by Kirby Urner
First Posted: June, 1996
Version 1.04 (10 October 1997)
© 1996, 4D Solutions
With the publication of J. Baldwin’s superb volume, BuckyWorks, with its detailed and appealing descriptions of the new props we might introduce on the world stage in support of more sustainable, more sharable life styles, the question becomes one of how to move these artifacts from the drawing board or, in many cases, from a realized prototype phase, to full implementation as plentifully supplied assets.
Our situation today in many ways parallels the one confronting the pioneers of the personal computer era just two decades ago. Hobbyists and enthusiasts have seen the future in affordable, technologically advanced housing solutions, but a ‘user friendly interface’ is missing from the picture, such that would-be investors in this technology have no clear pathway into the experience of living in a PillowDome, for example.
The risks and expenses involved dissuade any but the most committed from venturing off the beaten path of Standard Homes and Gardens, as purveyed by the mainstream construction industry and its building codes, zoning laws and attendent Yellow Pages support services (pest control, weatherization, plumbing, remodeling etc).This latter multi-billion dollar industry might be likened to the mainframe culture that dominated all computing prior to the advent of the affordable, personal alternative. Conservative, business-minded individuals simply could not afford to risk their futures on hobbyist solutions as long as Big Blue (IBM) ruled the computing world.
The situation was transformed when IBM itself elected to enter the personal computer market. Today, the Yellow Pages has thickened with entries under Internet and Personal Computer that would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Surveying the range of technologies poised to enter the popular thinking of our media-saturated culture, we may likewise predict another thickening of the Yellow Pages is about to occur — once the Microsofts and Apples of the new housing revolution emerge from their conceptual (sometimes physical) garages with their new innovations.
The comparison with computers is more fundamental than so far suggested however. As the computer converges with other household devices, such as the television and telephone (and possibly the thermostat and sprinkler system), it becomes less easy to distinguish between the exoskeleton which houses these electronics, and the multi-media internals.
It’s not an over exaggeration to say that the electronics-invested class… is ‘moving in’ to its electronics, in the sense of turning the entire home into some kind of integrated utility box within which the new possibilities and freedoms of cyberspace may be experienced.
The newest, mostly unaffordable homes, have floor plans which accommodate the new American dream of a media room, complete with theater-style, multi-speaker sound systems and large television screens. Beyond this new wrinkle, houses today are expected to accommodate video and data links to the outside world beyond yesterday’s simple telephone and roof-top antenna.Today’s technologies involve cable or satellite dish for receiving video and hi-fi audio, and a high speed data wire, the faster the better (sometimes the fastest solution is not a wire at all, but a wireless connection to the internet). Finally, an increasing percentage of homes play host to networks of more than one computer, configured into a LAN, which generally requires Ethernet cabling or similar wiring solution.
It’s not an over exaggeration to say that the electronics-invested class (the ‘digerati’ as WIRED magazine has taken to calling us) is ‘moving in’ to its electronics, in the sense of turning the entire home into some kind of integrated utility box within which the new possibilities and freedoms of cyberspace may be experienced.
As today’s homes are pressed to accommodate electronics, their shortcomings in this regard become an annoyance. Wiring a home with new circuits, either with conduit for electrical power, or with new data wires, is expensive and means more trips to the Yellow Pages, for all but the handiest. Furthermore, the floor plan may simply not support the optimum arrangement of furniture and appliances to create the media room, home office etc.
The new housing designs suggested by J. Baldwin and company now on the drawing boards will incorporate the kinds of expandable, flexible, configurable modular strategies that coexist most conveniently and economically with the new electronic realities. The ‘personal computer’ and ‘personal work-and-play space’ are in the process of becoming aspects of the same integrated aesthetic.
What would a user-friendly pathway to experiences with the new housing solutions look like? Many would gladly allocate some time and energy trying the new life style and related gadgetry if not in any way coerced to give up what, in many cases, are already very satisfying and ‘dream come true’ domestic situations.
