Geodesic Dome Models: How to Build Geodesic Dome

The geodesic dome is a kind of a dome that can be constructed very easily if appropriate and systematic steps are followed. Geodesic dome construction consists of appropriate assembly of simple geometrical shapes.

History of the Geodesic Dome

The concept of geodesic domes was invented by German engineer and designer, Walter Bauersfeld, in 1991. Bauersfeld was designing a planetarium dome, when he thought of the idea for a geodesic dome. The basic intention behind the building of a geodesic dome was to increase the capacity of the planetarium that he was designing. The idea soon caught on and within a single decade geodesic domes were used to build a variety of buildings and memorials. One of the most famous geodesic dome construction is found on the Fantasy Entertainment Complex, that is situated on the Kyosho Island, Japan. Another very prominent structure that is built using the geodesic dome's principle is the Space ship earth, a sphere that is made up of two geodesic domes, is located in the Epcot, Walt Disney world resort.

How to Make a Geodesic Dome

Before writing a column to the query 'how to build a geodesic dome'?, I actually tried out a lot of methods and spent a good amount of productive time trying out brilliant and colorful structures that now dot my study-room. One must note that the geodesic dome is based on a significant amount of geometric shapes and figures like, triangles, hexagons and pentagons. The following are the steps for geodesic dome construction, of a relatively small size.

Requirements

To build a geodesic dome you will need the following material.

• A huge amount of newspapers of the same size
• Stapler or a stapling gun
• Measuring tape
• Decoration material such as markers, glitter pens, beads and glue.

Procedure

• Step 1: The first step is making building tubes with the newspapers for your dome. For this, roll up the paper into the smallest possible roll, that resembles a small tube. Keep on rolling the papers till you have 65 such tubes.
• Step 2: Divide the tubes into two groups that is 35 'long' ones and 30 'short' ones. Next, using a pair of scissors and measuring tape, cut off the extra portion of the 'long' tubes and make them 77 cm in length. Similarly, make the 'short' ones 66 cm long.
• Step 3: This is the step where we actually start the assembly of the geodesic dome. To make the base of the dome, staple together 10 'long' tubes together in a circular manner.
• Step 4: This step is rather confusing, and hence must be executed carefully. In the earlier step we had assembled, a circular, multi-sided figure with the help of the long pieces. In this step staple a short piece to one corner of the figure. Staple another piece to the next corner. The next two corners, must have long ones attached to them. In this manner attach appropriate figures to all the remaining corners. Make sure that you maintain the alternating sequence.
• Step 5: Next, staple together the two adjacent short pieces and the two adjacent long pieces. You will find a set of triangles on top of the circular base. Connect all the tops of the triangles with the required number of short pieces. You will find another circular multi-sided figure after you have stapled together all the pieces.
• Step 6: Staple short and long pipes alternatively to the corners of the multi-sided figure that was formed in the previous step. Next, make a triangle out of the three constitutive pipes, that are sticking out. Staple the pieces in the sequence; first long, second short and third long. After you have completed this step have an eagles eye look at the figure. You will find a star, formed on the top most point of the half built dome.
• Step 7: In this step make a hexagon out of long pipes and staple it in the middle of the star.
• Step 8: In this last step, staple five short pipes at all the five corners of the hexagon. Staple together all the five pieces that are stinking out, at their upper most point and complete your dome.

The key to build the geodesic dome successfully, is to be patient and follow all the steps systematically. The best way to make the dome with minimum mistakes is read and follow the 'steps' or instructions and assemble the dome simultaneously.