Intro
I love Geodomes! There I’ve said it, you can argue till your are blue in the face that teepee’s are more practical, yurts are more traditional or a marquee is more user firendly… none of them are as cool as a geodome! Therefore I’m going to be making one! I just need to buy my van first as there is little point in making one without being able to transport it.
(Update 2014.03.11 – I’m now doing the van up. A geodome is getting closer!)
Click on the links below to jump to the various sections of this design….
Brief & Inspiration
If you don’t know what a Geodome is then have a search round or check out these links…
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesic_dome
- http://geodome.sourceforge.net/
- http://geodesicdome.info/index.php
- http://www.desertdomes.com/domecalc.html
- http://www.byexample.com/projects/current/dome_construction/
Other people’s Geodome construction blog’s / instructions, learn by example!
- http://drazium.com/mustard/dome/index.html
- http://graphics.stanford.edu/~munzner/dome/
- http://burningman.rengeekcentral.com/Dome.html
Time & Money
| Estimated | So Far… | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to Design | 30 hrs | 3 hrs |
| Time to Build (Including sourcing/scrounging materials!) |
40 hrs | 0 hrs |
| Cost to Build | £500 | £0 |
Covering Your Dome
This is going to be a UK based dome which means that waterproofing is a greater consideration than UV blocking heating from the sun! Having said that it would be helpful if it wasn’t a complete heat trap or I’ll end up frying all the lovely guests!
Review So Far!
Having had a quick look into this it looks as though its going to go on the back burner for now as my initial plan was to have a dome of around 2.5m radius, with various things supported by the frame itself (lighting, a swing seat and so on!). Plugging this into the dome calculator at http://www.byexample.com gives me a rough total strut length of around 172m for a 3v.
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/……
£10.50 (25mm Galv x 3.75m) = £481.60!
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/…..
£7.50 (20mm Galv x 3.75m) = £344!
http://www.megatradestore.com/Tube_Steel__Alloy/….
£538 (30 x 6m X 33.7MM X 3.25MM) = £538!
This is getting expensive as I haven’t even thought about a cover for it yet! Back to the drawing board.
How about PVC conduit instead of the galvanised steel? It would then be tougher to make the geodome as I’d now need to make star connectors instead of flattening and bending each end of the pipe.
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Conduit_Pvc_Index/….
20mm White PVC 3m = £1.15
172m = £65.93
20mm White PVC Heavy Gauge 3m = £1.85
172m = £106.07
20mm White PVC heavy gauge 75m = £16.13 + 20%
225m = £58.07
This looks much more affordable and with the bundles of tubing I may be able to increase the size of the dome! It’s not what I was originally after though so I may have to have a think on it.
£4.80+VAT (20mm Galv x 3m) x 35 lengths = £168+VAT = £202
Finishing Touches
I have a few ideas for finishing touches but I’m only going to spend time on these as and when I’ve built the dome!
- Astroturf flooring, slightly raised to allow water to run underneath.
- LED Chandelier
- Swing seat hanging from two apex
- Narnia lap outside the front door