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Historic Bucky Dome Needs Help

Posted by chrisd on 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.

4 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. dymaxion house by Keev · · Score: 5, Informative

    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 at the Henry Ford Museum for more info.

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  2. Re:where's the positive stuff? by zer0vector · · Score: 2, Informative

    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.

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    Striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap, will be the leap ho
  3. You'd think that... by newerbob · · Score: 2, Informative
    ...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.aspworks just as well, and is at least 30% less messy looking.

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  4. Re:ROFLMAO by Technician · · Score: 3, Informative

    structure is falling apart much quicker than my presure-treated-wood ad brick home?
    Actualy that is a very valid question. A lot has been learned in building domes in the last 40 years. The biggest lesson learned is that roofing the thing to keep the water out does cause problems trapping condensation in the shell promoting decay. The shape was good. The early ventilation was poor.
    Almost all new domes now have building code requirements to have the shell ventilated to prevent condensation from building up inside the outer shell. If you built a traditional home and didn't put in eve and roof vents, they also would rot out due to condensation under the shingles in the winter. Roof ventilation is required in both types of homes. More information on dome wall cavity ventilation using a cupola can be found here; http://www.domesnorthwest.com/Explanations.htm

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