Dome StoryPlanning & Building a Geodesic Home by Lucas Adams ISBN 1-891429-04-3 73-pages w/ photos & illustrations $8.95 |
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The geodesic dome has a lot of conceptual and aesthetic appeal for people of all ages, especially today’s younger generation trying to get their money’s worth in affordable housing. What is a geodesic dome? Webster’s dictionary defines it as “made of light, straight structural elements largely in tension.” Another description would be a self-supporting hemispherical structure whose outer shell is comprised of a geometric, triangular web-work or frame of boards (struts), held together with some type of hub system, and covered with a skin. The geometry of the web can vary greatly, from relatively few large triangles to many, many small triangles. In addition, there are several different hub configurations. All of the geodesic possibilities are beyond the scope of this book however, and if more information is needed by the reader I would recommend Domebook 2, which described not only geodesic math, but several structures which had been built. Other books (listed in the bibliography) by or about Buckminster Fuller, considered to be the father of geodesic domes, are also recommended. When Domebook 2 came out, it offered an alternative form of shelter, unique, aesthetically appealing and relatively inexpensive when compared with conventional construction, which uses a great amount of material. By utilizing fewer studs or struts than a regular house, a dome could be framed which would cover the same area as conventional framing with 1/3 less lumber, and infinitely more appeal. Cover the frame with a suitable waterproof material or “skin,” finish out the interior, and you’ve got yourself a home. At least on paper. A dome, in reality, can be a great amount of extra labor and materials, (not to mention expense) if not properly planned. It is an exercise in problem solving, not just mathematically, but in other ways such as making conventional things like doors and windows fit in with the structure and function properly, and utilizing the space to maximum benefit. Curved walls and ceilings are somewhat limiting when it comes to breaking up the interior space with “normal” square or rectangular rooms. ... |
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Domes to Decagons Exploring Alternative Housing by Lucas Adams ISBN 1-891429-06-X 61-pages w/ photos & illustrations $8.95 Lucas Adams also wrote Dome Story |
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Foam and Stucco Domes Foam and stucco domes are made by using air-inflated bags that are sprayed with urethane foam and then covered with a masonry product. They share some of the same characteristics as geodesic domes, with the exception of the triangular facet pattern created by the geodesic frame. Good strength and an increased R-factor due to the superior insulating qualities of the foam are pluses for this type of structure, as is the fact that air bags can be made into numerous shapes. Using computer-aided drafting, complex shapes can be cut and made into highly sculptural air bags which become functional structures once they are covered in foam and stucco. Well, except for the plumbing, electrical, doors, windows, cabinets, fixtures and a myriad of other things... It is all these other things that can end up taking more time due to the custom fitting requisite. Some of this time can be saved through simplifying some design element or another, such as limiting interior wall contact with the curved exterior walls for instance. Placing cabinets on interior walls will help simplify the project as well. Another interesting design is to have almost no interior walls at all by utilizing a multiple pod approach. Instead of dividing one large dome into smaller spaces with interior walls, several smaller domes are linked together to create the rooms needed. The trade-off (and there usually is one) is an increase in the time and materials needed to build the multiple pods versus a single one. A foam and stucco dome has many of the same attributes as a geodesic dome: sturdiness, energy efficiency and enhanced aesthetic qualities. Also, the same maintenance issues exist.
