1 Zomes, Domes and Clusters
1.1 What Are Zomes?
2A Zome is a man-made structure derived from zonohedra. The zones of the zonohedron may be stretched or shrunk or removed to produce, if desired, an asymmetric dome shaped structure.
3 Zomes may be single or clustered.
6 Zomes can cluster together like soap bubbles. Their zones can be stretched, shrunk, or omitted completely to make the various zomes’ different shapes and sizes. The zomes can also pack several layers deep.
1.2 What is the Difference Between a Zome and a Geodesic Dome?
11A geodesic dome is a structure which closely follows the shape of the sphere and whose edge lengths closely follow the path of great circles on the sphere. (These are the sphere’s geodesics.) The geodesic dome, because of its shape, and the arrangement of its structural members is extremely strong, but its uses are limited because of the inflexibility of its shape. It is always part of a sphere—a low bubble or a high bubble—its floor is always a circle—any variation would destroy the structural properties of the geodesic dome. The geodesic dome, if it is large and composed of many edges and joints, has many different edge lengths. It is complicated in structure and simple in shape. Zomes are simple in structure and complicated in shape.
