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Looks like a fun project but also illustrates why geodesic domes never caught on as a standard construction type: nodes/hubs or whatever you want to call them a

Looks like a fun project but also illustrates why geodesic domes never caught on as a standard construction type: nodes/hubs or whatever you want to call them are a problem. Most standard construction joints have 90 or 45 degree angles, not the complex geometry found at a geodesic node. While initial construction is not that bad, maintenance and replacement over time (particularly with wooden structures) would be very difficult. All-steel construction of nodes and interconnecting beams, wih careful rust-resistant treatment, might be more viable, but that likely increases costs quite a bit.

soperj 4y ago
> maintenance and replacement over time How much maintenance do you do on the wood in your current house?
- jonathankoren 4y ago
  Fair point in abstract, but geodesic dome houses are notorious for leaking. Case in point, Bucky’s house in Carbondale https://fullerdomehome.com/ https://fullerdomehome.com/
carapace 4y ago
They caught on for covering large areas (stadiums, aircraft hangars, etc.) but they don't really make sense on what you might call the "human scale", roughly 3 to 10 meters, say. At human scale wood and metal are strong and light enough that you don't really need geodesic designs. (Wood and metal are geodesic already, just at small scale, eh?) - - - - A slight tangent, but check out the demo carbon-fiber strut work here: https://dragonplate.com/carbon-fiber-truss https://dragonplate.com/carbon-fiber-truss > The truss measures 8 feet long, 16 inches high with a depth of 12 inches. This is just one of many structures that could be easily built using our square tubes and gussets. Weighing in at just 14lbs., the truss is light enough for a six year old child to lift and carry! They show that: a cute kid holding it up, no problem. Then they load it up. > ...we loaded it with 35 80lb. bags of concrete mixture, totaling a whopping weight of 2800 lbs.! Again, we saw no signs of weakness or flexing. We would have put on more bags, but we just couldn't stack them any higher! We could cover whole cities with domes...
- photochemsyn 4y ago
  Those trusses look very solid. One back-burner research project of mine is synthesizing carbon fiber using atmospheric CO2 as the feedstock, it's fairly involved but plausible.
  - carapace 4y ago
    That sounds good!
- ragazzina 4y ago
  There must be an easy way to simulate the load on that truss and calculate the number of bags it could bear, no?
  - carapace 4y ago
    Finite element analysis might work well?

soperj 4y ago

> maintenance and replacement over time How much maintenance do you do on the wood in your current house?

jonathankoren 4y ago
Fair point in abstract, but geodesic dome houses are notorious for leaking. Case in point, Bucky’s house in Carbondale https://fullerdomehome.com/ https://fullerdomehome.com/

carapace 4y ago

They caught on for covering large areas (stadiums, aircraft hangars, etc.) but they don't really make sense on what you might call the "human scale", roughly 3 to 10 meters, say. At human scale wood and metal are strong and light enough that you don't really need geodesic designs. (Wood and metal are geodesic already, just at small scale, eh?) - - - - A slight tangent, but check out the demo carbon-fiber strut work here: https://dragonplate.com/carbon-fiber-truss https://dragonplate.com/carbon-fiber-truss > The truss measures 8 feet long, 16 inches high with a depth of 12 inches. This is just one of many structures that could be easily built using our square tubes and gussets. Weighing in at just 14lbs., the truss is light enough for a six year old child to lift and carry! They show that: a cute kid holding it up, no problem. Then they load it up. > ...we loaded it with 35 80lb. bags of concrete mixture, totaling a whopping weight of 2800 lbs.! Again, we saw no signs of weakness or flexing. We would have put on more bags, but we just couldn't stack them any higher! We could cover whole cities with domes...

photochemsyn 4y ago
Those trusses look very solid. One back-burner research project of mine is synthesizing carbon fiber using atmospheric CO2 as the feedstock, it's fairly involved but plausible.
- carapace 4y ago
  That sounds good!
ragazzina 4y ago
There must be an easy way to simulate the load on that truss and calculate the number of bags it could bear, no?
- carapace 4y ago
  Finite element analysis might work well?