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Historic Bucky Dome Needs Help 183

Posted by chrisd from the cool-design-meets-bad-roofing-contractor dept.
Anonymous Coward writes "Buckminster Fuller's Geodesic Dome is falling apart and one man hopes to save it. Read more at http://www.msnbc.com/news/748889.asp?0bl=-0" The Buckminster Fuller Institute has a page on the dome, which has contact info for donations.
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Historic Bucky Dome Needs Help More

Historic Bucky Dome Needs Help

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  • Not as much of a perfect, long-lasting structure as they thought, eh?

    • Re:Heh (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Dyolf Knip ( 165446 )
      The funny thing about Geodesic domes is that the bigger you build it, the stronger it gets. From the picture in the article, this one is downright tiny. Small wonder it's 'only' lasted 48 years, 30 of them with little or no maintenance.
  • "Buckminsterfullerene" is a form of carbon where 60 carbon atoms are bonded together into a large molecule that resembles a soccer ball. It is also called C60 or a "Bucky Ball." This "Buckminster Fuller Geodesic Dome" I would suspect is some sort of large bucky ball representation.
    • its the other way around.

      Buckminster Fuller designed the geodesic dome, which is supposed to be an ultra-stable, aesthetically pleasing dome structure.

      Then they discovered C60, which looked remerkably like of of buckminsterfuller's domes. And, being fans, the researchers named it after him. Its a cooler name than "diamond." :) (diamond is another form of carbon. Graphite is, too. Its all about how the carbon is arranged)

      Of course, considering how crucial C60's formation and structure is to carbon nanotubules research, one would think that all the companies making money off (or planning to) it would at least be generous enough to support its namesake. But thats neither here nor there.

      • Of course, considering how crucial C60's formation and structure is to carbon nanotubules research, one would think that all the companies making money off (or planning to) it would at least be generous enough to support its namesake. But thats neither here nor there.

        you would think so, but very few companies are making money off nanotubules. while the demand is there, the inability to mass produce nanotubes has prevented any industry from taking advantage of their unique characteristics.

        i spoke with someone a few weeks ago from the doe. they basically said the word 'nano' is more of a fad and the people in the funding agencies dont see much promise in the near future (10 years or so). in the last few years, people have been sneaking the 'n' prefix into grant titles to increase the chance of funding. since little industrial applicability has resulted, it appears funding is going to shift more into the biomedical arena.
    • Lets try some C4 on the C60 then.
      • well, C60 is a molecule. C4 is a mix of RDX and a clay-likee compound. RDX is Rapid Detonating Explosive or Hexahydro-Trinitro-Triazine or Cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (CAS Number 121-82-4) depending on whome you ask. It is a versital and interesting explosive, and actually has some carbon in it, but is not related to C60. As for blowing up a geodesic dome, the mix of pentagons and hexagons could be weakened most by blowing up the hexagons, as those are the structually important parts (each being surrounded by 6 pentagons) so you get structual damage to 7 parts.
    • Cool Bucky Ball java applet here [jcrystal.com].
    • Uh, that subject should have read:

      "For those who are NOT into chemistry..."
  • " It can be built relatively cheaply with environmentally friendly materials." - the same problem we had. The government built a lot of council high-rise flats from re-inforced concrete in the 60s. Now a lot of them are crumbling too.

  • a cry for help (Score:1, Troll)

    by tps12 ( 105590 )
    I think this is something that every slashdot reader can get behind. Far be it from me to attempt to voice the concerns of the community, but Mr. Fuller deserves the respect of us all after his work in architecture that lead to important discovers in chemistry.

    This is a landmark that should be preserved at all costs. I don't think any of us will have a problem giving a small portion of our incomes to such a worthy cause. Since we are all good Americans, none of us should mind paying a nominal tax in honor of the greatest Buckminster than we have ever known.

    God bless.

    • Re: (Score:1, Redundant)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • where's the positive stuff? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dbrower ( 114953 ) on Saturday May 11, 2002 @11:21PM (#3504586) Journal
    bucky domes are/were the perfect thing for protecting radar antennas from the elements, and for covering the tops of large otherwise open tanks.

    they're not so good for building houses, though, as a retrospective shows -- the labor to fit drywall, the impossibility of making windows and roofing that don't leak, the impedence mismatches of standard rectanglar building materials and furniture; all make life with a dome a pain and not very cost effective.

    but cool, man. the big dome in montreal for expo 70 was awsome; it too fell into disrepair.