Life in a Fly’s Eye Dome, or some other newfangled dwelling utility, need not begin with some traumatic mile-stone commitment to adopt this new lifestyle ‘forever more.’ On the contrary, the new housing solutions are likely to enter the mainstream in high turnover situations, wherein the dwelling operators come and go, on college campuses for example, or in research settings in the field, where the entire community itself is temporary. Crisis or emergency situations also typically and historically call for novel approaches to providing ‘environment controls’ (a more generic description of the housing function, less likely to evoke stereotypical images of ‘This Old House’).
Another cultural institution wherein life style options are explored, without being adopted as permanent, are the camps and retreat centers, often matched with non-urbanized natural settings. Here people congregate for conferences or trainings in circumstances refreshingly different those found in their everyday lives. Here one might find out what life in a PillowDome could be like.
But the above scenarios all presuppose that high tech housing solutions have already made it off the drawing boards and onto the real world stage. Even accepting their initial transitional role as transitory way-stations in most people’s experience, one must ask how these dwelling machines made it this far along the pathway from science fiction to science fact.
The interim phase, between the imagination and production, is in the digital realm of shared consciousness we now call cyberspace. Using VRML, ray traced imagery, the tricks and techniques of the video-game designer, we can simulate our proposed futures in the form of storyboards.
Storyboards represent the initial ‘comic book’ phase of any modern multi-million dollar movie blockbuster. Before the most expensive resources are committed, artists and writers are commissioned to draw the feature out as a series of ‘mock ups’. Graphics, sounds, sketchy outlines of a plot, all enter in at the storyboard phase.
The outline may be linear, as in the case of an actual comic book, or without any set chronology, as when many options, all inter-related, are being explored. Hypertext, the forte of the internet, provides the underlying ecology wherein such simulations, models and storyboards take root and grow.
Hypertext provides the rich context of cultural symbols, allusions, iconography, stereotypes, precedents, drawn upon by artists working to create the new from the old by means of collage. By juxtaposing the old, the time-worn, the tested, in unfamiliar yet fitting ways, the future is made believable, actual, sometimes almost inevitable.
A significant aspect of the global hypertext is the language of advertising and the imagery and iconography it works to sustain. Corporate logos ornament our most-watched events, appearing in stadiums, on the clothing and vehicles of athletes, everywhere in public space, including on our computer and of course our television screens.
The warp and weave of this corporate logo-language, even more so than the older iconography of national flags, is integral to the business interests and economics of our global culture and defines a layer of shared consciousness that defines a gateway between fantasy and reality. Corporations underwrite and sponsor, they bestow their logos upon projects to betoken their reality. Corporations marshal resources, big time.
The symbolic context surrounding a corporation’s reality-making powers meshes inextricably with its financial well-being. The logo- language of advertising and image-making is all part of the ancient alchemy of manipulating ‘power signs’ according to complicated ‘rules of the game’ in order to conserve and if possible amplify reality-defining powers.
But this hypertext reality is not founded on simply smoke and mirrors. Behind the reality-making powers of corporate iconography are the mathematical sciences of design, including competence with instrumentation and proprietary access to trade secrets. Integral to the longevity and health of an enterprise are its sometimes quasi-invisible armies of service-providers, trained to provide some manner of life support, at least to those in the serviced or provided-for community. Beyond the image-making of advertising is the hard work of prototyping, refining, redesigning, testing, and finally releasing to production or general use (what the computer industry terms the ‘roll out’ phase of a product or solution).
The engineering work needed to sketch the general outlines of our corporate storyboard, in accord with understood technologies and physical principles, often juxtaposed in new ways, has been largely accomplished by now. We already have realistic storyboards showing how humanity might invest in new dwelling technologies within the context of a global service industry supplying educational and work-related programming in a networked ‘human centers environment.’
Every individual is likewise an importer and exporter of information goods, a producer and a consumer. The ability of information to propagate and clone without much additional investment of energy allows for an increasingly ‘ephemeralized’ global economy, in which the traffic in intellectual goods (for example, television programming) coincides with the exponentially increasing ‘knowledge worker’ category.
