Geodesic dome
An initial, small dome was patented and constructed by the firm of Dykerhoff and Wydmann on the roof of the Carl Zeiss Werke in Jena, Germany.
[2][3] Twenty years later, Buckminster Fuller coined the term "geodesic" from field experiments with artist Kenneth Snelson at Black Mountain College in 1948 and 1949.
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.
[8] The dome was introduced to a wider audience as a pavilion for the 1964 New York World's Fair designed by Thomas C. Howard of Synergetics, Inc.
In 1975, a dome was constructed at the South Pole, where its resistance to snow and wind loads was 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 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 hotel's dome design is key to resisting the region's strong winds and is based on the dwellings of the indigenous Kaweskar people.
The dome is wrapped from the bottom to the top with several stapled layers of tar paper, to shed water, and finished with shingles.
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.
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.
These domes are usually clad with glass which is held in place with a PVC coping, which can be sealed with silicone to make it watertight.
The last step is to saturate concrete or polyester domes with a thin layer of epoxy compound to shed water.
The metal fasteners, joints, and internal steel frames remain dry, preventing frost and corrosion damage.
Domes can now be printed at high speeds using very large, mobile "3D Printers", also known as additive manufacturing machines.
In Geodesic Math and How to Use It, Hugh Kenner wrote, "Tables of chord factors, containing as they do the essential design information for spherical systems, were for many years guarded like military secrets.
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.
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.
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.
Also, these seams may be stressed because ordinary solar heat flexes the entire structure each day as the sun moves across the sky.
[18] 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.