    -dB
    • Actually I thought the domes didn't so much protect the antennas from the elements as hide which direction the antenna was pointed. With satellite photography what it is now, it becomes very easy to see things as big as antennas and see exactly where they are looking. The domes probably did a little bit of both.
      • Actually I thought the domes didn't so much protect the antennas from the elements as hide which direction the antenna was pointed. With satellite photography what it is now, it becomes very easy to see things as big as antennas and see exactly where they are looking. The domes probably did a little bit of both.

        The NWS [noaa.gov] puts protective domes around their NEXRAD [ampr.org] dishes. Since they have no reason to hide the dishes from spying eyes, one can assume that its purpose is protecting the dish from inclement weather. Of course, they're not entirely successful [stormtrack.org].

      • Why are you using the past tense? They're still used today - Menwith Hill in the UK has dozens of them.
    • Yes - I remember reading a story about a person who lived in a round house getting a wall to wall wardrobe. They were told it'd take only two days - ended up taking two weeks!
    • The domes were built pretty cheaply and with a few decades of neglect, they just won't last. The upside is the weight of the structure is very light and makes for a good cover in many environments and situations. Maybe its not the best design for a house, but then again it was never considered very seriously by real estate developers. Which usually means no pre-fab easy to install indoor components, lazy roofing (they can be sealed easily), prohibitive price because of small production, etc.
    • I think we now have the technology to make domes worthwhile again. Roofing can now be sprayed on polymer. Inexpensive, long-lasting, and absolutely leak proof. Insulation can also be sprayed on, and can look nice enough that it need not be covered. Traditional drywall is not necessary... Windows, OTHO, I know little about.

      I will definitely consider a dome as a vacation home off in the woods. 1000 acres, some solar panels, and a really tall mast for my cellphone antenna. :-)
      • Windows has another meaining: A "window" is a piece of glass set into a wall to allow light to pass through. It can be used to look outside while remaining inside. Some windows can be opened to allow the exterior atmosphere into the interior. "She looked out the window and, seeing that it was a beautiful spring day, she opened it to get some fresh air."
    • I think you need to be updated on todays Domes. I built mine in 1999 from a kit and it has over 4,500 sf of finished space, none of which leaks. I have 7 trianglar windows (6' on a side, two are skylites) along with other woindows, which do not leak either. The manufacturer of my dome has been in business more than 30 yrs and have more than a thousand domes to their credit. Most people don't use dry wall on their dome interior (only on vertical walls), but you can, I have Spruce T&G paneling on mime. The biggest misconception is that domes are round, NOT; they are many short (~8' horz.) straight walls; what furniture doesn;t fit on an 8' wall? I do admit that I have no rooms in my house with 4-90 degree corners and 4 walls (most rooms are lucky to have 1-90 degree corner and less than 5 walls). My dome was made from standard 2x4/2x6 lumber, and 4x8 sheating with very little waste. I also have 18" between the roof and the ceiling with 16" of insulation (I heat & cool for the cost of a 2200sf house). But the real "cool" things are: 28ft ceilings; a skyloft/cupola pentagon room with windows on all sides and is not supported from below (think, inside tree house; clear spans of 50' across because no bearing walls are required; a large flying area for my RC blimp; no hallways; and lots of "wows" from visitors. Conventional houses are boxes with windows, domes are thinking outside the box! Lastly, re "cost effective", well, my home cost $285,000 to build, has 4,500sf of living space that uses the same energy as a 2,200sf home; what is not effective? I enjoy my "pain" very much!!!
  • So far, Perk has only raised $100 for repairs, but he's undeterred

    He bought it in 1999.. has $100 out of $100,000. and is 70... he better get a move on it... (Guess story on MSNBC is a start..)

  • dymaxion house (Score:5, Informative)

    by Keev ( 573393 ) on Saturday May 11, 2002 @11:25PM (#3504600)
    Less well known than the Geodesic Dome is Fuller's Dymaxion House, a very cool hangout in my opinion with lots of features like "O-volving" shelves built in. See the nice restoration project pages [hfmgv.org] at the Henry Ford Museum for more info.
    • Speaking of Dymaxions, I've always been a fan of his 3-wheeled Dymaxian automobiles [automuseum.org].

      20 feet long, V8-powered, 120MPH max, 25-30 MPG, zero turning radius. Impressive specs from the early 1930's that are often not matched by today's vehicles.

    • And for those people who don't know what o-volving refers to hopefully this sentence will help out : "Among the many novel features to enhance the use of storage space were what Fuller called O-volving shelf containers, which were mounted on a continuous chain system behind a partition whereby the equivalent of an 18ft stack of shelves could be rotated electrically until the desired shelf levelled with the access hatch."
    • The Dymaxion house seems very much like a Yurt constructed from more costly materials.
  • I'm pretty shocked that since 1999 when he bought the place to restore it, he only managed to raise $100 for renovation!!! Either he's incompetent (which I doubt), or he just hasn't been trying very hard. So why the sudden push now all of a sudden?
    • The article did say that only one man hopes to save it. I imagine he didn't have much more than $100 after forking over the 50 Gs to buy it in the first place.

