I checked, he's still alive 9 years later. I've still got Whole Earth catalogs and Domebooks 1 & 2 and Shelter.
Do you know what his reasoning is?
Quote:
|
Metaphorically, our work on domes now appears to us to have been smart: mathematics, computers, new materials, plastics. Yet reevaluation of our actual building experiments, publications, and feedback from others leads us to emphasize that there continue to be many unsolved problems with dome homes. Difficulties in making the curved shapes livable, short lives of modern materials, and as-yet-unsolved detail and weatherproofing problems.https://www.shelterpub.com/domes/
|
Later he describes a post and beam barn:
Quote:
|
We walked into the large building in the darkness, and then he switched on the lights. It was about the most dramatic way to see a beautiful old building, the sudden blaze of lights revealed a 100 year old mortise and tenon structure. There were about four loft-levels, and at the top was a hexagonal cupola. ... I climbed up all the ladders, up all the stairs, looking at the joinery (wooden pegs.) Then up into the little cupola room which was above the roof line, smoked a joint, sat and looked out over miles of countryside in moonlight. To the north, the water. Sitting there, 50 feet high, supported by hundred year old wooden structure, the futuristic plastic building notions seemed strange indeed.[ibid]
|
He obviously has a dislike for plastics. He would likely get the same feeling from a four-story mortise and tenoned dome with cupola. Bottom line (from my reading) 'Difficulties in making the curved shapes livable and weatherproofing problems.'
-curved shapes livable
Domes don't make good tiny homes. They make excellent shopping malls. Here's my attempt to go small.
I'm in the process of building this one right now, as a wooden dowel zip-tie dome.
-weatherproofing problems
I don't know why he couldn't get a shingled roof to work. The only place it should be a problem is near the zenith where the pitch is low. Onion domes (like at the Kremlin) avoid this.