. The keystone locks into the Ibeams and a central truss pillar running into the basement when it mounts. The key is force absorbtion and space without much in the way of divider, low material, high strength, high space. Decompartmentalization.

By: rmonie

rmonie — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:29:53 +0000

The Randomes that housed radar equipment have proven themselves by withstanding winds of up to 200 miles per hour even though constructed of thin walls, and many domes have come through severe earthquakes with minimal damage. Intershelter domes has a thin shell model on Mt. Valdez in Alaska that has held up well under repeated wind and snow storms. If “deconstructing” a dome means reducing the strength and disaster resistance of the structure, then no matter how interesting the changes may be visually, they are a trivial and only childishly clever distraction from the real work necessary to improve domes and make them affordable and popular. Dave South of Monolithic domes has begun to use basalt roving in some of his models as an abundant non-oxidizing way replacement steel rebar. Now that is a genuine constructive advance. Another advance would be to apply magnesium oxide boards or other strong, breathable, fire-resistant materials to dome design to replace the plywood boards that are often used. The clever Danish designers might also try a monolithic dome using breathable, sustainable shotcrete made of magnesium-based material. Such material was used in the construction of some Chinese buildings that are still standing and functional after 1000 years. Domes do not need to be deconstructed. They need to be constructed better.

By: bthinker

bthinker — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 02:00:39 +0000

Very beautiful design. The geodesic dome was more aimed around structural integrity though, earthquake, wind, impact resistance and maximizing space/material ratio. This is still way superior to anything rectangular or square. Just a note: A wide vertical turbine in the top middle would catch a lot of crosswinds.