People will use their dwelling utilities to surf through cyberspace, and, as studios, to edit/recombine the imported content into novel, original contributions to that shared, evolving cultural heritage. This description already characterizes much of what goes on in our current information economy, within the mazes of cubicles that constitute the modern information age corporation. The new dwelling machines enter corporate hypertext precisely here, with this concept of ‘the cubicle.’ With corporate citizens increasingly becoming ‘netizens’ and opting to telecommute from home much of the time, the home receives these new pressures to transform into a wired workspace, with the attendent annoyances sketched above. An innovative corporation might offer its workers the option to telecommute from a ‘pod’ instead of from a ‘cubicle’, or from an inadequate, poorly situated Standard Home.
The interface between high technology companies and the university has become increasingly tight, both geographically and conceptually, to the point where ‘campus’ could mean a setting that is primarily academic, corporate, or both. The appearance of high technology ‘pods’ in place of ‘cubicles’ on the modern corporate-university campus is the storyboarded application we can expect to find making its appearance in reality. In that context, corporate logos will become associated with these new dwelling utilities, both as manufacturers and as providers of these newfangled options to their employe-recruits.
This external manifestation of high technology housing will spark self-amplifying feedback loops in cyberspace which draw in the rest of the storyboard elements, including the emergency deployment, temporary field worker, and retreat center scenarios. The larger picture, of humanity finding itself able to afford sufficient housing to sustain high living standards, thereby bringing down birth rates and slowing population growth, will link via hypertext (e.g. the World Wide Web) to these more immediate and visible implementations.
As a focus for positive hopes and longings of humanity for a better future, the new dwellings will gravitationally attract the logo-language of symbolic reality-making. Corporations will be anxious to affix their brands and symbols to the props and services designed to carry us into a preferred future.
The self-amplifying nature of this relationship between media hype and hypertext, between advertising and engineering, has already been experienced in the explosive growth of the personal computer and information superhighway in our culture.
The here-projected “second round” of this spiral, wherein the “house” and “computer” converge more completely, while the internet becomes more integral to our everyday life style, is just now beginning to take off. J. Baldwin’s BuckyWorks is a first sign of its beginning.
For Further Reading
BuckyWorks by J. Baldwin
Other writings by Kirby Urner
This was a book proposal I put out after J. Baldwin’s BuckyWorks was successfully published by John Wiley & Sons. Applewhite was skeptical that it’d fly as an anthology. He was right.
Since Tefzel® allows full-spectrum sunlight to penetrate the dome’s interior, living and gardening areas may be creatively integrated.
Excessive humidity and overheating within these “Garden of Eden” prototypes remains a challenge however — Jay points to the Climatron in the Missouri Botanical Garden as a good approximation of what he’d like to achieve as an affordable living space option — but affordability would entail greater energy efficiency. He speculates that the “chilling machine” effect, a result of airflow patterns arising in some dome designs, might help keep the interior comfortable (e.g. see Fig 8-8, page 160).
For more info on the PillowDome, see:
Online reviews of J. Baldwin’s BuckyWorks:
Since Tefzel® allows full-spectrum sunlight to penetrate the dome’s interior, living and gardening areas may be creatively integrated.
Excessive humidity and overheating within these “Garden of Eden” prototypes remains a challenge however — Jay points to the Climatron in the Missouri Botanical Garden as a good approximation of what he’d like to achieve as an affordable living space option — but affordability would entail greater energy efficiency. He speculates that the “chilling machine” effect, a result of airflow patterns arising in some dome designs, might help keep the interior comfortable (e.g. see Fig 8-8, page 160).
For more info on the PillowDome, see:
Online reviews of J. Baldwin’s BuckyWorks:
See below for information about how to get a listing.
Special note to vendors: Yes I still actively maintain this page. However, due to the volume of incoming, I sometimes space out or even lose a change, add or delete request. This happened recently, which is irksome, as the request also contained a lot of praise and gratitude for my having helped drive business to their website over the years. So then I go and lose the email. Moral: don’t be hesitant to send an email a second or third time, if you make a request and this page hasn’t changed in a day or two and you haven’t heard back (I should be able to do at least one or the other).
