by Wil Fidroeff



Bucky might have called what I do, "comprehensive anticipatory design science". I call designing a better home, "thinking about everything when you do anything". Many problems exist with building any type of home. I am now 60 years old, with 20 years of conventional construction experience, and, 20 years of dome building experience. I have always felt that more liveable, functional, and ecomomical homes could be built using geodesic dome kits, if, the dome kits and building processes were comprehensively designed. Thinking about everything during the design and planning process does result in a home that is easy to build.

In the late 1980's, John Warren, who worked with Bucky on the development of the Fly's Eye Dome, and Bob Snyder, Bucky's son-in-law, came to my home (then in California). I was then keeper of the Fly's Eye Dome and molds. Bob Snyder asked me what I called the dome design I had been working on. I replied, "Econ-O-Dome". John Warren asked me, what geodesic geometry I was using. I replied, "The alternate four-frequency". John Warren then told me, he and Bucky had agreed the truncateable alternate four frequency seemed to have the most potential for use in building homes and commercial buildings. This inspired further investigation on my part.

To explain further: A truncateable geodesic geometry has a level line of nodes (connection points) both above and below the hemisphere. This level line of nodes above and below the hemisphere makes it easier to install a second floor inside a geodesic dome. Only an even frequency geodesic sphere can be divided into two equal hemispheres. A hemispherical dome can rest directly on a flat surface or riser wall. This helps a dome building to be more stable and easier to build.

After traveling around the country building domes for many years, I found that installing conventional doors and windows was a lot easier, if, large flat surfaces were integrated into the lower perimeter of a dome. So, I modified the four-frequency dome to have just ten equal sides and ten large vertical surfaces on the lower perimeter. This was done by removing three adjacent triangles in ten different places along the lower perimeter of a twenty-sided four frequency dome. This resulted in a ten-sided dome with ten large vertical surfaces along the lower perimeter.

They say, if you give a lazy person a hard job to do, a lazy person will find an easy way to do it. I must be a very lazy person, as I have found an easy way to build a dome home.

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