By Paula Escalada Medrano |
Washington (EFE) museum in Washington DC to talk about how the world will have to adapt to climate change.
“At a time in history when we are facing extreme weather events due to climate change, there are very few structures that can withstand extreme weather forces such as category four and five hurricanes,” Abeer Saha, curator of the sample.
A geodesic dome is a hemispherical construction generated with the union of polyhedrons. As a housing solution, it has a high seismic resistance, it can withstand a very high snow load. It is highly stable in the face of strong winds and requires fewer materials in its construction.
Reconstruction of ‘Weatherbreak’
For three days, a group of students from the Catholic University of America have been rebuilding this structure. Originally created in the 1950s, it can be seen until the end of the month at the National Museum of American History in the exhibition “Weatherbreak Reconstruction: Geodesic Domes in an Era of Extreme Weather.”
This exhibition, explains Saha, seeks for the public to experience “what it feels like inside a geodesic structure” because “they could find themselves living in one in the course of the next 20 or 30 years, as the climate becomes more and more extreme.” ”.
“Climate change is a reality and we really want the public to go in and think about what their life will be like in this changing climate,” he adds.
In recent years, domes have become popular above all as tourist accommodation and numerous projects have also emerged to use them as ecological housing. Its use in emergency situations is not yet widespread, but according to experts it could be an efficient solution in risk areas.
They can be used as disaster resistant housing, such as shelters that house large numbers of people. Also as temporary and quick housing solutions to build after catastrophes. In the Bahamas, for example, dozens of domes were built after the passage of Hurricane Dorian in 2019.
The characteristics of the geodesic dome
The reconstructed geodesic dome at this museum in the US capital and created by architect Jeffrey Lindsay. He was inspired by the theories of inventor and futurist Buckminster Fuller.
It was first built in the winter of 1950 in Montreal (Canada). Designed to withstand snow and winds up to 200 miles per hour.
It was later rebuilt in the early 1960s in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles as a mid-century modern home for architect Bernard Judge and lived in for about two years. Shortly after it was donated to the Smithsonian and has been stored until now.
It has a height of 25 feet (7.62 meters) and a width of 49 feet (14.9 meters). It is made up of more than 1,000 aluminum pieces, Tonya Ohnstad, assistant professor of architecture at the Catholic University, told EFE.
Although the assembly has taken three days, the entire project has lasted two years. since, among other difficulties, there was no “instruction book”, the pieces “were not labeled” and “several were missing”. “It’s been like putting together a puzzle,” he says.
With this, the students have not only faced the field work of building something for themselves, but have also learned about the need to create “responses” to face “climate change”, says Ohnstad.
The advantages of a dome
The American company Pacific Domes has been manufacturing and marketing domes for four decades and emergency domes are one of their specialties, they state on their website.
“They adapt to all types of terrain, are fully deployable and can be erected in hours with just a few tools,” they explain about these structures.
Among other advantages, they emphasize, they are “the most efficient aerodynamic human shelter that can be found” because “ambient air and energy circulate without obstacles, which allows heating and cooling to occur naturally.”
These structures, the company emphasizes, are “perfect for many relief functions” and also “can be easily transported to the place where a disaster occurs and can be removed just as easily when they are no longer needed.”