Fantastic Deconstructed Geodesic Dome Is Built With Local and Recycled Wood

By

Updated October 11, 2018

This story is part of Treehugger's news archive. Learn more about our news archiving process or read our latest news.

© Kristoffer Tejlgaard & Benny Jepsen

We're used to seeing the geodesic dome as a full-formed structure. But for this year's "People's Meeting" on the future of housing, held in Bornholm, Denmark, Danish architects Kristoffer Tejlgaard and Benny Jepsen decided to create an unusual-looking venue for the event -- a deconstructed, geodesic dome using locally-sourced and recycled wood.

© Kristoffer Tejlgaard & Benny JepsenSimilar to more conventional-looking domes, this dome's supportive "frequency four" frame consists of triangles, but still behaves the same structurally, allowing the architects to play with the form, creating niches for different uses like kitchen, bar, dining area and stage, while being punctuated overall with contrasting areas of clear glazing with wooden cladding. Instead of a generic dome, this deconstructing of the dome's form is done in response to the program, the site and to daylighting.

Build a Geodesic Dome Solar Greenhouse to Grown Your Own Food

© Kristoffer Tejlgaard & Benny Jepsen

Like your regular geodesic dome, there are no columns, resulting in a more open space. Some details of the construction process via Designboom:

The connections are made with custom steel plates that allow full flexibility through modularity. Any group of triangular modules can be removed, expanded or contracted, made into a window, a door, or treated with a different veneer. The metal nodes incorporate the external structure as well as the interior rafters and tension cable connections. Its construction possesses the potential to adapt to any scope with the capability to adapt to changing needs.

A table of stress levels was produced with engineer Henrik Almegaard pinpointing four strength classes and minimizing the use of extensive material. All the wood used in the project is locally grown douglas pine, with 2x4's and 2x6's comprising the frames, and recycled old boards wrapping the facade in different patterns.

It's a temporary structure so no word on how it might endure the seasons, but it's still a clever, alternative way to approach the building of a geodesic dome.