Burningman 2005
The Icosadome

Hint: click images for zoom-in
• First build (Jul 24, 2005)

Make the pentagon shape of the floor space
Hammer in corner rebar
Putting pipes over the rebar
Tie together the peak
You can see the side pipes

Connect the pipes
Adjust tension
Finished framework
 
• Lessons learned
a) Plastic cable ties are too weak
b) More accurate base pentagon layout is required
c) Small (8'x10') tarp is TOO small - even if you have 5 of them
d) Peak is unreachable, once it's up
e) It feels huge
 
• Solutions
a) Use the cable ties, then strengthen with metal clothes line
b) Diameter (corner to side) is 15'6". Width (corner to corner) is 16'5"
c) Get large single tarp
d) All ropes - tie to peak first
e) Huge is good
Hint: click images for zoom-in
• Making roof cover (Aug 6, 2005)

Build the roof
Viewed from another angle
It's the right height.
Isn't geometry wonderful!

Try the big tarp
Just for size
Lots of extra
Hey... enough to cover two south-facing wall triangles

Mark out where to cut
and cut!
But look... there's enough to cover a third wall triangle
Hem the edges

Try it on
Fits wonderfully
 
• Thoughts
→ The iscoadome will have direction, since three south facing wall triangles (two downward pointing, one upward pointing) will have covers.
→ To have the south facing side exactly south facing, and to have the door pointing to the man, the icosadome should be placed at one of: 3:18, 5:42, 8:06
We're camped at 8:30, so the entrance will be the first opening to the right of the south facing side.
→ Ropes to strengthen the support of the center of the tarp is necessary (I knew that), but remember to tie the vertical ropes (each 20' long) to the peak, and to tie the roof horizontal ropes (each 20' long) through the centers of the poles, before it goes up.
→ The wall support ropes can be long pieces of rope:
⇒ from base of door, twice around: 114'
⇒ from center of door, once around: 57'
→ The vertical wall support ropes are just 5' long.
 
I built the dome there:
I should have taken a picture or two later the week.
The rebar in the ground made it *really* secure. It wasn't going *anywhere*!
 
• What is an Icosadome?
The icosadome is pronounced "eye-koss-ah-dome" and is derived from the word for the geometric shape icosahedron.
The greek words:
• "icos" means twenty
• "hedron" means shape
• "doma" means home Technically, it should be "icosahedradome" - but that's too much of a mouthful.
Actually, 5 of the sides do not exist as they would be beneath the ground, so it's really a "pentdecahedradome", but now we're being silly.
 
• What is an Icosahedron?

Thanks to
http://ic.net/~jnbohr/java/Isocahedron.html
Thanks to
http://www.3quarks.com/GIF-Animations/PlatonicSolids/
The official BurningMan page | My BurningMan 2005 | My BurningMan experiences | Dongray's home Powered by Linux Validated by HTML Validator (based on Tidy)