      I for one fail to see the historic significance of this thing. Yes, it was the only dome Fuller ever lived in. So what? He himself sold the damn thing.

      Aside from being a very slightly distinguished example of a concept that utterly failed to revolutionize housing as we know it, it's just a house. I can respect that it was this guy's buddy's house, but apparently it's nevertheless a shoddily maintained moneypit with not much else to recommend it. Bulldoze it and reuse the land.

  • Photos/Site (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Well, I would take photos of the building then tear it down. Photos and a website will be good enough if somebody wants to know anything about it. It is obviously that it is not worth to keep it up with maintenance for next many years. I am assuming that this designer just want to build to "show" that it can be done, not for long-term purpose. If anyone wants something to last, someone would've done it better in first place.
  • from the article:

    He is also considering bequeathing the dome to SIU in his will.
    He believes the university should buy the building or pay for its renovation.

    If he wants the university to buy it from him, why did he say he might give it to them in his will? Now all they have to do is wait for him to croak (and he looks fairly elderly from the picture)
    • I'd have to agree all things considered. But not for the reason you state. And his doing so would be unfortunate at best. Since this would likely result in the demolition of the structure.

      As Susan carefully eluded to in her reply in the article SIU has no interest in purchasing this house for a number of reasons. There is no funding either for the purchase much less the maintence or restoration of the home. Additionally It is located in a residential neighborhood that is not ajoining any campus property, this in it's self causes issues.

      As a side note, SIU Does still maintain at least one dome picnic shelter. But SIU has owned several of these homes that were located on or immediatly ajoining the camus and has torn them down due to the high cost of maintence. The two most prominate ones are now a vacant lot and a small Labyrinth park(painted on the foundation of the dome).
  • My house is also falling apart. How do I get it nationally recognized as a historical landmark?

    The frost on the roof once resembled Buckminster's face (although he was missing a nostril). Is this enough to qualify?

  • You'd think that... (Score:2, Informative)

    by newerbob ( 577746 )
    ...the dot-com whiz-kids that run /. could have cleaned up that URL a bit.

    I mean, 10 seconds of experimentation shows that http://www.msnbc.com/news/748889.asp [msnbc.com]works just as well, and is at least 30% less messy looking.

  • Name one person who DOESNT need(or want) money? It'd be one thing to give to a local charity, or donate time somewhere local, but SUBSUDISE a house renovation project??

    Fuck it. Let it rot.

  • I'm wondering how it could possibly cost $100K to renovate a little teeny geodesic dome like that one? I mean, it's presumably built out of inexpensive materials: where does that kind of money go on this project? Couldn't someone find a couple of college students willing to do it for $15K ea + materials over a summer? For that matter, wouldn't someone donate the materials?

  • and coworker's parents has a dome house.

    I cost a lot to build, and they couldn't sell it when they put it on the real estate market.

    I've been in it several times, it's interesting. It's bigger inside than it looks on the outside. The heating/cooling does seem to always be very consistant, it seems to have less temperature variation than a normal square house.

    Someone mentioned leaks, my friend never mentioned problems with leaks, even though it has several skylights.

    He reads slashdot, but he never posts, maybe this will be his first story to post in, after all, he is pretty qualified to post on this one!
  • if it was rebuilt to code. A code that onw includes
    domed constructions...

    I've volunteered for the Buckminster Fuller Institute ( http://www.bfi.org/ ) as a means of puting my money (or absence there of,) where my mouth is.

    Fuller ranks right up there with Steve Wolfram as far as I'm concerned.
  • I took an instant liking to domes when I first saw one some years ago. I also became interested in Bucky's work.

    A few years ago I met a guy called John Rich who is a very well respected dome builder in New Zealand with a long list of successful stories and an informative site at http://www.geocities.com/geodesicsnz

    He has told a funny story relating to ventilation in a dome he built. It goes something like this:

    Building inspector arrives to do final inspection of newly built dome. All is well except that he insists that a ceiling fan be installed at the top of the dome. John argues that the natural ventilation makes this unnecessary but the inspector refuses to sign off unless this is done. Fan is reluctantly installed and the inspector is called back. He sees the fan rotating nicely and happily signs the certificate. As he is leaving, John shows him the fan's power cord, not plugged in :-)

  • Are these of any practical use? You'd think they would be more popular if they actually provided a solution to some kind of problem..

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