Check out my main page on geodesic domes for more links. Some additional resources are listed at the bottom of this page.
| Manufacturer | Contact Info | Notes | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albata Geodesics 900 C.R. 795 Montevallo, Al. 35115 |
Al and Patricia Burson Tel: (205) 665-7505 domeblder@aol.com |
custom built kits, design work and floor plans all kits come color coded and easy to assemble | Spring 2000 |
| Aluminum Geodesic Spheres (AGS) 4019 West Park Road Hollywood, FL 33021 |
Edwin O’Toole Tel: 305-625-9436 |
none | Summer 1994 |
| Aluminium Rheinfelden GmbH – VACONO Friedrichstr. 80 D-79618 Rheinfelden Germany |
Dr. M. Miermeister Tel. : (+49)(0)7623 / 93511 Fax : (+49)(0)7623 / 93547 E-mail : vacono@vacono.com |
all aluminium geodesic dome roof VACONODOME® | Spring 1997 |
| American Ingenuity 8777 Holiday Springs Road Rockledge, FL 32955-5805 |
Tel: 407-639-8777 Fax: 407-639-8778 |
Planning Kit $10; Video $8; EPS Foam covered w/concrete Shells | May 1995 |
| Conservatek Industries, Inc. 498 Loop 336 East Conroe, TX 77301 |
info@conservatek.com Tel: 409-539-1747 Fax: 409-539-5355 Toll free: 800-880-DOME |
Manufactures of aluminum domes and aluminum covers | April, 1997 |
| CSC Domes Rt 1, Box 233 St. Peter, MN 56082 |
Tel: 1-800-445-7547 LUCO Inc. |
Low-cost, temporary, inflatable geodesic, plastic covered domes. Semi-permament, steel pipe frame, aluminum or wood geodesic domes with covers. Easy assembly. | ? |
| Dome Incorporated 2550 University Ave. W., Suite 455 St. Paul, MN 55114 |
Blair F. Wolfram Tel: 612-333-3663 Email: thedomeguy@domeincorporated.com |
Steel frame geodesic domes, glass triangle windows, 2′ diameter to 74′ diameter. Any frequency. Steel, wood or polymers. High performance housing. | December, 2001 |
| Domes America 6345 West Jolie Road Countryside, IL 60525 |
Tel: 708-579-9400 | none | ? |
| Domes International, Inc. P.O. Box 137 Golden, MS 38847 |
Theresa & Hugh Mayhew Voice: 1-888-454-7390 Fax: 1-662-454-3098 domes@domesintl.com |
Energy-efficient, low-maintenance, fiber-glass dome homes | April, 2000 |
| Domes Northwest 319 N. Marguerite Road Spokane Valley, WA 99212 |
Theresa & Hugh Mayhew Voice: (208) 691-9996 Hugh@domesnorthwest.com |
Wood dome kits for residential or commercial structures. Dome building school offered. Assistance in design through construction available. | June, 2004 |
| Domespace | Voice: 212-906-0175 Fax: 212-906-0176 vencat@aol.com |
Plans, construction (non-geodesic) | April, 1997 |
| DomEstic Designs P.O. Box 4203 Bellevue, WA 98009 |
none | none | ? |
| Energy Structures, Inc. 893 Wilson Avenue St.Paul, MN 55106 |
Kevin Frawley Tel: 800-334-8144 Fax: 612-772-1207 |
Super-insulated dome homes, cabins, commercial structures. Free catalog. | Fall 1998 |
| Geo Tech Systems 1725 Kingwood St. #5 Florence, Oregon 97439 |
Tel: 541-997-5786 Fax: 541-997-5786 John Hackett |
tensioned fabric domes, aluminum, fiberglass, and PVC frames, 12′ to 100′ | February, 2001 |
| Geodesic Domes, Inc. (GDI) 10290 Davison Road Davison, MI 48423 |
Carlos McCarter Tel: 313-653-2383 |
Brochure $8; Wood kits | Oct 1990 |
| Geodesic Domes & Homes P.O. Box 575 Whitehouse, Texas 57591 |
Larry and Srandra Knackstedt sales@domehomes.com |
Info packet $10 | November, 1997 |
