From: Robert Childs (bizarrinitii_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 02/06/03
Message-Id: <200302062124.h16LOq903910@bucky.sculptors.com> Date: Thu, 06 Feb 2003 16:03:35 -0500 Subject: Re: Newbie From: Robert Childs <bizarrinitii_at_earthlink.net>
Thanks for the comments, y'all. From the details provided by SECCA
(Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art) it's unclear whether this
competition is being directed by Habitat nationally or not. The top entries
are to tour nationally however. I just stumbled across their site a couple
of weeks ago in search of a photography exhibit and had to hurry to make the
deadline (Feb1) for sending in the entry form and fee. If this is indeed a
national thing, you might call your local or regional Habitat office to see
if you can enter somewhere else or finagle something. To check out the
details on my local (not really local, 70 miles away) competition:
http://www.secca.org/home
I estimated materials for the entire project a couple of years ago, and
came up with a figure of 70K. This includes appliances and prices of wind,
hydro, and PV power courtesy of Real Goods. Like Bucky, I consider the
constructio/contrctor/code/zoning system to be the "craft and graft" trade
and plan to do all the work myself. This is allowable after passing first
term design drafting courses at a technical college in Albuquerque and is
good only for outside cty limit areas in NM. I'm reminded of the line from
"Blazing Saddles ", "Son...yer on yer own..." Chances are, that loosesness
doesn't exist many places, and to build like I want would take a few
well-places bribes, or a grandstanding gesture for the 6 o'clock news on the
scale of Frank Lloyd Wright piling 20 tons of sandbags on top of one of his
Johnson Wax Building columns or cranes unable to pull down Simon Rodia's
Watts Towers. But to do that and get the public behind me, I'd have to cut
off my old hippie ponytail and adopt a George Bush vocabulary. Ah, the
problems with perceptions... Will elaborate on the energy production details
of my sphere tonite. Thanks!
Robert Childs
> From: Leifur Thor <lthor_at_earthlink.net>
> Date: Thu, 06 Feb 2003 10:04:32 -0800
> To: Robert Childs <bizarrinitii_at_earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: Newbie
>
> Excellent work Robert. It all sounds bloody good. Any estimate for
> construction, both prototype and manufactured? And when you say pictures, do
> you mean you're building a full scale prototype?
>
> Also, when's the deadline for the Habitat for Humanity design competition? I
> have an design of my own I'd like to submit.
>
> I can't wait to see what you've got.
>
> Leifur Thor
> ____________________________
> Design Scientist
> 415-681-3519
> www.home.earthlink.net/~lthor/
>
>
>
>> From: Robert Childs <bizarrinitii_at_earthlink.net>
>> Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2003 18:29:15 -0500
>> To: <domesteading-request_at_sculptors.com>
>> Subject: Newbie
>> Resent-From: Robert Childs <bizarrinitii_at_earthlink.net>
>> Resent-To: <domesteading-request_at_sculptors.com>
>> Resent-Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2003 18:40:16 -0500
>>
>> I've been wading through the archives for the past three nights and, to
>> steal Brigham Young's quote upon reaching Salt Lake; "This is the place." I
>> have so much to say and describe about what I'm doing and what y'all (I'm in
>> North Carolina) are doing, it would take three pages, so I'll just put it in
>> outline form and expand upon it later.
>>
>> --I have been designing my dome (as well as furniture, ceramics, appliances,
>> transportation and retrofitting conventional housing) for 25 years. After
>> taking a course in getting creatively "unstuck" last year, I decided to
>> build a model of my dome a- la- Bucky.
>> --A couple of weeks ago, I saw a local art center's ad for a Habitat for
>> Humanity design competition--prize $15,000, on the jury: Steve Badanes
>> (Jersey Devils Architects--one of my living heroes along with
>> Hubbell&Hubbell, Bart Prince & dead ones: Bucky, Victor Papanek, FLW,
>> Thomas Jefferson) Model is 2/3 done-- I'm still frantic!
>> --My dome is not--actually-- but a full sphere on a pedestal 8-10 feet high
>> similar to one on Southeast Geodesics website.
>> --Why? Minimal foundation/labor necessary, above floods, snowdrifts,
>> brushfires, full natural air circulation.
