Victor Wooten’s Bass/Nature Camp

APRIL 12-17, 2008

There was a dome-raising in April at Victor Wooten’s Bass/Nature Camp near Nashville, Tennessee. At this reunion camp 130 people worked together to erect a 36 ft. Tropical Plus vinyl shelter dome and it was a huge success. According to Victor Wooten, “The dome was a favorite project for all. We broke in to thunderous applause when the dome cover was in place. The dome was built from the top down as a big machine held it up. Then, many of us lifted it onto the base platform. It was pretty awesome.” Victor Wooten is an influential bass guitar player who is known for his solo recordings, tours and as a member of the band “Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.” His camp, which was established six years ago, strives to build awareness in music and in life by opening the mind and awakening the senses.

Alaskan Dome Near the Wilderness

One of our customers has built a uniquely outfitted Pacific Dome as the second floor of a hand-crafted home near the Alaskan wilderness.

Nestled in a summer field in the middle of somewhere this Pacific Dome blends nicely into the landscape.

Whether it was intended as a lookout or a flight deck these wingtips are definitely an interesting extension of the dome interior.

Sun Domes in the Tropics

Three palm trees inside a Pacific Dome having a picnic on the lawn makefor a tropical setting.

A dome nestled in the jungle

Summer Fun on a Lake or Pond

Summertime on a lake or pond can be fun living in a Pacific Dome.

Hybrid Dome Designs with Partial Hardshell

From the front this Pacific Dome looks like any other shelter dome.

But from the side and back you can see the hybrid structure, partially a hardshell construction and partially a fabric cover membrane. Your imagination is the limit in building geodesic domes.

Space Oddity

Welcome to the future. Extra rooms, banquet halls (even entire living quarters) built by an Ashland company specializing in geodesic domes

By JOHN DARLING for the Mail Tribune

Ever feel like you need a light, airy, spacious structure in your backyard for parties or wedding receptions, for kids to rough-house in, for yoga or an art studio, maybe a class — or just to get away?

It’s here. It’s called a geodesic dome and it’s all the above, plus so strong that a bunch of workmen can crawl on it to hang the white liner.

Made in Ashland by Pacific Domes since 1980, the futuristic structures (which start at $5,000) are increasingly popular for a spectrum of uses — including trade shows, pool covers, playground toy houses, resort villages, expedition resupply stations, even temporary relief structures for hurricanes and other disasters, says Asha Deliverance, the firm’s founder.

One, donated by Pacific Domes, is being erected at ScienceWorks in Ashland for use by that interactive museum, as well as the Lomakatsi Reforestation team and John Muir School across the street at Ashland Middle School, says Deliverance.

“The typical buyer is someone who owns (clear) land and wants a vacation home,” she says. “Or maybe they’re building and they want to be on site but not in a trailer. A lot of back-to-the-land people buy them and have no intention of moving up to a real house.

Sulara and Scott Young, owners of Circle of Teran, a consciousness-raising retreat center inside an expansive mansion above Ashland, installed a 60-foot dome off in an adjacent oak grove to provide a serene, well-lit space for yoga, meditation and other classes.

“It’s a beautiful structure, light, airy and it’s easy to put up or take down,” says Young, an Ashland doctor.

For such a large structure with no columns, studs, wires or any other visible means of support, the dome is amazingly rigid.

A sharp jerk on its triangular, bolted sections moves it nary a millimeter. A series of three-foot long steel poles are bolted together in triangles, starting with a vertical first row, with the whole structure rolling over into a sphere shape.

The downside of domes, says Young, is that there’s only some waterproof sailcloth between you and the elements, so it’s cold in winter and hot in summer. How to cope? You can hitch up sides in summer and install an exhaust fan. In winter, you can insulate and heat with any of the usual systems, although city and county codes affect wood heating and other types of heating.

