Peggy's Hydroponica The home is designed to be using an outside structure designed by Buckminster Fuller.
Towards the he of his life "Bucky" as he is known, designed a special dome, half wall and half window.
He called this "Fly's Eye Dome" because, like a fly's eye, it has many facets, or eyes.
A 50 foot diameter dome was built a few years befor he died and Fuller was able to visit the completed structure.
Video of Buckminster Fuller seeing his Fly's Eye Dome after it was built.
The dome was first erected 50 ft. dome was showcased in Pershing Square in Los Angeles in 1981, where it served as an information center during the LA Bicentennial.
After the Bicentennial the dome was disassembled, taken to a field and left there, forgot about for thirty years.
Then another architect bought the dome and it was erected at an art musuem in America.
A video of Fly's Eye Dome being constructed at Crystal Bridges , Arkansas.
Fuller's Vision
Bucky believed that the Dome could be made into a home with trees and plants. He designed a possible interior using a central column.
 Bucky's original interior had a large column in the middle. Peggy's Hydroponica Design Peggy had been interested in the Fly's Eye Dome for decades. It seemed amazing that it could be reconstructed at a museum just the hours drive from her home, so she went to look at it. From the moment she stepped in inside she was sure it would work as a home and a greenhouse structure. Most greenhouses growing flowers and vegetables need to reduce the full sunlight coming into the structure. So in many cases a shade cloth is placed between the plants and the greenhouse roof to reduce the sunlight hitting the plants.  Shade cloth is used in greenhouses to reduce the sun energy > The dome sort of acts as a 50% shade cloth, or half the sunlight gets to the plants during the day. As the sun passes over the roof of the dome, spots of sun travel along the floor, so plants see sun, then shade, sun, then shade during the day.  As the day progresses, spots of light travel along the floor of Hydroponica. So the plants see bright sun, then shade, then bright sun again. Peggy started with reducing Fuller's 5/8 sphere to a half sphere or dome. This made the bottom diameter 50 foot, and the height 25 feet. So Hydroponica loses the bottom of the Fly's Eye Dome as the structure fits flat of the ground, and the interior now has two floors instead of three. There is no reason why a three story structure cannot be designed later, but the smaller structure will be more easily constructed for a start.
Revised: 1 May 2021 |