How America’s back-to-the-land movement gave rise to the geodesic dome home

The domes of Drop City were neat, but the mathematics of the geometry they used, which Steve Baer called Zome (“zone” + “dome”) is also fascinating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zome http://72.10.54.125/images/resources/-DomesZomes.pdf

In short, it’s what you get when you try to turn the icosahedron and dodecahedron into a practical construction toolkit. Everything fits together remarkably well, using struts which scale in length using the golden ratio τ = ½(1+√5). Indeed, every point you can construct using the system lies on a "golden integer" grid, with x, y, and z coordinates some integer combination of 1 and τ.

I recommend anyone interested in geometry, or anyone who knows some 8–18 year old kids, buy some Zometool toys, http://zometool.com, which are really fantastic tools for learning about geometric modeling for mathematics, physics, chemistry, architecture, computer graphics, .... [The company site doesn’t have the best pictures IMO, but check out a google image search https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=zometool]

By the way, for anyone interested in manufacturing, the Zometool spheres are pretty ridiculous (basically impossible, but somehow they did it) to injection mold. Check out this amusing essay http://bridgesmathart.org/2011/cdrom/proceedings/135/paper_1...

Also check out the fun related papers people have been putting out at the Bridges Math + Art conference every year, http://bridgesmathart.org

Geodesic domes are great, in theory. Once you live in one you may not subscribe to that theory anymore.

The natural cooling only works(?) until you put objects such as people, partitions & furniture in it that disrupts the efficiency of said airflow. If you seal it and heat/cool with conventional means, you get temperature layers as you rise up in multi-level units.

They leak. Period. No matter if it's shingles or rubber or any other coating, domes shrink & contract with every sunrise/sunset. Then when it rains, it rains inside your home.

Try maximizing space in a round room sometime. Sure custom made & high-end offerings are to be had, but where's the simplicity & savings in having to replace all your possessions? Then there's a lot of wasted space above your head that you have to heat/cool for no additional benefit.

Yes, I lived in one for several years. The property was fantastic, the dome was "tolerable", at best. YMMV.

Making livable structures is not hard, geodesic or not. The problem is bums and druggies and petty crooks, as the article details. Figure out a way to banish them and we can live cheaply and peacefully.