Domes can be temporarily erected on bare earth, but require wood floor joists and concrete blocks, says Jenny Kuehnle, who lives in a 16-foot dome with her young daughter — and gets electricity and heat from a solar panel and large batteries.

“It’s so beautiful and I love the big (plastic) window and all the light it brings in. It feels real spacious to me and I consider it sacred geometry that’s naturally pleasing to be in,” Kuehnle says. “On the solar panel, I can run my lights or CD player or sewing machine or computer but not all at once. Especially nice is that I own my own house for $5,000.”

A big plus is that a small space is easier to clean. “It would drive me crazy to clean a big house. As for water, I have to carry all the water here that I use, so I don’t use much,” she says. “I live simply. I’m happier. Life feels more secure. It’s empowering. I’m able to take care of all my needs myself.”

The domes can be plumbed and wired from the house and used as accessory units, says Deliverance, but they then become taxable extensions of the home, requiring building permits.

An array of dome accessories, including composting toilets, solar fans and other gadgets, is available online or at Pacific Domes.

Exposed to the weather as it is, the dome has developed a few leaks which have had to be fixed — and the insulation has proved too unmanageable, says Young.

For classes, however, the dome has surprisingly sharp acoustics, says Sulara and “is a thing of great beauty, providing a sense of wholeness, peace and oneness with nature.”

John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at
jdarling@jeffnet.org.

Source: Mail Tribune Article

Cascadian Expedition and Eco-Village

A stunning view of the mountains in a portable eco-village for staging an expedition.

A momma and baby dome nestled side-by-side.

Private space and glorified camping in the wilderness.

A glorious mountaintop begging to be climbed.

A little village of domes in the middle of somewhere.

Wintering in a Pacific Dome

Even in the harsh winter cold living in a Pacific Dome can be a warm place to live. Heated year-round it takes only a few minutes to melt the snow off the roof and create a cozy place to be. Combined with a winter liner and Thermoshield Insulative Paint you can live all year in a Pacific Dome.

“House and Garden” Feature

The geodesic dome perched high atop a mountain outside Ojai is constructed of powder-coated conduit with a stretched membrane of rubberized canvas. The dome is a perfect half-sphere, 44 feet in diameter and 22 feet high. A 16-by-30-foot picture window of clear marine acrylic provides dramatic views of the Topa Topa Mountains.

The kitchen has a ladder to August’s room. The Servel refrigerator runs on propane, and the cabinets are from IKEA.

A conventional house was never an option. When interior and production designer Shawn Hausman first entertained the thought of building a home in Upper Ojai, just north of Los Angeles, he envisioned a tree house - something like the archetypal clubhouse in the sky, yet capable of sheltering a family in relative comfort year-round.

“It was a romantic idea, but ultimately impractical,” he admits. “We wanted to find a solution that was inexpensive but genuinely interesting, a house that would have very little impact on the environment. We were also looking for something that could be disassembled and transported to another location if we ever decided to move.”

Hausman designed the bed and bedspread in the master bedroom for the Standard hotel, West Hollywood, California.

The tree house fantasy wasn’t a total failure. “When we met, Shawn completely seduced me with this idea of living in a tree,” recalls Jessica Kimberley, Hausman’s design associate and partner in life. “We were both committed to exploring wild, alternative options.”

Their search ultimately led them to the idea of a prefabricated dome. They gathered information from the Buckminster Fuller Institute as well as from the Internet, where they found dozens of companies that specialize in domes. The news wasn’t all good.

 

 

The toilet stall is made from a cardboard Sonotube.

“We liked the concept of the dome, but not the finished product. “Hausman says. “Most of the ones we saw were wood-framed, not inexpensive, and not easily transportable. A lot of them sacrificed the curving quality you expect in a dome, because of the rigid geometry of the typical triangular modules.”

 

 

From the Richard Shultz Contour lounge chairs on the front deck, right, you can enjoy views of the mountains and the Pacific Ocean..