Free Form Structures Sculptural houses can be built using a free-form wire and metal armature superstructure, and once covered in stucco and foam offer an interesting alternative house. Actually, some of the higher density foams are about as strong as a piece of pine, and might not need to be stuccoed at all, but simply coated with a paint containing a ultraviolet (UV) inhibitor. The trade-off is the lowered insulation value, because the foam does not expand as much as low density foams, if at all. Urethane products are becoming more widespread and have a variety of densities, expansions, cure rates and elastic properties. Constructing this type of house involves pouring a slab, with all the usual plumbing, footings, reinforcement wire and steel and leaving long rebar rods sticking out of the concrete. After the slab cures for a few days the rebar rods can be bent over and wire tied to create various curved shapes. Additional rebar is added horizontally and in areas that need reinforcing. The structure is covered in layers of wire mesh or metal lathe. Gunite is then sprayed on the wire or mesh, and after curing the entire structure is sprayed inside with urethane foam insulation. Another method of construction involves application of the foam first, followed by the gunite on top of that. Gunite is the term used for the sprayed application of a concrete product. It is usually done by swimming pool contractors and if additional strength is needed, polymers can be added to the concrete. The masonry cement can also be hand troweled instead of spraying, the trade-off being a savings of money, but an increase of time and labor. As with any curved or free-form structure, the windows and doors need to be carefully planned. Wood framing incorporated into the structure during the foam-spraying stage allows the use of conventional windows, doors, cabinets and shelves. Electrical wiring is either roughed-in to the slab or incorporated into the walls. The interior of the shell which is foamed and then plastered, give sort of an organic, modern cave look. Nooks can be designed into the walls, as well as cabinets, shelves, plant ledges, and cat dens. In a dome or other structure with curved walls or odd angles, the finish work can be very laborious. Custom cutting and fitting always takes a little longer, and there is a potential for more wasted materials or drop-offs. Another factor to be considered is that both the foam spraying and the stucco or gunite usually have to be contracted out, which partly cancels the owner-built savings aspect. The two pieces of equipment ...
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Future Odyssey by Lucas Adams ISBN 1-891429-35-3 Science Fiction, 164-pages $14.95 Lucas Adams also wrote Dome Story |
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Chapter One
Year 2275. The Luxury Space Liner Iasimov neared Jupiter, her final sightseeing destination after several months of planet hopping. The first of her kind, she had weathered the long trip into deep space well with only a few minor problems with the engines. The three hundred seventy passengers and crew of 50 were tiring somewhat of the voyage though, having been away from Earth for two long years and were eager to begin the return trip home. As glamorous as a long space cruise had sounded in the advertisements, it was still a prolonged trip lasting over four years, and most of the passengers hadn’t fully realized the implications of deep space travel. The space cruiser although twice as fast as earlier space exploration craft, still relied on liquid fuel rocket engines developed in the late 1900’s to attain her record 100,000 miles per hour. As large as an ocean liner and even more lavish, she shared many of the same amenities. She was fully equipped with spas, theaters, a simulated golf course, swimming pools, a library and a dozen other facilities which all helped to occupy her ultra wealthy passengers for the first two years, but were now boring to the jaded space travelers. Their boredom would end soon... One of the three hundred seventy passengers was not who he appeared to be, but few of the other planetary sightseers had noticed that his appearance and demeanor were not up to their posh standards. In fact, hardly any of the other passengers had noticed him at all. He seemed to blend in, and nothing about him drew attention to himself. His outward physical characteristics didn’t reveal his heightened fitness level borne of the military, and other than having a rugged handsomeness he was very average looking. For two years the quiet Mr. Smith had mingled with the other passengers and crew, asking questions about the ship’s operations and capabilities, seemingly with little real interest. The crew was proud of the Iasimov, and even volunteered information on occasion to the auspicious man who pretended to be a travel agent. It was a natural fit. He had even been allowed into the engine room once, usually restricted to the crew, under the pretense of advertising the ship’s safety to his clients. Safety was the last thing on his mind, however. His objective was simple. “Gain as much information as possible, and use it to fulfill the mission,” his superior had told him, adding, “everyone’s expendable.” Like a good soldier he had not questioned the morality of the plan handed to him. At least, not for two years... He had come to know all the people aboard the Iasimov in their prolonged confinement together. While he didn’t necessarily like them much at first some of them had grown on him, like the Miller family with their twin teenage girls, the retired distinguished looking Air Force Colonel Gray, and then there