Challenge

Build Domes

Photo of Buckminster Fuller manipulating a model on his lap in his studio at the Black Mountain College
Buckminster Fuller at Black Mountain College, Summer 1948. Photo by Hazel Larsen Archer. Courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer and Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center.

Build a hemispherical structure that creates a roof above a space.

  • How many different types of dome structure are there? What materials are practical domes made from?
  • Who are Sinan the Architect, Filippo Brunelleschi, and Buckminster Fuller? What new building techniques did they introduce?
  • Where are The Pantheon, The Hagia Sophia, and The Dome of the Rock?
  • How do dome structures distribute forces? How can you test domes for rigidity and strength?
  • How are dome structures and atomic carbon related? What is an allotrope?
  • How can you adapt ExaPlex to build more accurate geodesic domes?

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