DOME
Classic design
boasts value,
energy efficiency
The way to go
by Olive Witte
Not all the good ideas for
energy conservation are
new ones. Some are decades or
centuries old and are being rediscovered and adapted to today’s urgent
need to be more frugal
in the way buildings are
designed and built.
A classic example is
the dome, which has
been used for centuries.
Examples include the Pantheon in
Rome, the Duomo Cathedral in Florence, Italy, and even the igloo.
A more modern variation is the
geodesic design.
Today, domed structures can be
found for every building type, from
two-car garages to stadiums, churches
to offices and houses to warehouses.
The modern day dome was originally developed in 1922 by a German inventor and popularized in the
1950s and 1960s by American futurist R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983).
Among his most famous buildings
are Spaceship Earth at Disney’s EPCOT
Center in Florida and the Climatron in
St. Louis.
A geodesic structure is composed
of a repeating network of triangles.
Although it looks like a dome, it is
Oregon Dome photo
American Ingenuity photo
Top, the 61-foot diameter Cottage Grove school, built by Swearengin Construction,
takes shape quickly. The foundation is created with insulated concrete forms.
Above, an upper level panel on a small dome home is easily hoisted into place.
