GEODESIC DOME

Geodesic dome have been built all around the world in different climates and temperatures and still they have proven to be the most efficient human shelter one can find. This principle directed his studies toward creating a new architectural design, the geodesic dome, based also upon his idea of doing more with less.

Many dome manufacturers on the list in this section offer various designs in geodesic dome housing with little assembly time required. 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. Local loads are distributed throughout the geodesic dome, utilizing the entire structure.

There has been no report of hurricane damage of a properly designed geodesic dome. R. Buckminster Fuller designed the first geodesic dome, i.e. geodesation of a hemisphere.

A Geodesic Dome is a type of structure shaped like a piece of a sphere or a ball. This structure is comprised of a complex network of triangles that form a roughly geodesic dome surface. The more complex the network of triangles, the more closely the geodesic dome approximates the shape of a true sphere.

The geodesic dome is a structure with the highest ratio of enclosed area to external surface area, and in which all structural members are equal contributors to the whole. There are many sizes of triangles in a geodesic, dome depending on the frequency of subdivision of the underlying spherical polyhedron. The cross section of a geodesic dome approximates a great-circle line.

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. The geodesic dome and the Fuller Projection both derive from the same general principles.

If we compare a geodesic dome to a more traditional rectangular structure we will find that the rectangular structure has more strength in only a very small area just above the four nooks.