How to Build a RanDome Geodesic Shelter
Easy and Quick Emergency or Transitional Shelter
There are one billion people on earth without adequate shelter. The RanDome method takes the complexity out of building a geodesic dome.
Credit: Fabianna Dardati
Copyright: 2011
Published by Fabianna Dardati
Freelance writer, clothing designer and RanDome Geodesic correspondent. View profile
7 Comments
Post a CommentSure Gabriella why not? A RanDome can be constructed in a day or two. It is even quicker when two people are working. This particular dome was used by the Occupy Maine encampment as a community center. As many as 40 people could sit comfortably inside during meetings. It was the warmest place to be in Lincoln Park this winter. Unfortunately that encampment was evicted this past Monday. The RanDome is now being used at another location.
Oh if only everyone had time on their hands for that.
And Burket, I applaud you for thinking outside the box. You actually can create a variety of shapes by merely redistributing the angle deficit throughout the elements. I will ask Dick if he can explain it better but I believe it would entail a larger angle on the top element and a smaller angle on the lower ones. This would probably cause an imbalance in the geodesity though since stress would not be distributed evenly. But in reality any shape can be created by playing with angle deficits and angle surplus.
Not exactly true Dan. Any shape can be used to make the vertex element when using this building method and with any flexible material available. The United Nations or Red Cross could easily implement this method in refugee camps using inexpensive local materials for example. This video shows only a rough demonstration of the application. It is the concept of the RanDome method that can be applied to a variety of constructions for quick yet sturdy structures. It is essentially "building with corners" not edges or faces as is traditionally done. I could also see this method used in building the aft pressure bulkhead in airplanes since the stress from any blow to one section of the dome is distributed throughout the structure. Those bulkheads are always cracking and in constant need of repair as they stand now.
Sure this looks cool and would be fun to build, but it's a joke to think this is something a homeless person or refugee would have the resources to build. Besides the beauty of building with triangles is there is virtually no waste. They don't show you the boat load of scape materials left over from cutting these circles. I'm positive you could take the same original materials and cut them into triangles and make 2 or 3 shelters as large as this one and it would be stronger and have no gaps around the bottom. Sorry but this is a "feel good" project only. Everyone serves as an example, this is just a bad one!
Hello Dick... is it possible to form a " dome " in the shape of a cone instead of a hemisphere?
thx
Any questions?