pic: Expo 67 geodesic dome

[colin340]

loading photo ...

[Tom Ore]

Just curious - how did you get this item. It's pretty cool. I remember seeing the dome at Expo 67 (I was only 8 at the time, but I remeber it.)

Tom

[MrForbes]

wow....that's a neat "artifact"!

My dad was influenced by the dome thing, so we built one to live in back in 1971 (I was 10). google earth shows it's still there. We built it of 2x4s, with hubs made of "FHA" straps (1.5" x 1/8" x 18"), two long 1/4" bolts holding each 2x4 between two staps, and a 1/2" bolt at the center, with a piece of 1/2" EMT as a spacer.

Not much to it, I'm surprised it's still standing

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Jim,
You never fail to surprise me! Where exactly is it located?

[Ether]

Originally Posted by squirrel

...we built one to live in back in 1971 (I was 10) ... We built it of 2x4s, with hubs made of "FHA" straps (1.5" x 1/8" x 18"), two long 1/4" bolts holding each 2x4 between two staps, and a 1/2" bolt at the center, with a piece of 1/2" EMT as a spacer.

What did you use for skin?

[MrForbes]

It has 1/2" plywood sheathing, had wood shakes over it. Since it's all triangles, the sheathing doesn't have to work hard, there's little shear load like there would be in a normal rectangular house.

It's on the west side of Tucson, somewhere around this lat/long:



Thanks Al, I guess I got to have fun when I was a kid, maybe it rubbed off on me

[colin340]

Originally Posted by squirrel

It has 1/2" plywood sheathing, had wood shakes over it. Since it's all triangles, the sheathing doesn't have to work hard, there's little shear load like there would be in a normal rectangular house.

It's on the west side of Tucson, somewhere around this lat/long:



Thanks Al, I guess I got to have fun when I was a kid, maybe it rubbed off on me

OH it rubbed off on you
of all people on cd i would have guessed you to live in a dome

[Aren_Hill]

I want to make a house like this,

http://www.reedpumps.com/concretedomes.htm

But i'm also weird

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Aren,
As cool as it might look, I can tell you from experience, the acoustic environment is beyond belief. This is one place you would not want to live. When studying sound with Don Davis, he related a problem space in Indiana where they had mounded a hill out of dirt, then covered it with concrete, removed the dirt and called it a church. When they couldn't get the sound reinforcement to work they called in Don. His response was to put the dirt back in and call it a day. All sound gets reflected back to you including your breathing. The same effect takes place when you walk from one side of a pylon on Sear's Tower to the other. (this is inside the antenna structures) Suddenly all sound come back to you from every direction at once. If you are not hanging onto the handrails, it will shock you enough to lose your balance.

[Aren_Hill]

Dang, noice cancelling headphones would make for an interesting experience

[Retired Starman]

We have been living in our 39 ft. geodesic dome for almost 34 years now and we still love it. My wife and I built most of it ourselves. It uses half the energy of conventional homes of the same size, is open and light inside, and has only a few acoustical quirks. Since there are room dividers inside, sound reflections are not a big problem, more of a novelty when sound from one room can clearly be heard as if coming from another room. It would be much worse in a concrete open dome, as Al suggests, but is not a problem in a home with room divisions, carpet, and soft furnishings.