The architecture with domes is in his highest moment. We have from initiatives to mount a geodesic dome in the garden of our house, to build a dome house as a regular residence; with your bathroom, rooms, kitchen, etc.
Building a mini geodesic dome allows a wide variety of uses, in a short time and is easy to assemble. From having a small greenhouse, to a play area for our children, a cabin or whatever you have in mind! simple!
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A geodesic dome is a structure formed by a hemisphere (Half of a sphere geodesic ). The skin, or face, may have the shape of the hexagons, triangles or any other polygon with different sizes, from small to many meters in their edges.
Normally, the type of material used in the structure it is wood, bamboo, aluminum… etc. It has a low weight relation to everyday structural elements. Its shape meets Euler's polyhedra theorem (Defines the relation between the number of edges, faces and vertices of a convex polyhedron )
Remembering that there are different types of domes geodesic and can become very complex. A unusual example using bamboo in his structure….
The domes are hemispherical bodies based on Sacred Geometry intended mainly to houses. It is the same structure as above but only assembled with triangles which is the geometry with the most stability and strength for the manufacture of structures, with the peculiarity that the bigger they are and the more number of elements make it up, the more resistant they become.
The interior surface that surrounds a dome , does not have pillars, nor does it need neither do moorings on the outside to hold the structure geodesic that forms the house.
A good explanation of the dome house concept we can extract from the following video…
We are going to explain in detail how to build some geodesic domes of different sizes, but before, we see an interesting initiative of the architecture studio Hubs assemble a prefab dome!
The main idea is that they provide us with a Kit full design of a dome . And we, with the instructions, woods and joints that you provide us, to be able to build a geodesic dome in a short time and in the home garden.
It is the assembly of a geodesic structure by the pleasure to play in the garden…
These joints allow the rods – edges to be join in a more resistant way, also allowing a small swing movement. So now ride a little dome step by step it becomes as simple as…
They have structured a simple self-build kit – assembly that will provide us with guaranteed fun for the whole family. Remembering that we can also unite and connect different domes.
We have seen the prefabricated domes whose prices Varies in the "house kit" style. Now, we are going to build it from the beginning, with our own hands we will assemble it step by step (We will explain later on paper).
The first step will be to see the dimensions of the edges and How many do we need… Shall we start?
One of the main difficulties lies in the determination of the length of the edges and number of triangles that translates into what is called frequency based on math
We can meet the frequency v3, v4, v5, v6… It is the measure that indicates the number of subdivisions that is practiced in the triangle of the icosahedron that will form the dome. If we increase the frequency, the larger the divisions will be, so we will have more triangles raising its resistance, along with also the complexity in its realization.
How to calculate the frequency? … From HERE we can calculate the lengths – frequencies in a way simple for geodesic dome plans . The calculations are made on an application and a diagram v3 like the one we attached.
A video about it where it is explained step by step how to calculated from the referred page would be the following. One has to keep in mind that making a small model on paper or wood is a great help.
This topic is a bit tricky since unions are needed resistant. We can from buying them at relatively cheap until we make them ourselves, here it will depend on the little hands that we carry inside. Some examples of joints would be…
There is also the possibility of not using unions of different materials, that is, fitting the pieces that Normally and for convenience, they are made of wood.
And we can see how it's done from this book about a geodesic dome construction manual PDF with free access HERE (There are examples of angles, joints, etc.) and from HERE.
From here, we have a thousand and one videos with explanations extensive and step-by-step instructions for building our dome, but among so much tangle of information we liked a particular Youtube channel since the explanations They are simple, clear, from the beginning of the work to the end and They are in Spanish from HERE.
We must not forget that these structures, when we already spoke of significant dimensions, in the style of houses dome , must have a solera or foundation of suitable concrete.
Energy saving and optimization of a dome geodesic is worth studying with tangible advantages in relation to traditional construction, even some experts predict energy savings of 50%. Are sustainability and efficiency from geometry!
We have some advantages in the domes initial geodesics than other geometries in the modern architecture does not provide us. if posting what:
Remembering that we should review the basics of bioclimatic architecture.
With many users have asked us to provide a schematic and plans of a cut-out paper dome what can be do for school or home, easily and practicing crafts (Ultimately we are creating a polyhedron icosahedron cut out of paper in half). Well we started step by step with instructions:
1.- First we will need to create all the triangles: In this case it will be an equilateral triangle (Designated with A-A-A that we will need 10 Units), and an isosceles triangle (Designated with B-A-B that we will need 30 Units):
The two types of triangles can be downloaded from HERE. Be careful when printing to control proportionality. We should to print one first and verify the lengths of sheet «A» and "B" (See previous image). In the case that they are of size incorrect, when printing the PDF we should assign "Fit Actual Size" or "Page Scale – None".
2.- Print all the necessary units and cut them out. 5 triangles (Type B-A-B) we will join them with their tabs only on their faces designated with "B" as indicated the next image. We will continue the process several times until obtaining 6 elements that will each contain 5 triangles (Make sure the "A" sides of the triangles form the outside of the pentagon)
3.- Create the base. We should preferably use something harder than a simple paper, for example cardboard. we create a circular base of a circle 75 cm in diameter (We will mark a circle of 50 cm in diameter, it will be the line where the structure rests). Later, we will make a cut in the inner part of 25 cm in diameter that will allow us the access to the inside of the dome we can work better the assembly.
If we want to highlight the edges. They will have a length of "A" which will be 15.45 cm (Left Image)
4.- Now we only have to join the pieces in their faces A-A-A as indicated in the following images:
These instructions are extracted from HERE.
A good example of a dome house , speaking from the top professional perspective and with relevant finishes in a Geodesic house that surprises with its perfectionist design. Is the single-family home executed by two offices of sustainable architecture, Ecoproyecta + Moho arquitectos from Spain. The next geodesic house …
Although this house is built from scratch, in the market there are prefabricated dome houses although they are usually smaller and with lower prices in their construction to be industrialized.
An example is the following video or from the famous Amazon platform also have some things interesting.
Another example, in this case from Norway. A dome of cristal encana a beautiful house near the Circle Arctic Polar.
The 7.5 meter high dome is made up of 360 glass panels that protect the entire house with a diameter of 15 meters, which allows the family to grow their own fruits and vegetables inside.
Not only houses are projected, more and more large architecture studios want to incorporate the concept of dome in its great buildings. An example is the project design of the Al-Rajhi Mosque which is inspired by the iconic symbol of the Half Moon and will incorporate a huge geodesic dome power imagination!