| GeoDomes Woodworks 6876 Indiana Avenue, Suite L Riverside, CA 92514 |
Bob Davies & Glenn Van Doren Tel: 909-787-8800 Fax: 909-787-7089 |
Home Planning Guide $15; Wood kits starting at $10,000 | Summer 1994 |
| Geometrica, Inc. 908 Town & Country Blvd. Ste. 330 Houston, TX 77024 |
Mr. Luis Enrico Tel: (713)722-7555 Fax: (713)722-0331 |
large commercial and industrial geodesic domes and Freedomes® | August, 1997 |
| Good Karma Domes 3531 S.W. 42nd Street Oklahoma City, OK 73119 |
James Lynch Tel: (405) 685-4822 |
Plans and kits (hubless bolt-together design), heat-efficient insulated domes. | June, 1999 |
| Hexadome P.O. Box 2351 La Mesa, CA 91943 |
Eugene E. Hopster 619-440-0434 |
Free Video; Wood kits | April, 1997 |
| Inflatable Domes LLC 9864 E.Grand River, Brighton, Michigan, 48114, U.S.A. |
Voice: [1]-888-410-1686 Backup: [1]-888-862-6528 Jesse Johnson |
Light weight inflatable dome made of portable panels, connected with velcro-type material to cover sports fields and construction sites | February, 2001 |
| Island Domes Libra Farms |
Pokchoy@aol.com 610-489-6256 |
Metal tube frame, PVC laminate skin, hydroponics | July, 1999 |
| Keystone Domes 313 Patterson Lane Belle Vernon, PA 15012 |
(412) 579-6127 Fax (724) 929-3696 keyinfo@keystonedomes.com |
designs/builds large dome-shaped structures for storage of bulk materials, also culverts and tunnels. Short construction times, lower overall cost. | November, 1999 |
| KingDomes P.O. Box 980427 Houston, TX 77098 |
Einar Thorsteinn | EDC Booklet $20 (European design, 163 solutions, kits, math) | Winter 1995 |
| Kwickset Konstruction Kits Australia |
Klaus Zimmer | Dome home plans, build-it-yourself kits | Spring 1999 |
| LEK Shelters 3760 Hancock st suite D San Diego CA 92110 USA |
Tel: 1-619-995-3284 KFialko@LEKshelters.com |
Modular shelter designs, kits, panels | Nov 2005 |
| Littlewood Geodesic Domes 7208 80 Ave Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6B 0C6 |
Tel: (403) 463-3004 or 970-3802 geodome@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca |
Wood frame, low cost relocatable shelters, frame kit with durable covering | Dec 1997 |
| Lobel Frame 31 rue Varengue 92340 Bourg La Reine France |
Tel: +33(0)146645325 Fax: +33(0)146641591 Alain Lobel |
Architect: Space Structures Forms and structures generated by identical elements |
Nov 2000 |
| Lydick’s Domes Unlimited 173 Harvey Rd. Sarver PA 16055 |
Tel: 412 353 0098 Fax: 412 353 0098 domeking@nauticom.net |
Supplying wood frame, panelized domes up to 134′ in dia. Free supervision on installation of up to 60′ domes. Color catalogs, videos, construction manuals, and in house drafting and design services | Jan 1996 |
| Guy Massicotte | geodome@sympatico.ca | geodesic dome designs | Feb 1997 |
| Monolithic Constructors, Inc. P.O. Box 479-W One Dome Park Place Italy, TX 76651 |
Voice: 972 483-7423 Fax: 972 483-6662 mail@monolithicdome.com |
$19.95 Video; Free brochure; Concrete Domes | April, 1997 |
| Nation’s Hoop Carpenters P.O. Box 45 Boyertown, PA 19512 |
Steven J. Kennedy | Metal, wood & cement domes | Summer 1994 |
| Natural Space Domes 37955 Bridge Road North Branch, MN 55056 |
Dennis & Janet Johnson Tel: 612-674-4292 Toll free: 800-733-7107 Fax: 612-674-5005 info@naturalspacesdomes.com |
