Evan White

I’m a bit of a Buckminster Fuller fanboy. I like his style and his methods. He has a peculiar way of expressing his ideas and is so thorough that the contrast between Bucky’s omni-comprehensive treatment of a topic and contemporary dialog that is glitter and gloss that rarely scratches the surface and almost always misses the point. At times I wonder if there is a signal in the noise. I digress….

Other things I like about Bucky

• Self Disciplines: Chronofile & documentation through patents
• Observations: Precession & Ephemeralization
• Humility and devotion to his God and fellow man

Bucky has a Cartesian outlook which, to me, is the rare ability to maintain skepticism and investigate to obtain certainty when others accept dogma and move on, combined with the self awareness to deliberately fashion principles and build a framework of knowledge upon them through experience tested lessons.  He spent his time in service to humanity working to make the biggest difference he could.  He focused on structures because they were so fundamental to everyday life.

TLDR; Buckminster Fuller built domes, and domes are awesome.

Structurally strong with minimal materials. Largest enclosed volume with minimal surface area. Sexy to look at.

I grew up not far from these domes and I think they look amazing. When I moved to Rochester, NY there was an ecohouse communal that bragged about having their own dome, and I was impressed.  So I was leafing through the book Getting Started in Permaculture and saw a DIY project for a geodesic dome to be made out of PVC and used as a shade house.

I bought the material, cut the pieces, and formed some of the ends.  Problem!  PVC burns and gives off toxic fumes.  I was using a $10 grill as suggested by my guide to all things permaculture and it wasn’t working.  The pieces were burning, deforming, fuming…it was not good.  So the dome pieces went into storage for years. I felt badly about my project, but not badly enough to motivate me.

The problem was not so much a lack of imagination, but a lack of inspiration.  It bothered me to leave the project unfinished but there were better things to do.  Semi-recently I created a smaller scale model out of toothpicks, which was fun and easy.

It took months before I was ready to act and the catalyst was the MakeSpace.

At the MakeSpace, people do things. Ruby programmers meet there.  They talk about the Bitcoin market.  It is a place of action.  Take a look!  So, I talked shop with some guys about my problem.  They had vacuum formed some signs with a homemade vacuum former.  They had a 3D printer.  I decided to finish my project.

I bought a heat gun for $20 and rigged a tin can so that I could blow the hot air into a confined space that would heat the ends of the PVC enough to press them easily.  Seventy-five pressed pieces later and I was ready for assembly. The work was not done with precision but it fit together easily enough.

I already have some tomatos seedlings that have sprouted.

And now that it is April and the chance of frost abates, soon my plants will migrate outside permanently in their domed greenhouse (the plastic is a painters tarp).

Locally there is some aquaponic experimentation going on that could use some dome influence.  Many people are already hard at work in related projects.  Bigelow Brook Farm Youtube Channel documents the construction of their aquaponic greenhouse dome. There are websites dedicated to explaining and assisting with dome projects. Kickstarter campaigns are funding greenhouse domes with aquaponics.  There are even PVC connectors to make construction a snap!  The dome greenhouse thing is kind of a big deal.

I really like the practicality and simplicity of a hexayurt. There are drawbacks to domed construction in a rectangular world.  It is hard to cut materials without waste, odd angles create unforeseen living space issues, and insulation/wiring have caused problems for some.  Hexayurts are easily constructed from rectangular plywood without waste and they are used as emergency shelters recently in Haiti with success.

Something else I really like; checking the box on another project complete.