My Sister and I Had a Geodesic Dome Play House

When we were ages three and four, my sister and I took for granted our cool, igloo-like playhouse. Looking back, though, it was pretty neat that we actually had a scale model of a real geodesic dome house to play in. What on earth is a geodesic dome? Well, they are structures shaped like half a sphere, constructed of many triangles or other shapes of different sizes. Disney's Epcot Center in Florida is the home of a very famous geodesic sphere, called Spaceship Earth. Imagine that sphere cut in half. You'd have two geodesic domes!

In 1968, my mother, newly divorced from my dad, decided to move us to Canada to live with an old friend. He was an artsy type like my mom, who was caught up in the dome building craze of the day. He followed plans and designs out of the Whole Earth Catalog. (More about that catalog a bit later). My sister and I would go roam around the woods while my mom and her friend built and painted model after model of geodesic dome houses. They studied the Whole Earth Catalog from dawn to dusk when they weren't busy building models. Most of the models were small and fit on the kitchen table. But they made one large model that was eight feet wide and four feet high. It became our play house.

R. Buckminster Fuller first patented the geodesic dome in August of 1965. He was the first to patent it, but he was not the original inventor of the geodesic dome structure. Actually, the geodesic dome's roots come from post WWI Germany. In 1922, Walter Bauersfeld designed and built the first dome to house a planetarium in Jena, Germany. He did not pursue further development of the structure. So R. Buckminster Fuller is credited with the geodesic dome's design and development and is often mistakenly referred to as its inventor. (See references #2 and #4).

Fuller originally hoped development of geodesic domes would solve the problem of mass housing needs after WWII. Domes were easy to build, very cost effective, and extremely strong structurally. Fuller's passionate vision for dome house communities did not catch on with the post WWII public. His vision had to wait until Stewart Brand and the Whole Earth Catalog to catch on with a whole new generation- the hippies. (See references #1 and #4).

In the late 1960's and early 1970's, it was the counter culture rage to build and live in these structures. This was spurred largely by the Whole Earth Catalog and the corresponding counter culture movement. The Whole Earth Catalog (there is probably still an issue at the bottom of my mother's cedar chest) was first published in 1968. It was the brainchild of Stewart Brand. Along with ecology and sustainable living methods, he embraced the ideas of R. Buckminster Fuller on geodesic dome building. He had met Fuller two years prior to publishing the Whole Earth Catalog and agreed with his philosophy of providing sustainable, economical housing to the masses. (See reference #1).

The play house model lasted a long time because it was not just made out of cardboard and paint like all the previous smaller models. It had a wood and chicken wire frame. It was covered in painted papier-mâché and duct tape. It had two windows and a door. As I recall, it was painted in hideous shades of black and grey, but it was still cool. My sister and I spent many happy hours playing in it.

After my mom and her friend built the playhouse, I remember that we had to play at an actual dome house construction site in the woods. I guess it was what they were trying to mock up all along. Being only four, I really didn't care. It was just another place where we played while grownups worked.

We left Canada and moved back to New York to live with my grandmother before the dome house in the woods was finished. I don't know if mom's friend moved into it after it was completed or if he sold it. The market was hot at the time for these geometric oddities. Many were built by counter culture communes in the late 1960's and early 1970's. By the 1980's, over 50,000 geodesic domes had been built around the world. Today, there are over 300,000 domes worldwide. In fact, there are still dome communities in Canada and the U.S.A. (See references #2, #3 and #4).

I have never had a desire to live in a geodesic dome, but I sure have fond memories of our dome playhouse.

Sources: 1.Wikepedia, "Geodesic Dome", "Whole Earth Catalog" and "Stewart Brand"

2. "Geodesic Dome": www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/geodesicdome.htm

3. "American Ingenuity, Inc.", domes since 1976: www.aidomes.com

4. C.J. Fearnley's "Buckminster Fuller" tribute page and FAQ, www.cjfearnley.com/fuller-faq