Super-insulated wood frame domes; Catalog & price list – special $3; 49 min "Tour of Domes” video – $20; 94 page plan book – $11; dome constuction schools. | April, 1997 |
| North Face, The 999 Harrison Court Berkeley, CA 94710 |
Hal Klopp & Bruce Hamilton Tel: 415-527-9700 |
Geodesic Tents | ? |
| Observa-DOME Laboratories, Inc. 371 Commerce Park Drive Jackson, MS 39213 |
Tel: 601-982-3333 odl@misnet.com |
Observatory domes, missile silo covers. Note: these are not geodesic designs | April, 1997 |
| Oregon Dome, Inc. 3215 Meadow Lane Eugene, OR 97402 |
Linda Boothe or Nathan Burke (800) 572-8943 Fax: 541) 689-9275 oregon@domes.com |
free info, guide to construction management for $42.95 | April, 1997 |
| Pacific Domes 247 Granite St. Ashland, OR 97520 |
Tel: 888-488-8127 info@pacificdomes.com |
Geo domes made from canvas and galvanized steel tubing, 12-44 feet in diameter, catalog | November, 1999 |
| Pond-Brook Products P.O. Box 301 Franklin Lakes, NJ 07412 |
Gladys Payne | Hexa-Pent Dome Plans $20 | ? |
| Precision Structures LLC 2565 Potter Street Eugene, OR 97405 |
info@domeplans.com | Professional Dome Plans: Simple, detailed shop drawings and formulas for building 3v icosa domes. |
Summer 2002 |
| Semispheres 1505 Webster Street Richmond, VA 23220 |
Tel: 804-643-3184 | none | ? |
| Shelter Systems 224 West O’Connor Menlo Park, CA 94025 |
Bob Gillis Tel: Voice: 415-323-6202 Fax: 415-323-1220 shelter@best.com |
Send $1 for info; Large dome tents, greenhouses, etc. | Janurary 1996 |
| Spitz Inc. P.O. Box 198, Route 1 Chadds Ford, PA 19317 |
Tel: (610) 459-5200 Fax: (610) 459-3830 spitz@libertynet.org |
manufacturer of domed screens for planetariums and omni theaters | April, 1997 |
| Starnet International 200 Hope Street Longwood, Florida 32750 USA |
(407) 830-1199 Fax: (407) 830-1817 starnetint@aol.com |
designers, engineers, fabricators & assemblers of spaceframes, arches & dome enclosures with integrated metal decking, membrane, glass & acrylic cladding options | August 1996 |
| Stromberg’s Chicks & Gamebirds P.O. Box 400 Pine River, 4, MN 56474 |
Tel: 218-587-2222 | $39.95 for Starplate struts to build a dome shed/greenhouse up to 14′ diam | ? |
| Storex Systems Inc. 6772 Martin Street PO Box 41 Pine River Rome, NY 13440 |
Tel: 315-339-5151 storex@newport.ntcnet.com |
Wood frame domes from 30′ in diameter to 150′ in diameter | April, 1996 |
| Synergetics, Inc. 122 Cox Ave. Raleigh, NC 97206 |
Tel: 919-832-4011 Fax: 919-832-4011 Synergetics@worldnet.att.net |
in business since 1954, many large projects to its name | July, 1999 |
| TEMCOR PO Box 6256 24724 South Wilmington Ave Carson, CA 90749 |
Clark Margolf Tel: (310) 549-4311 or: (800) 421-2263 Fax: (310) 549-4588 |
Large aluminum commercial domes | February, 2001 |
| The Dome Company 47 Edward St. Sylvania Heights Sydney, NSW 2224 Australia |
Rob Lusher Tel/Fax: (02) 95226283 domeco@wr.com.au |
smaller type domes, particularly kit-set frames for shadehouses etc. | May, 1998 |
| Timberline Geodesics 2015 Blake Street Berkeley, CA 94704 |
Robert M. Singer Tel: 800-DOME-HOME Fax: 510-849-3265 info@domehome.com |
Catalog $12; Video $15; Wood kits | Spring 1996 |
| Tobel Domes P.O. Box 310 Lakeside, CA 92040 |
Tom Boyle Tel: 619-443-6503 Fax: 619-443-1108 |
