I had a dome idea.

[freebeard]

The geodesic geometry is a theoretical optimum. Each vertex is surrounded by a ring of vertexes, each edge surrounded by edges, faces by faces, yada, yada....

Ease of construction depends on the materials and methods used.

As for materials, in the 1980s we used plywood. Today I'd favor something that gets delivered in drums.

Square windows? Windows are either for light or views. A lantern at the zenith can illuminate the entire interior. View windows can be integrated -- take a hexagon, divide into two triangles and a rectangle. Let you imagination run wild from there.

Fuller's Flys Eye domes relied on a circular opening. Those can be glazed with an ETFE pillow restrained with a hoop.

[As for Blender, it looks like I need to turn on Screen Space Reflections -- if I can find that. ]

[redpoint5]

I wouldn't want windows on any vertical curve because you don't want to have to rely entirely on the seals to keep water out, and can't easily incorporate a proper eave that rejects summer sunlight, but accepts winter.

That's partly why I'm more inclined to a silo house than a dome. Getting glass curved just so would be a pita, and the eves wouldn't be a straight forward, but at least you're dealing with a fixed vertical plane. From the photo above, it seems the problem of curved glass was probably solved by just making the windows so tiny they could be flat without posing much issue.

[freebeard]

Your asking the window to do the job of a lantern or cupola.

The home my parents built in 1980. Two solutions employed, the dormer and the window that projects through the eave line [don't know the name, it was popular locally 150 years ago].



Other solutions exist.
https://www.veluxusa.com

VELUX Skylights | See our selection of skylight windows
The VELUX Sun Tunnel® Skylights bypasses all obstacles, using an adaptable reflecting tube to direct daylight into every area of your home. The effect is brighter and more comfortable living areas. Browse Sun Tunnels Roof Windows Put fresh air at your fingertips with VELUX roof windows.

_________________

Methods:

• I'd create two or more forms (plywood or whatever) and cast shallow hexagonal pyramids.
• Transport them to the site and asemble into compund curve 1/5th hemispheres.
• Erect a mast at gound zero, array the five panels around it so their adjacent corners can be bound.
• All five are winched upward until they interlock and are suspended above the ground; ground anchors are attached with clevises to align and apply tension.
• The mast gets a spiral stair, the pentagon opening gets a[n f-in] yurt, and the five triangular openings at ground level get a deck that hinges upward into a storm shutter.

From 2015:

[freebeard]

I lost control of the sofware again. This was where it choked.



Rudimental lighting, but I still can't make a transparent window. These are products of the Geodesic plug-in, tweaked in various ways.

[redpoint5]

My guess is alternatives to rectangular homes won't become more popular until 3D printing homes becomes a thing. So long as materials come in sheets and straight boards, right angles become the simplest way to build and minimize materials waste.

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by myself

As for materials, in the 1980s we used plywood. Today I'd favor something that gets delivered in drums.

How about that Starship?

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

How about that Starship?

Just watched it, and somehow that was more exciting than anything else I've seen (wasn't around for moon landing).

Didn't realize they were planning to have lunar orbits and possibly a moon landing by 2025. That's just around the corner.

[freebeard]

The part I liked was the crowd counting down the last ten seconds. That, and every scence fiction movie so far hasn't had that cloud of water vapor surrounding the launch vehicle.

Stage 0 survived. How many days to roll the next one out?

edit:
I was around for the Moon landing, but I was what they called 'incountry' at the time, so the signal came down to the Philipines, was piped to the whole World; and eventally made it to the one-time Republic of South Vietanam.

OTOH I heard the news about Sputnik on my new transistor radio one morning before I came downstairs for breakfast.

Ontopic:
Here's a picture from 2019 of the 1/5th hemispheres described at Permalink #13



My Ender3 is currently inoperative.

[freebeard]

Further on the edge vertex orientation. Here's a dome on a square foundation:



The shell to the right shows the interior space. A 3v hex-pent is essentailly 2.5v in roundness. The four half-equilateral triangles are not-necessarily-load-bearing, so two are modified to center an entrance on the porch.

The porch is shallow to be really usable -- increase it with a eave line connecting the front and rear to maintain a square plan.