>> ---Frame work is geodesic for US consumption (my model uses a Hoberman
>> sphere) with spokes radiating from a cylindrical central core of concrete
>> blocks to points on the framework, making up three floors. See Deltec homes
>> for a similar pattern. Framework in countries without precise machining
>> capability can be anything from bent wood to pipe to salvaged rebar, but in
>> a simpler globelike latitude/longitude pattern.
>> --Sphere diameter is 45-50 feet, enabling three floors; Under 1st floor:
>> energy storage, batteries, fuel cell, flywheel, etc. and electronics. 1st
>> floor: kitchen, bath, workspace. 2nd floor: Living/solar collection area.
>> rainwater storage(in floor, gravity fed to 1st floor) Outside: full
>> perimeter deck 3-4feet wide, made of fiberglass for rainwater collection
>> from upper hermisphere of sphere with intenal low voltage radiant grid for
>> snowmelt. 3rd floor: sleeping area, toilet room at top of central core.
>> Bedrooms can be added modularly all being pie shaped. Walls of soundproof
>> fabric or accordion-panels--retractable for daylighting.
>> --Miscellaneous frame details: "Spokes" (floor joists) are TJI's (engineered
>> lumber) without subflooring, but held in tension with cable (telephone pole
>> guy wire) like a spider's web, which can also be wrapped with low voltage
>> heating tape(pipewrap). Flooring is cement board (bathroom tile backerboard)
>> for thermal mass and heat conduction. Joists of 2nd floor pierce skin(see
>> below) to support perimeter deck and windpower attachment.
>> --Skin: lightweight fiberglass or other molded plastic in non-geodesic
>> TRADITIONAL form. See defunct(?) Xanadome company of the 1980's or Domes
>> Intl. of present. Segments are sprayed with polyurethane foam on site for
>> insulation and rigidity, then a thin layer of paper or air-crete for
>> interior skin. Segments are assembled on-site using adhesive caulk.
>> --Why? Smplicity: a fraction of the numper of panels to be manufactured
>> transported and assembled. A geodesic "shell" can go up in a day or two, but
>> weatherproofing, insulation, drywall? Cut from square stock? Time, energy
>> and material waste. Seams: almost all of my seams are vertical. Water runs
>> off. If a leak does happen, it is easy to find where it originates and
>> repair before any damage is done. None of this with geodesics.
>> Acceptability: The Pantheon St. Peters, St Pauls, Congress, about every
>> state capitol, thousands of churches, igloo's and the goodyear blimp. People
>> are used to this form. I get an involuntary jolt every time I pass a
>> geodesic, and I am as familiar with them as most of you.
>> --Miscellaneous skin details: I am experimenting with recycling carpet using
>> a heated, pressurized mold to melt the nylon fibers and bond them to the
>> backing. If this works, it would reduce costs enormously and keep millions
>> of tons out of the landfills (I should know, I used to work for a carpet
>> wholesaler) The upper hemisphere rotates on its "North Pole" axis. The
>> fiberglass perimeter deck panels are fixed to the 2nd floor joists. The
>> upper hemisphere panels have a concasve groove at the bottom as do these
>> deck panels12-15" above the deck surface to avoid leakage. This groove is
>> filled with bearings (recycled golfballs!) The whole point of this is not
>> only to give you a different view when you want it, but to enable expensive
>> and labor consuming large windows to be installed only on a couple of the
>> segments. This way, the whole 2nd floor is a solar collector as the entire
>> hemisphere can track the sun throughout the day. A small motor or even one
>> person can move it as the skin is non-structural, hence very light. The
>> bottom hemisphere , though non-rotating has hinged segments that can fold
>> down and out to bounce southern sunligt into the kitchen and workspaces
>> during the day, This will increase solar gain, elininate need for
>> worklighting and be ideal for small scale fruit or vegetable growing. The
>> seams, since shielded from rain by the deck, need only be weatherstripped.
>> Opening is by wire and pulley. the hole when the panel is open can be
>> covered with poly or mylar sheeting, or plexiglass since the panel can be
>> closed to protect from wind , cold, fire etc.
>> I guess I'll stop here and let all of you digest. I'll go into the
>> solar, wind, and hydropower applications later. Also, by March 1st, I will
>> have photos available of my model. I beg feedback from everyone, and will
>> discuss any principle or detail. I've worked on this thing for 25 years,
>> with the mantra, "Simplify, simplify, simplify!" Echoing in my head. I
>> would welcome any help in that direction , as my means are as limited as a
>> Habitat client. Keep it cheap, simple and light. Thanks!
>> Robert Childs
>>
>