Geodesic Dome kits to 130′ Dia construction, roofing services Plan/photo catalog $14 |
Winter, 1995 |
| Topsider Homes P.O. BOX 1490 Clemmons NC 27012 |
Tel: 910-766-9300 | Round homes, not domes | ? |
| Ulraflote Corporation 8558 Katy Frwy Suite 100 Houston, Texas 77024 |
Tel: 713-461-2100 Fax: 713-461-2100 dome@ultraflote.com |
floating tank covers and aluminum geodesic Ultradome, for the petroleum industry and other sectors | May, 1998 |
| Western Wood Structures, Inc. PO Box 130 Tualatin, Oregon, 97062 |
Tel: 503 692-6900 or 800 547-5411(USA) Fax: 503 692-6434 wwsi@teleport.com |
Timber domes, some of the largest in the world | November, 1996 |
| WorldFlower Garden Domes P.O. Box 3123 Fort Worth, Texas 76113 |
Tel: 888-945-3311 Fax: 817 921-6795 Ernie Aiken |
Dome kits for gardens, related functions | October, 1997 |
| Publication | Contact Info | Notes | Verified | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas Register of American Manufacturers One Penn Plaza New York, NY 10001 |
Tel: 212-695-0500 | See Volumes 1-10: Products & Services (in most libraries) | 1994 | |
| National Association of Dome Manufacturers 2506 Gross Point Road Evanston, IL 60201 |
none | none | Summer 1994 | |
| National Dome Council 15th & “M” Streets, NW Washington, DC 20005 |
Tel: 202-822-0576 | none | ? | |
| DOME (magazine) 4401 Zepher Street Wheat Ridge, CO 80033 |
Donald R. Hoflin Tel: 303-934-5656 |
Quarterly; $40/yr | Summer 1994 | |
| Email list devoted to geodesic dome homes: DomeHome-H. The list is owned by Hoflin Publishing, publishers of DOME magazine. To subscribe, send an email with the SUBJECT subscribe to DomeHome-H@h19.hoflin.com | ||||
Having a listing on this page does not constitute an endorsement by 4D Solutions (I have no intention of evaluating or rating all of these products and services). I may have had business relationships with some of these firms (e.g. been a customer, consultant, financeer or co-designer) or perhaps will in the future — but that’s irrelevant insofar as just getting a listing is concerned. I don’t need to know you or have had any dealings with your company to give you a listing. Just send me (Kirby) some email.
I am not experienced in home building myself (a little touching-up with caulk and spackle is about my speed) and currently live in a 1905 box home, not a dome. You can ask me questions about domes, but likely I’ll just refer you back to this page, which will connect you to people a lot more knowledgable and experienced than I in the domes department.
For an even more complete listing of dome suppliers, check Michael Rader’s listing and useful web site on domes.
Geodesic domes are fractional parts of complete geodesic spheres. Actual structures range from less than 5% to 100% (a full sphere). The Spaceship Earth Pavilion constructed by Tishman Construction for AT&T at Disney’s Epcot is the best-known example of a full sphere.
Geodesic spheres and domes come in various frequencies. The frequency of a dome relates to the number of smaller triangles into which it is subdivided. A high frequency dome has more triangular components and is more smoothly curved and sphere-like. If your web browser is Java-enabled, you can interact with the exhibit on Frequency above.
