How can a dome be made using flat pieces of paper without the aide of any adhesive?



The answer I came up with is an origami geodesic dome. The first dome I designed was about 48" in diameter and displayed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in February. The event was written up and published in the most recent issue of Origami USA's official magazine, "The Paper".

Then, for this year's Origami USA convention at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, I designed an 8-foot diameter dome. I've looked far and wide and I believe it is the largest origami geodesic dome ever built, although origami structures based on the geodesic dome concept have been made before. Miyuki Kawamura, famous for her origami polyhedrons and author of the book 'Polyhedron Origami for Beginners' designed and exhibited a beautiful geodesic sphere that she calls the "cosmosphere" in 2004. Showing a beautifully gradated color scheme, it is roughly two feet in diameter. Also, in 2001, students at the Guadalaviar school of Valencia, Spain, built a paper geodesic dome using a design of Bela Garrido. Their larger 1.8-meter dome required tape. Bela's design is essentially a paper version of Buckminster Fuller's patented design.


OUSA Convention at the Fashion Institute of Technology in June 2005

The 8-foot convention dome was made from 201 sheets of square paper, folded into units that interconnect and lock without the aide of any form of adhesive. It took my partner Alessandra and I about 50 hours total to fold all the pieces, which we carried to New York City in four boxes and then assembled on site in about 5 hours. Gilad Aharoni's website referred to below contains pictures during assembly. When the apex was placed, there were five of us huddled comfortably inside the dome...there was plenty of headroom because the ceiling was about 7 feet high. We got out by crawling under the tables supporting the dome.

I also designed and exhibited an origami geodesic sphere at the convention. Alessandra's color scheme utilized lots of sparkly holographic origami paper to turn the sphere into a disco ball.


Also at the convention, I showed a modular origami disco ball made from all kinds of sparkly holographic paper.

I think the origami dome is a testament to Buckminster Fuller's vision because I think it is remarkable that a structure that large can be made out of paper without glue, tape, string, etc. It held firm without any sign of sagging. In fact, the disco ball can literally be held in the palm of one hand. The 48 dome shown at MIT could be flipped over without the slightest sign of distress. (In fact, paper seems to resist be stretched better than being compressed so it is probably happier upside-down!) At the convention, there was another big modular origami model...a level 3 Menger Sponger whose construction was organized by Jeannine Mosely. In a way, it was a perfect counterpoint to the dome. Whereas the dome is round, the Menger sponge is a cube (with holes). Whereas the dome had 201 pieces and was 8 feet in diameter, the Menger sponge had 66,048 pieces and was about 4.5 feet on a side. Whereas the dome took a total of about 60 hours to construct and build, the Menger sponge was made over a period of some 10 years. (The June 21, 2005 issue of the New York Times contained a photo of Jeannine with her Menger sponge.)

In addition, according to Jeannine, the Menger sponge cannot be enlarged to a level 4 sponge because it would collapse under its own weight.

On the other hand, I personally believe that the dome design can be made much, much larger. I hope someday to make a much larger origami geodesic dome...but this is just a dream right now because it would cost a bit and it would require more organization and time. I'd like to try to make one large enough that the dome itself can serve as an exhibition room containing origami exhibits within and so that people can comfortably walk inside and look at the exhibits and the dome from within.


The Science Club for Girls disco ball hanging at Boston's Children's Museum

After the Origami USA convention, I worked with the Boston Children's Museum and Science Club for Girls, a non-profit group created to foster an interest in science among school girls in junior high and high school. Working mostly with tenth graders, we built another origami disco ball bigger than the one shown at the convention. The ball was also used to introduce various topics in geometry. The girls did a fabulous job! None of them had prior origami experience and we started from zero. In about four weeks they had completed all 212 pieces and then built the disco ball on site at Boston's Children's Museum while teaching visitors some simple origami models. The disco ball has been hanging from a railing on the fourth floor of the children's museum since August 10 and still looks fine. The girls designed the color scheme and used shiny foil paper to give it a sparkle.


The origami diadem based on the same design principles...it is a layer from a geodesic dome.

Currently, I'm working on a small book that explains how to make the origami geodesic spheres and domes, as well as origami diadems based on the same design.

» Click here to visit the Science Club for Girls
» Click here to visit Gilad Aharoni's Origami USA 2005 photo album
» Click here to visit the Centro Virtual de Divulgacia de las Matematicas
» Click here to visit Boston's Children's Museum