Open-Source & Low-Cost Geodesic Dome System

A digital-fabrication take on Fuller's geodesic dome, designed so non-skilled communities can self-build shared spaces cheaply.

Published in Iterations Journal (Issue #1), this project by the Spanish design collective Colaborativa.eu applies Buckminster Fuller's geodesic geometry to the problem of community self-build. The premise is that collective spaces strengthen communities, yet permanent buildings demand planning and money that groups often lack in their early stages. The geodesic dome is offered as an answer because it encloses large spans with minimal, lightweight components that can be assembled without cranes or scaffolding — a special case, the authors note, of tensegrity in which each member is in pure compression or tension.

Colaborativa.eu situates its work in the lineage of Fuller-inspired DIY dome culture — the Whole Earth Catalog and Domebook era — while trying to overcome the historical barrier that domes require precise fabrication. Their answer is domestic digital fabrication. A first prototype in 2013 used bamboo struts with 3D-printed ball-and-socket bio-plastic connectors (derived from the domekit.cc/Effalo design), producing a 6.5-meter dome for roughly €4 per square meter that three people assembled in under two hours. A second 2014 iteration, built with Fab Lab Limerick at the University of Limerick, switched to recycled cardboard/paper tubes ("evolved wood," in Shigeru Ban's phrase) and CNC-cut plywood hub connectors, enabling spans up to 14 meters and 150 square meters of covered area.

Geometrically, the design is based on the 3V 5/9 Fuller-Kruschke method — a variation of the three-frequency geodesic subdivision of the icosahedron that Fuller developed in the mid-1950s and that David Kruschke later documented in the Dome Cookbook of Geodesic Geometry (1970s). The method introduces a fourth strut length to create a flat, evenly loaded circular base of 15 vertices, using 165 struts of four lengths and 61 connectors — a form well suited to architectural use. The project frames Fab Labs and open-source, digitally fabricated construction as a way to democratize the dome, giving communities the tools to prototype and build their own collective structures.

See Also

• R. Buckminster Fuller (R. Buckminster Fuller) — the central figure
• Dome Cookbook of Geodesic Geometry (Dome Cookbook of Geodesic Geometry) — Kruschke's manual documenting the 3V 5/9 method
• David Kruschke (David Kruschke) — co-namesake of the Fuller-Kruschke method
• Whole Earth / Portola Institute (Whole Earth / Portola Institute) — the DIY dome-publishing lineage

Sources

• An open-source & low-cost geodesic dome system