Geodesic dome

The Montreal Biosphère, formerly the American Pavilion of Expo 67, by R. Buckminster Fuller, on Île Sainte-Hélène, Montreal, Quebec

A geodesic dome is a structure shaped like the top half of a sphere, made of many little shapes, usually triangles. It often is made of glass, concrete, or steel. They are cheap to make, and bigger than square buildings.

The first geodesic dome was designed after World War I by Walther Bauersfeld,[1] chief engineer of the Carl Zeiss optical company, for a planetarium to house his planetarium projector. An initial, small dome was patented and constructed by the firm of Dykerhoff and Wydmann on the roof of the Zeiss plant in Jena, Germany. A larger dome, called "The Wonder of Jena", opened to the public in July 1926.[2]

Later, they were promoted by the American engineer, Buckminster Fuller. He coined the term "geodesic". Many kits are available.

A variation on geodesic domes are monolithic domes [3]

References

  1. ↑ First Geodesic Dome: Planetarium in Jena 1922 incl. patent information Archived March 19, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ↑ "Zeiss-Planetarium Jena: Geschichte". Planetarium-jena.de. Archived from the original on 2015-08-31. Retrieved 2015-08-30.
  3. ↑ Jonathan Glancey. "The story of Buckminster Fuller's radical geodesic dome". Retrieved 2017-11-10.