5-frequency
9-frequency
Fuller realized that spheres packed around a nuclear sphere in successive layers give a cuboctahedral shape, which may be distorted into an icosahedron or octahedron via what he called the jitterbug transformation.
animated GIF by Richard HawkinsThe network of rods between adjacent spheres in a hollow icosahedral packing gives the framework for the classic geodesic sphere. Geodesic domes may also be based on other polyhedra, such as the octahedron and tetrahedron.
Class I
The classic geodesic sphere is composed of 20 curved triangles, each of which corresponds to one facet of the icosahedron, a 20-faceted polyhedron. Each of the 20 triangles is curved because it is subdivided into smaller triangles, the corners of which are all pushed out to a constant distance from the sphere’s center. The pattern used for this subdividing into smaller triangles is used to classify domes into classes I, II and III.
For further reading
50 foot dome by Cascade Domes and Shelters
The first contemporary geodesic dome on record is Walter Bauersfeld’s, who realized the utility of projecting the constellations on the inner surface of an icosasphere, Omnimax-style, thereby creating a breakthrough planetarium in Jena, Germany, in 1922.
Fuller derived his geodesic dome from general principles independently of Bauresfeld, just as he derived the octet truss without knowing of Alexander Graham Bell’s implementation of this same naturally occuring phenomenon.
Fuller’s geodesic spheres and domes emerged synergetically from his philosophical “explorations in the geometry of thinking“. In this self-discipline, the variably frequenced icosasphere links up with the jitterbug and sphere packing concepts (see dome geometry).
The spherical high frequency icosahedron also suggests a grid of triangles which may be used to transfer global data from a sphere to an unfoldable icosahedron (another concept that would have excited Bauersfeld). The geodesic dome and the Fuller Projection both derive from the same general principles.For further reading
Fuller aniticipated that domes, along with other alternative dwelling designs, would likely become artifacts within a new World Livingry Service Industry. Economies of scale would give people affordable housing options, along with ways to seamlessly connect with multimedia-based work-study telecommunication systems. The new dwelling machines would deploy alongside more traditional neighborhood structures and different cultures would customize them to integrate with local designs and routines.
Some models would feature a very high degree of energy autonomy, and their deployment in remote areas would be without lasting disruption of the ecosystem — a supporting tripod would make it unecessary to pour concrete, and helicopter delivery and pickup would keep construction crews and equipment from despoiling the landscape.
Here’s a video of me (Kirby) talking about more recent history. The clip is from 2003 (which is also when I did the editing), whereas I made it available as a Google live video in 2005 (November).
For further reading
The Fuller Projection, or Dymaxion Map, solves the age-old problem of displaying spherical data on a flat surface using a low-distortion transformation. The map also shows the world’s land masses without interruption — the map’s sinuses do not cut into the land area at any point.
The Fuller Projection is rendered by juxtaposing a grid of triangles on the globe and transferring the data to corresponding triangles on an unfolded icosahedron.
See Chris Rywalt’s site for download options
Although the algorithm for transferring data from a sphere to a plane differs from previous icosahedral projections (the Gnomonic and John P. Synder’s for example), Robert W. Gray has shown that the orientation of the icosahedron is the most visually distinctive aspect of the map.
To the naked eye, the Fuller, gnomonic and Snyder projections are quasi-identical, once all are made to conform to the same trademarked layout.
Fuller hoped that this map would be widely used for sharing global data, but discouraged people from marring it with national political boundaries. Fuller regarded sovereignties as holdovers from a bygone era, and dangerous obstructions to the maturation of a post-racist, post-nationalist civilization (see No Race, No Class, Desovereignization?).
Perhaps owing to his anti-nationalism, Fuller’s projection has never been favored by the United Nations, which instead promotes the Peters Projection as an alternative to the Mercator. The Mercator artificially amplifies the sizes of landmasses in a way which makes the industrialized, developed nations appear to account for a greater percentage of the total geographical area than they really do.
Fuller’s map actually introduces less overall distortion than the Peters Projection.
