Over the last two weeks, we’ve built a dome in the middle of The Clearing. It looks incredible. Here's an incomplete guide to how we did it.
1) FIND SOME PEOPLE TO HELP.
The point of the geodesic dome is that you don’t need cranes or cement or anything high-tech: just willing people, hand-tools, and a bit of maths. About 20 volunteers came to help us, architects and yurt-builders, designers and park rangers, from Sheffield, Leeds, Bristol, London and Wales. Their energy was our most important resource.
2) GATHER YOUR MATERIALS
The other point is that you can build it from whatever you have to hand. We used ply salvaged from crates that once held the nose-cones of Jaguar aircraft; scaffolding boards that are now far too expensive*; bags of charity shop clothes and hay to help insulate the panels. We used old garage doors and radiator covers for the metal, but we also used some new. We tried to use the back door of a Volvo that Alex has been carting round for years, but to no avail.
3) BUILD YOUR DECK.
Now the building begins in earnest. We hammered in posts from rowing boats. We stood chest deep in waders. We edged out two by six timbers, over the water, then balanced on them, like those photos of the men who built Manhattan. Somehow, no-one fell in (touch wood).
NOTE: The dome doesn't sit on the deck itself, but on free-standing nodes, which are super-reinforced. This means your deck only has to be strong enough to support some post-industrial survivors, a stove and a bed, rather than a 2.5 tonne structure.
4) ASSEMBLE YOUR DOME.
We used pre-cut struts to save time (probably less important in the future, but we've got a deadline). We attached the struts to metal hubs, bits of 4 inch metal pipe, chopped down. We spread the resulting shapes out into weird upside-down spiders, and joined them into triangles. Suddenly the triangles joined together, and formed the first ring of the dome. This was possibly the most exciting bit.
5) KEEP BUILDING.
From here, it all went really quickly. We attached more triangles to the frame, until we had a dome. We covered it in black plastic to keep out the rain (you can use any plastic in the future, it’s not going anywhere). We drilled holes in the metal panels, in situ over their corresponding triangles, and banged them in with roofing nails.
6) ARRANGE THE PANELS IN AN AESTHETICALLY PLEASING MANNER.
Just because it’s the self-inflicted end of fossil-fueled powered modernity, doesn’t mean things don’t have to look good.
7) A WORD ON TOOLS.
We’d like to say we only used hand tools, saws, hammers, hand-powered drills. To be fair, we did destroy ten Irwin hand-saws (sponsorship enquiries welcome), and banged in 3kilos of 4inch nails. But we also used a chain-saw, and a generator, and hand-held drills (possible to charge from solar?). It’s not quite the future yet – if you’ve got a generator, flaunt it.
8) KEEP YOUR ENERGY LEVELS UP.
We drank tea. We stopped for lunch. Staff at Compton Verney took it in turns to cook a vat of soup for us, everyday, along with enough cakes and biscuits to feed an army (no dentists in the future, though, so watch your sugar intake). We ate around a fire, in a smaller clearing, within the clearing.
9) APPRECIATE YOUR SURROUNDINGS.
We worked with nature all around us. The swans swam in formation across the lake. The 300 year old cedar tree next to The Clearing swayed in Storm Doris. One night, we saw a Muntjac in the woods. One morning, Alex found a pheasant in the dome.
10) SEE THE STARS.
We worked til the night, when the sun went down, and The Clearing was plunged into a pitch blackness that most of us never see. The stars came out. Not just the greatest hits, name-them-in-a-pub-quiz constellations, but all the stars. The whole galaxy.
11) CLIMB THRU THE TOP AND BASH IT.
Finally, on the last day, Alex appeared through the roof of the dome, hammering the last panels down. Sophie threw some ropes up to him, as the last of the sun poured into the valley. He stood on top of it, hammering at his feet, before walking gingerly down a ladder as the sun came down.
12) DO IT TOGETHER.
The best thing wasn’t the stars, or the cakes, or choosing which panels went where. The best thing was the feeling of 20 people, coming together, building together, with hand-tools and maths and communication and brawn. When the news at the moment makes us feel hopeless, and impotent, and small, building the dome has made us feel strong, and supported, and hopeful.
Thanks to the builders: Rob, Sophie, Beth, Matt, Jen, Gregg, Ben, another Sophie, Alice, Lucy, Melissa, Mark, Corrine, Avril, Wendy, Ella, Paul, Tim and Kaz.
Here at The Clearing, we couldn’t be happier.
* Reclaimed materials are currently incredibly expensive, because all the bars are making bad reclaimed furniture out of them. But just wait til five years time, when those copper light fittings aren't cool anymore, and the skips of the cities are awash with structural ply.
