Traditional buildings are losing ground against the geodesic domes that Romanian company Geodezic has recently started building in Brasov.
From the small holiday houses to the large industrial halls, more and more buildings are designed in spherical shapes. Apart from the unusual form of the buildings, the inhabitants find them cheaper and more resistant.
The structure of geodesic domes was invented and patented by Brasov-inhabitant Adrian Silvestru. He built his own geodesic dome and moved there in order to persuade people that these buildings were comfortable.
Brasov-based geodesic domes date back to 1997, when Adrian Silvestru saw a sketch in an older issue of an American magazine.
“The American magazine displayed some geodesic domes designed in 1950 by the famous architect Buckminster Fuller. I liked the idea. I made some calculations and experiments.
The whole structure was wooden, but it did not have a very safe binding system. The most difficult part was to conceive a safer system for fixing the beams.
After several months of work and tests, I designed some steel connectors that consolidated the construction. I patented the invention at OSIM in 1998 and I saved money to erect the first geodesic domes,” Adrian Silvestru recollects.
Silvestru build one 800-square metre hall for an entrepreneur in order to get the money he needed. Then he built his own house.
“This was how I proved that my domes have multiple uses, as they can serve both as homes and production spaces. The orders started to come since then. In the meanwhile, I received the authorisation of MLPAT, from Cluj-based INCERC. This fact made the customers more confident in my work,” Silvestru added.
The structure of geodesic domes is based on a triangle, which is known as the strongest and most resistant geometrical shape.
As the triangles are assembled, some hexagons and pentagons, the building’s faces, eventually result. The final structure resembles a diamond and is completely made up of wooden beams and steel connectors.
The outside structure is wood-coated, while some sheets of carton-gypsum and mineral wool are applied inside.
According to Adrian Silvestru, those who choose the geodesic domes save money and construction materials. “The houses they build require one third of the materials used for a traditional building spreading on the same surface. The costs are implicitly lower.
Besides, the geodesic domes are more spacious and resistant. They can be built on surfaces between 50 and 1000 square metres,” Silvestru says.
He works with his own team when erecting these buildings and the execution time is maximum six months. The price for the geodesic domes is 150 dollars/square metre.
This figure includes the construction itself as well as the required installations. “We deliver a turnkey house. The client only brings his furniture and moves in.”