Yurts were next on the agenda. Fortuitously, during a yurt reconnaissance mission at the Ojai Foundation, the couple stumbled upon a dome that appeared to meet their specific aesthetic and budgetary criteria. The designers worked with Pacific Domes, the manufacturer, to pull off the ambitious project.

Hausman’s 11-year-old son, August, inquisitive and remarkably design-savvy, contributed his own ideas. “This was an extraordinary creative outlet for all three of us,” Hausman insists.

Shawn Hausman and Jessica Kimberley travel to the dome in their rugged Ford pickup.

The dome itself, 44 feet in diameter and 22 feet high, perches on a simple wood deck supported by concrete footings. The frame-one-diameter conduit, powder-coated in vibrant orange - has a canvas skin treated with rubberized paint that provides a degree of insulation as well as protection from UV rays.

For ventilation, parts of the skin can be peeled back, and each of the 15 vinyl portholes can be replaced with round screens. The designers deployed furnishings - a mix of funky vintage pieces and custom elements - in an open plan that preservers the fluidity of space, light, and views within the dome.

The modesty of the structure defers to the majesty of its undeveloped mountaintop site, which offers sweeping views that extend to the ocean and the Topa Topa Mountains.

There are no paved roads, no Starbuckses, and no neighbors, save for coyotes, deer, rattlesnakes, owls, hawks and the occasional mountain lion. The remote location presented serious challenges to comfortable habitation: access to running water, electricity, fuel, and telephone lines simply didn’t exist.

The central screen of multicolored acrylic panels, Hausman’s modern interpretation of a stained-glass window, encourages the spread of daylight, while subtly dividing the space. The coffee table is fashioned from black walnut burl. The Tobia Scarpa sofa is from Carla, L.A…

The project took the better part of two years, and plenty of trial and error, to resolve these issues in a manner consistent with the family’s environmental concerns. Solar panels supply nearly all the electricity. Water flows from a tank hoisted onto the property. Propane fuels the stove and refrigerator. As for the telephone line, Hausman purchased a spool of industrial-grade cable and ran it up the mountain himself.

“I love the isolation - it feels really wild and free up here,” says August Hausman of the completed dome. “Basically, it’s really cool.

 

36FT (11M) Dome - Northern California

Here is a story from a sweet family telling their Dome experience. The photos in this article show the dome through the construction process:

We began clearing a space for our dome in June of 2004. We had originally, wanted to build the 44′ dome but were unable to clear sufficient space to put it on. We ended up going with the 36′ dome and are pleased that we did.

The foundation was finished in September and we eagerly awaited the arrival of our dome. Our new home arrived in two boxes on September 24th. You don’t often expect to get your new home in a box the size of a washer/dryer combo.

We started unpacking and labeling our poles the very next day. Two of us were able to get the first couple of frame rows going ourselves; eventually it took 3 people once we reached eye level. After the first few rows, we found ourselves in need of scaffolding and rented a 20′ package.

It took a little over a week to finish the frame and we called in all our friends and neighbors to help get the skin on. We used the bucket of our old tractor to help us get the skin rolled out. Positioning the skin turned out to be a challenge. We started out in the wrong place and had to make some adjustments to get it aligned. After “scootching” it around awhile, we got the skin in place and the roof zipped on. The following week, we got the insulation in and the winter liner installed.

The contractors were called back in and went to work on the interior, building the walls. Because of the unique nature of the dome, our contractor experienced unique challenges, and met them head on. Since the walls and the floor of the loft can not be attached to the sides of the dome, they had to come up with some creative alternatives that included extra foundation, interior supports, and weight bearing walls.

It is now the end of February and our dome home is near completion. When it is finished, our dome will have two bedrooms and a full bathroom down stairs, with a loft in full, but very small bathroom upstairs. It looks like the plumber and electrician should be our final stages and they are almost done. We hope to be living cozy in our Pacific Dome by mid March.