Geodesic Domes
by J. Baldwin 






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Domes have been around for centuries. What makes geodesic domes
different?





Efficiency. A sphere is already efficient: it encloses the most volume with
the least surface. Thus, any dome that is a portion of a sphere has the
least surface through which to lose heat or intercept potentially damaging
winds. 



A geodesic dome uses a pattern of self-bracing triangles in a pattern that
gives maximum structural advantage, thus theoretically using the least material
possible. (A "geodesic" line on a sphere is the shortest distance
between any two points.) 




	

	
	
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Local loads are distributed throughout the geodesic dome, utilizing the
entire structure. Geodesic domes get stronger, lighter
(qt movie, 2.6mb, no sound), and cheaper per unit of volume as their size increases--just
the opposite of conventional building.





Bucky cooled critics by erecting enormous geodesic domes of many different
designs, very quickly--sometimes in mere hours instead of months or years.
Serving atop mountains, sheltering Arctic radar installations, and even
covering the South Pole, they have proved to be the strongest structures
ever devised. Earthquakes cannot damage them unless the ground opens up
and swallows the foundation (or it is undermined, as the South Pole dome
has been.) There has been no report of hurricane damage of a properly designed
geodesic dome; indeed, they are demonstrations of more-with-less, or "ephemeralization,"
as Bucky liked to say. The best ones are proportionally thinner than a chicken
egg shell is to the egg. 








More volume is sheltered by Bucky's domes than by the work of any other
architect.













This open-air geodesic dome, the headquarters for ASM International, was
completed in 1960.  It stands 103 feet high and 250 feet in diameter.  They
also have a web site.














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