This DIY geodesic dome goes anywhere

The geodesic dome for most people is a quirky, thought-provoking structure rarely seen in our built environment. But admirers of the lattice-like structures in the United States can thank American architect Buckminster Fuller in the 1950s and the back-to-the-land movement in the late 1960s for popularizing the shape. Today, domes are used in everything from botanic gardens to residential homes to vacation retreats.

UK-based Build With Hubs makes owning your own geodesic dome even easier by selling ready-to-build kits. Each kit comes with five and six-way hubs, ball connectors, and hardware to create domes of different sizes. According to their website, it can take as little as 20 minutes to build smaller domes, and the angles aren’t fixed so you can adapt the structure to create igloos and connected domes.

At $149, the kit comes with everything you need except the sticks. The company suggests roofing batten, broom handles, or hardwood dowels for sticks, and you’ll need to supply about 65 sticks of two different lengths to make a complete dome. But once built, the domes can be used for pretty much anything you want, from art installations to green houses or pool covers.

In one example, Build With Hubs worked with London-based artists Michael Pinsky to create an installation called ‘Pollution Pods.’ An artwork commissioned by NTNU university in Trondheim as part of their Climart research project, Pollution Pods created a group of interconnected pods where each pod recreated the atmosphere from a different international city.

According to The Build With Hubs newsletter, “The contrast as you passed from Trondheim (nice and fresh), to London (dieselly), New Delhi (burning plastic), Beijing in winter (cold and smokey) and finally Sao Paulo (hot and ozone-y) created a visceral reaction which was hard to ignore.”

To learn more and see other examples of how customers are using the kits, check out the photos below and head over here.

All photos courtesy of Build With Hubs

All photos courtesy of Build With Hubs