The Cool House: Geodesic Dome House

Monday, March 03, 2008

Geodesic Dome House



At the corner of two perfectly ordinary suburban streets in Eaton's Neck, Long Island between the ubiquitous ranches and two-storey homes is this geodesic house. We were taking advantage of a really beautiful day to drive out and revisit some of the properties we had seen when we were looking to buy The Coo; House four years ago. Turning down one residential street we were confronted by the dome house. It fits so well into the neighborhood that we'd actually driven past it in the other direction and not even noticed it.
The striking thing about this home, apart from the design of course, is that it is so well maintained. It looks very similar to the Fuller Dome Home in Carbondale, IL, the residence of Bucky Fuller, the architect and inventor who poularised geodesic domes, and his wife Anne. That dome is currently undergoing a major preservation effort.
Although the high point of their popularity was the 1960s and 70s, residential domes are still being made today and, as this GeoSphere video shows, are relatively simple to construct. What may be more challenging is outfitting them to meet the various state and town building codes. But given their energy-efficiency and relatively low build-cost, maybe it's time for a resurgence of this distinctive building model.

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

They do make a lot of sense, financially AND environmentally. Plus, they LOOK COOL! Too bad there's so much red tape in some areas. Glad this one is still in such good condition.

Anonymous said...

relatively simple... if you have a system, or build from a kit...

someone who spent a long time wrestling with the problems of building them concluded they were smart, but not necessarily wise...

I still love them, myself.