Geodesic Greenhouse

[Dave]

I'm planning to make a geodesic greenhouse out of scrap. Has anyone made anything like this before?

It's just an idea at the moment so any advice would be great - what would I need to tie the poles together with? How big would it be if I used poles say a meter long or even 1.5m? How many poles would I need? Are they easy to make?

[contadino]

Yes, I looked into it a few years ago and even managed to find some plans out there on the internet for free. I abandoned the idea because of ventilation issues (it would be too hot in summer here.)

BTW, the plans I found were for a pretty low dome, so I was planning on putting the dome on a 1m tall dry-stone wall to give better access towards the walls and protect them from wear & tear.

[Green Aura]

http://www.fiea.ucf.edu/~mgourlay/dome/

This any help?

[Big Al]

http://www.fiea.ucf.edu/~mgourlay/dome/

This any help?

Thanks for the bonny pictures GA...... Big words scare me......

[Big Al]

I'm planning to make a geodesic greenhouse out of scrap. Has anyone made anything like this before?

It's just an idea at the moment so any advice would be great - what would I need to tie the poles together with? How big would it be if I used poles say a meter long or even 1.5m? How many poles would I need? Are they easy to make?

I know it's could ber classed as playing but can you not get some of the drinks straws and make a model of the proposed design? My thinking is that if you use a scale, say one side ( or straw) = 1m then you will be able to get a bigger idea of the planned dome without spending to much.

Maybe another avenue is to approach a primary school and see if they, 1 , have some of these straws and also 2, see if there is a science / religeous / buddhist project you can link into. Come to think of it that idea might be a secondary school project.

Hope those ramblings are useful.

[Dave]

Thanks for all your tips and links, I might go for a willow dome and cover it in plastic rather than the geodesic. I'll post pictures up whichever I end up doing. As my shed still remains unbuilt after a year and a half it could be a while!!

[Colin]

Hi Dave
The good thing with geodesics is you don`t need really long pieces of wood to make one. I`ve built a few out of various materials. If you decide to make one and need help with any of it..just shout

[mamos]

Check this site out http://www.geo-dome.co.uk/default.asp

It has an amazing amount of information and has calculators for working out all the measurements

mamos

[mamos]

The more I look into these domes the more I like them

Jules wants another tunnel for next year but I might see if I can have a go at building a dome

I have drawn up some plans for a paper model based on the ones on the geo dome website. I am testing them at the moment but if they work I will post them up here for people to have a go at

mamos

[grahoom]

The more I look into these domes the more I like them

Jules wants another tunnel for next year but I might see if I can have a go at building a dome

I have drawn up some plans for a paper model based on the ones on the geo dome website. I am testing them at the moment but if they work I will post them up here for people to have a go at

mamos

I am a big fan of geodesic domes, mainly because I am a huge fan of Richard Buckminster Fuller.

I am tempted to build a dome on our allotment, if I get the time that is.

[mamos]

Hooray

I built my first dome using my updated pattern and it worked really well

Only took about a hour start to finish

mamos

[grahoom]

nice one mamos!!!

so when you going to build a bigger one

[mamos]

Well

The tricky part is permission.

We rent out little house and bit of land so we can't just do what we want plus there is already a large poly tunnel on the land which is used by the owners. They do let us use the tunnel but they do plant an awful lot of stuff and we felt a bit marginalised this year. Jules wanted her own space so she could lay things out as she wanted wtc so I bought a small polt greenhouse from argos. We live on a very windy site and the poor argos greenhouse just didn't stand a chance really. I remained standing but the constant movement of the poly over the frame wore it out and it disintegrated.

We started looking at traditional tunnels but it is going to be a hard sell to the owners of the land because they don't see a problem with us using their tunnel

It is getting a little complicated but what I plan to do is build a small dome just large enough to cover one of our raised beds but small enough to be removed by two people. This will serve two purposes.

1 I can test out the build and iron out any problems without it costing a fortune

2 I will use it to get my landlord excited about the whole dome thing. He does like this sort of thing and he has said he would like another large tunnel for next year but I would love to convince him to build a dome

So, in answer to your question. Soon but only a smaller scale one but built in exactly the same way as the larger one

mamos

[homegrown]

remember Field of Dreams

"If you build they will come" ... around

[grahoom]

So, in answer to your question. Soon but only a smaller scale one but built in exactly the same way as the larger one

mamos

I'll look forward to seeing it.

Out of interest, will you build the frame and then cover it with polythene, or will you build triangular sections with plastic triangular windows (if that makes sense???)

obviously the frame with a poly cover over would be easier to build - friends of mine build their geodesic domes out of plastic tubing.