was the Johnson family with two young boys so much like his own. He especially liked the only family of African descent aboard, Joba and Shani Kampala, who always dressed in their colorful dashikis. And strangely enough, he had even taken a liking to the lanky Evan Lee, a shameless alcoholic with a surprisingly sparkling wit, who was only on the trip because he had won a ticket. There were others he didn’t care for at all, and would not have given a second thought to their demise. The snobby Wanamakers were at the top of that list, and the more he got to know them, the more he looked forward to his mission. He began to refer to them quietly to himself as “the Wanamakabucks” after he sat at their table for dinner one evening and listened to Stout brag about his illegal escapades. Stout Wanamaker was a wimpy man who had been a banker skirting the laws for years back on Earth, and had gotten away with billions of dollars in his scams. His wife Margo, who was nearly twice his size, made Stout look like a choirboy though in her endeavors. Married four times, all of her ultra wealthy husbands had died mysterious deaths, leaving her the wealthy widow again and again. The authorities had never been able to prove a thing... Then there was the Rydell family, one of the wealthiest anywhere on Earth, and one of the most despised because of their human econo-slave trade business. Most of the other ultra wealthy passengers steered clear of them, or tried to. In their own minds Mick and Bev Rydell were unworthy of their fortune, in spite of the fact that almost all of them were equally notorious and appalling in some way or another. Some of the Iasimov’s maintenance crew had been sold into economic slavery by Mick Rydell, and when the crew heard who was on the voyage they nearly started a revolt. The Kampalas, especially, found the Rydells to be disturbing in their attitudes, and even though the econo-slave trade wasn’t illegal it was unfair because the workers could never work off their debt. The who’s who list of notorious people aboard the space cruiser also included a weapons manufacturer with few morals and many vices, Hans Mueller, responsible for the deaths of millions of people through his products. Mueller was a man without a conscience... he had to be lacking one in order to sleep at night. Another equally despicable passenger aboard who had little conscience was Blake Forbes, the head of the largest corporate farming enterprise on planet Earth. Forbes had caused untold suffering in third world countries when he had artificially inflated food prices ten years earlier, causing almost as many deaths as his weapons friend, while making billions of dollars. At one point the two had even gone so far as to ghoulishly compare notes on the body count while sitting alone at the bar late one night. Mueller won, but not by much... As notoriety went though, none was more well known than the legal counselor who had successfully defended several of the ship’s more ruthless passengers back on Earth, Alan Dee. He was on this voyage as a bonus from several of them, and was particularly obnoxious and boorish. Small of stature. and weak, without social graces of any kind, he fit right in. The list went on and on...surprisingly few of the travelers were upstanding pillars of their communities, except for the Millers and the Johnsons. Both of those families had a lot in common, and during the voyage they had naturally gravitated to each other, and away from the other snobby passengers. The Miller twins, Jena and Alana were genetically proofed children with no defects common to the norm, but just to look at them one would not notice anything out of the usual except their penetrating eyes. They didn’t speak much, at least to each other, but there was something different about them. They rarely spoke out loud to each other, but seemed to communicate with eye contact, something that a few of the more observant passengers had noticed...and quickly forgotten. Mr. Smith noticed, and had not forgotten. He seemed resistant to their mental suggestions, but wasn’t fully aware that they had even happened. Still, he was having difficulties getting them out of his mind, and thought that he was simply spending too much time with the Millers and their daughters. Besides, it wasn’t a good idea to get too close to people in his line of work. He had a job to do, and coming up on the halfway mark of the cruise meant that it was almost time to execute the plan. The lingering doubts were growing, though. He began to question the plan handed down to him by the brass back on a planet half a million miles away and nearly two years earlier. “Isn’t there a better way to achieve the objective?” He had asked his superior, but only once. That was the type of question that made men in his line of work disappear... Smith knew this for a fact. “Better to go on the mission and achieve the objective our way, than to disappear,” was the response, cold and pointed. That response had a lasting effect, chilling him every time he thought about what he was supposed to do. There must be another way, he kept telling himself... |
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Future Odyssey by Lucas Adams ISBN 1-891429-35-3 Science Fiction, 164-pages $14.95 |
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Domes to Decagons Exploring Alternative Housing by Lucas Adams ISBN 1-891429-06-X 61-pages w/ photos & illustrations $8.95
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Dome StoryPlanning & Building a Geodesic Home by Lucas Adams ISBN 1-891429-04-3 73-pages w/ photos & illustrations $8.95 |
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