Are you looking for an original garden shed? A shape that is out of the ordinary and brings a little extra soul to your exterior? A roof that is much more than that, a living room as such? It’s possible. This is possible because you can now find construction building kits for atypical structures: tiny houses, geodesic domes. If you want to build an original home office in your garden, rather than opting for a traditional shelter you can choose a special design for your garden office: an igloo-shaped structure that is both eco-friendly and visually appealing.
Do you want to know more? Keep reading!
What Exactly Is a Geodesic Dome?
A geodesic dome is an architectural construction established on the basis of the sphere, or of a portion of a sphere, previously broken down into geometric shapes (triangle, square, pentagon) so that the structure itself is self-supporting (not requiring no significant foundations).
The advantages of such a structure are:
- the volume/area ratio: the sphere is the volumetric shape with the smallest area for the same volume (heating savings, for example, lower cost of cover, etc.);
- it can be made of a material (wood, iron, or even aluminum) at low cost;
- assembly is repetitive and easy;
- the interior space is easily convertible, despite its almost round shape and pleasant appearance.
- the spherical shape always creates natural ventilation and reduces your bill by 50 to 60% compared to a conventional building. What is more, natural light penetrates these homes from everywhere, another great saving in electricity in prospect!
- geodesic structures let in much more light than conventional structures. They also offer a breathtaking panorama of the surrounding landscape. Round shapes are soft and therefore improve the quality of life.
These structures are very versatile and can be used to build greenhouses, special event spaces, glamping domes, yoga domes, homes, or a fancy office design outside of your main house.
If you want to build an original home office in your garden that combines comfort and originality; the geodesic dome is for you! With its futuristic design, it does not go unnoticed. Inside, everything is there to ensure your comfort and well-being: very good insulation, stability, strength, natural light.
And the good news is that today you can build this type of structure yourself with the help of a ready-made geodesic dome kit that contains all the elements you need for the construction: the plan, the struts, the window frames, the geodesic dome connectors, and the covers.
Using a geodome kit you will be able to build an original, singular home office solution create an inspiring work environment. Rather than rearranging your house – which is not always possible or involves work that discourages most people, the choice of an outdoor shelter as a workroom and extra office offers an easy and very practical setup.
The first-ever geodesic dome was designed shortly after World War I by Walter Bauersfeld; chief engineer of the German optical company Carl Zeiss, to house the projector of a planetarium.
A planetarium is a demonstrative and educational application of projecting the moving celestial vault onto the interior of a hemisphere. It is an extension of the history of knowledge initiated by the Chinese 4000 years ago; continued by Egyptian, Greek, and Roman astronomers with the celestial globes.
The dome was patented and manufactured by the company in 1922 and Dykerhoff Wydmann on the roof of the Zeiss Jena factory in Germany and opened to the public the same year.
About thirty years later, R. Buckminster Fuller rediscovered this idea and named the dome “geodesic” after a series of field experiments with Kenneth Snelson and others at Black Mountain College in the late ’40s.
Although it can’t be said that Fuller is the inventor of the geodesic dome he exploited and developed the idea, receiving a US patent. The Fuller geodesic dome fascinated me because it was extremely durable with respect to its own weight, because its “omnitriangolare” structure was fundamentally stable and because it contained the maximum possible volume with the minimum area.
We owe this inventor, engineer, and humanist visionary many studies and achievements.
Buckminster Fuller produced a number of domes for schools and universities as well as for the army. He supervised the construction of experimental structures as well as the hemispherical plywood domes of 13 m in diameter.
Conclusion
He hoped his dome would help solve the post-war housing crisis. In fact, from a technical point of view; geodesic domes are much superior to traditional constructions formed by pillars, beams, and slabs. Traditional constructions use much less efficient materials, are much heavier, much less stable compared to geodesic domes.
For more useful information about geodesic domes and about the different kinds of construction kits available today on the market, you can check out the presentation on mygeodome.com.
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