Development / dome making and experimentation

taken by me - first stage of dome making

Making and experimenting with Geodesic domes 

Geodesic domes are made because of their sturdy exterior and great toughness and stability. I tried several types, one being paper. Paper is easy to manipulate but there is no strength to it so it bends and creases easily. This is on of the main struggles I faced when making them.  Online tutorials were a great help during this process. I started looking at domes to help with the stability of the Olympic cauldron, the dome would be a platform for the flame.

Authors own- second stage arranging the shapes

My intention for the design was to use the dome as a stepping point, the  cauldron would be lit on top of the dome, its hard to explain so my blogs from this one will explain it further as I develop the idea.

I created 6 hexagon shapes and 5 pentagon shapes, and then 5/6 half hexagons. By doing this alternatively in a pattern and this is shown below.

what worked was the tessellation of that pattern the picture shown below demonstrated this.  I managed to do this all the way round to complete the dome, but the next stage was almost too hard.

Authors own - making the dome

What I did next?

once the base was complete I filled the rest of the base in with the remaining hexagons and pentagons.

what was not successful?

The instructions bothered me, when making something as complicated as geodesic domes helpful instructions can be a great hand.

The final completed dome is on the right honestly it did take me a while, I think this was because the printed template didn't come with the folded flaps. Folding the paper took at least 2 hours.

Advice from peers and Geoff?

Geoff was impressed and liked the design process of how I arrived with the idea of using the geodesic dome in my design as a platform to hold the flame. The only concern he voiced was the materials and what would be flexible enough and string enough to withstand pressure.

What I found easy ?

Authors own- the final dome 

Making it wasn't the tricky part it was all the stages in-between that challenged me it was more mentally staying with it till complete. Because the process was so long winded just sticking with it till its completion was the main problem. At some points it didn't look right so giving up was easy to do, but eventually I did complete it.

Straw Experiments and joining techniques

Random experimenting with materials shape form and colour is a great way to explore all the possibilities out there for the final model, techniques in joining can be taken from one design and used in another, and this is why the experiments are great to do. Cheap materials are always easy to find, Geoff mentioned in the 3D pathway go to the 99p store and that's exactly what I did.

I found a few pictures online of straw Geodesic domes they looked great, and I hoped recreating one would help me move on with the design, but really it held me back, they are much harder to join than I first thought. The online pictures were joined using split pins but using them the straws still wouldn't hold and it looked messy.

What wasn't successful ?

Joining techniques that looked easy were actually pretty hard, split pins started off nice and tight but then loosened as I added more straws to the design.

The quality of the straws were cheap and cheerful so therefore they broke occasionally when joining them and this was frustrating because you had the shape then they would break away.

Authors own - 99p store pack of straws

Authors own straw structures

Authors own - neon straw structure

Analysis

What happened next?

After the split pins catastrophe I looked harder online and a few pictures came up of designs held via wooden cocktail sticks, so this was my next plan. The pictures above are all joined with cocktail sticks it actually worked pretty well until the straws started to snap due to the spiky sharp point.

What was successful?

Creating abstract forms with the straws and sticks worked well and this pictures prove this, the neon straws add another dimension to ordinary ones.

What could of been improved?

Joining techniques could of been improved the joints were weak and vulnerable to movement. But I  was joining straws together at the end of the day they don't give you much margin for error.