Step 0: Planning

Step zero is the planning. You really only need two websites to guide you (and not even this blog, per se, though this is the only sukkah-oriented dome resource on the web so far).

The first is a brilliant website produced by a Burning Man guru. Burning Man is an art and hippie show held in the desert outside Reno, Nevada, and apparently, people build and live in Geodesic Domes during the event.

The dome guru, Tara Landry, has created probably the most comprehensive dome resource on the internet, at www.desertdomes.com. She has been doing this for about ten years, she is an engineer, and she will even sell you a dome for Burning Man, which I think just finished last week.

The coolest part of the website is the calculator; just tell it how large you want the radius to be, and it tells you how big each structural element should be. I figured a radius of eight feet should be plenty big. You can figure out which kind of dome you want to make, and they increase in complexity from "1V" to "6V." I thought for my first time, I would take the middle road and make a 5/8 3V dome. This requires 165 struts, and twice as many connectors. You can also print out the construction plan for your dome from the site, which is good for impressing people with the grandiosity of your plans.

The other great website for dome-building information comes courtesy of the people at Make magazine (I think). The DIY-science author Gavin D. J. Harper demonstrates how he built a decent-looking 2V dome out of bamboo sticks and Home Depot eyelets.



So, if you can calculate the dome on one website, and learn how to put it together on the other website, what would stop you from making a geodesic dome sukkah in the same way?

Really, nothing...