A Model of Buckminster Fuller's First Geodesic Dome at Black Mountain College

[John Hurt]

Dear Friends,

Tomorrow, October 2nd, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm, there will be a public reception for the exhibition of "Imaginary Landscapes" at the Black Mountain College Museum in Asheville, NC.  

https://www.blackmountaincollege.org/imaginary-landscapes/

The exhibition will continue until January 29, 2027.

One of the exhibits to be displayed will be a replica of Buckminster Fuller's very first "working" geodesic dome that he built at Black Mountain College. 

This dome has 4-way, 6-way, 10-way, and 12 hubs.  The original dome was held together with steel cables that ran inside the hollow struts and across the hubs. The original dome could be erected and then held together by tightening the cables, and it could be collapsed for storage by loosening the cables.

This replica dome was built for the museum by Mark Hanf.  I will be travelling to Asheville tomorrow to visit the museum at 6:30 pm for the reception.

https://www.blackmountaincollege.org/events/imaginary-landscapes-opening/

I also hope to visit the Lake Eden Retreat, which has the original faculty accommodations for Black Mountain College, which are available for lodging for anyone visiting the area:

https://lakeedenretreat.com/accommodations/

If you don't know about how the Geodesic Dome was developed by Fuller at Black Mountain College, here is a helpful video:

https://youtu.be/7BgLxvf3mgA

Thanks,

John Hurt

 

[Stéphane Brodu]

Thank you ! 
It's a great ressource ! 

SB

Ensemble, soyons qui nous sommes vraiment !

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[John Hurt]

Dear Stéphane,

You might find this interesting:

Fuller's first working geodesic dome was held together with cables that ran through the struts and across each hub.  Fuller could tighten the cables to erect the dome, and then loosen the cables for transportation. 

Here is a picture of Fuller's first dome at Black Mountain College when the cables were loosened for transportation:

Here is how the dome was erected on support posts and the cables were tightened:

Here is the erected dome, with the cables tightened, showing how it was lightweight and could be held by 3 people:

And how the Fuller's dome had the strength to support the weight of several people, with Fuller hanging on at the front of the dome:

The struts were made from aircraft aluminum.  I don't know anything about the hubs, from the pictures, they appear to be metallic.

A few more pictures of the dome, one with a greenhouse covering:

A rare picture of the design of the dome:

I have checked with several people, but Fuller's first working dome seems to have disappeared from history, and it definitely belongs in a museum.

If anyone knows the fate of this dome, I would be interested in the story. 

Fuller's first dome was based on his "great circle" domes, and it is a lot more complicated to build than the Class 1 "Bauersfeld" domes that most people use.   One reason you don't see this dome design is that it requires a 10 way and 12 way connection hub.

I also do not know exactly how his hubs were designed, or how they functioned on the inside, other than a cable ran through all of the tubing for the struts.

For the replica dome at the Black Mountain College Museum, the 12-way hubs are made from a 4" PVC pipe, with a 2.5" center ring, with the struts made from 1/2" EMT conduit.  Instead of cables to hold the dome together, the struts are held to the center rings with 120 lb stainless steel zip ties:

The ratio of the opening in the outer collar as compared to the strut diameter controls or "locks" the maximum angle of the struts, which helps to enforce the curvature of the dome, and provides strength to the structure. 

My guess is that instead of using steel zip ties, Fuller drilled a hole through a floating center ring and passed the cables through the center rings and out the other side of the hub to handle tension, with the center rings acting as a base for the struts to handle compression.  All of Fuller's hubs for this dome had an even number of struts (4-way, 6-way, 10-way, 12-way), with no odd number hub, like a 5-way connection, so the cables could pass through the hubs to be tightened without complication.

I would still like to see the original dome he built.  It has to be somewhere.

If anyone knows exactly how Fuller's original hubs were designed, or what happened to his original dome, I would be interested, and I hope they leave a comment.

Thanks,

John Hurt