Check out AT&T's FREE camera phonesJuly 3, 2006 6:00 AM PDT
Geodesic domes: 'Doing more with less'
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Road Trip 2006
July 11, 2006 -
Burning Man meets The Dicky Box
September 8, 2005
After looking into making our own, we realized we didn't have the time. This being 2000 and pre-recession, we were still flush enough to buy one. So we pooled our resources and plunked down several thousand dollars for a dome from the place everyone seemed to say was the only one that sold what we needed: Ashland's Pacific Domes.
We bought a 30-foot-diameter frame, and shortly afterward tried setting it up in a schoolyard in San Francisco. We failed, but still thought we understood what we were doing. Thus, we felt we were in good shape for taking it to Burning Man and erecting it there.
Once in the desert, we found we had yet again failed to master dome construction. And magically, just as we were about to give up, the very person who sold us the dome wandered by and not only saved the day, but did it single-handedly.
Afterward, when he was explaining how he had managed to put the top of the dome together, all by himself, when 10 of us couldn't manage it, he said it was because he did it at least once a week, every week. In fact, he said, he often would lie outside at night, staring up at the sky, subconsciously connecting stars in his mind with dome struts.
Since then, Pacific Domes has frequently been on my mind. Not only because dozens of Burning Man groups use its domes, but because it seems like every big corporate event I go to these days--be it the Xbox 360 launch event in the Mojave Desert or Sony's party at E3--features one or more of their domes.
So I decided that as the last stop on my Road Trip 2006 around the Pacific Northwest, it would be appropriate for me to stop by Pacific Domes.
I found myself on Saturday afternoon in the home of Asha Deliverance, the company's co-founder. We talked about the iconic structures, sacred geometry and Buckminster Fuller, the inventor of the modern geodesic dome.
According to the Buckminster Fuller Institute, domes are among the most efficient and strongest structures in the world.
"Fuller discovered that if a spherical structure was created from triangles, it would have unparalleled strength," the site states. "The sphere uses the 'doing more with less' principle in that it encloses the largest volume of interior space with the least amount of surface area, thus saving on materials and cost?.The spherical structure of a dome is one of the most efficient interior atmospheres for human dwellings because air and energy are allowed to circulate without obstruction. This enables heating and cooling to occur naturally."
Practically speaking, Deliverance told me, people buy domes because they're sturdy, inexpensive and an efficient use of space. Many of the sales made by the company--it sells frames, covers and kits that can be used by people to build their own dome homes--are to individuals wanting to live in them. Thus, the 16-foot and 30-foot models are very popular.
Many companies also want to use the structures for corporate events, she said. Pacific Domes sells and rents a significant number of 44-footers, and the occasional 60-footer.
But, Deliverance said, there is no known limit to just how big a geodesic dome can be.
"I have a fearless nature, so I keep going for bigger and bigger domes," she said. "We're not sure (if there's a limit). We're taking it slow. We have engineering, and we can go bigger with heavier tubing."
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Burning Man and yes I still lay around at night connecting
stars with struts and have been at Burning Man 10 years
now. Hope to see you there. Asha sure changed the story to
her benefit. Pacific Domes didn't build a 90 ft or 120 ft
dome. It's all ego drivin' greed for wealth and false
recognition. A tent is a tent,it's still just a tent. That's why I
left them long ago. I now work with kind friends building
domes for events and good causes. My Company is
Domeseurope.com. based worldwide. Our prices are much
more realistic for burners and others. It's all good. Hope to
run into you again. Johan the Domeguy
Burning Man and yes I still lay around at night connecting
stars with struts and have been at Burning Man 10 years
now. Hope to see you there. Asha sure changed the story to
her benefit. Pacific Domes didn't build a 90 ft or 120 ft
dome. It's all ego drivin' greed for wealth and false
recognition. A tent is a tent,it's still just a tent. That's why I
left them long ago. I now work with kind friends building
domes for events and good causes. My Company is
Domeseurope.com. based worldwide. Our prices are much
more realistic for burners and others. It's all good. Hope to
run into you again. Johan the Domeguy