The Library of Radiant Optimism is a project by Let’s Remake, a group of local artists/activist that live in our hood. They write: “The Library was begun to catalog a groundswell of optimistic and visionary activities in the late 1960s and early 1970s. We gathered a handful of books that embrace grass roots exchange of information and themes of self and community empowerment.” They put up a PDF of a book titled Domebook 2 and I’ve been fascinated with it the last couple days.
Domebook 2 was published in 1971 by Lloyd Kahn, at the height of geodesic dome excitement within the counterculture. Geodesic domes were evangelized by Buckminster Fuller as being cheap, easy to construct, and structurally superior. Sounds super-cool, right? After spending some time reading through the book I did a bit of background research on domes, this book, and the author.
It turns out that Domebook 2 was taken out of print by Kahn a few years after publication after continued frustrations with dome building. After building some 19 domes, Kahn abandoned domes altogether and shifted his inquiry towards elegantly built homes made from local material. This new work was published in the books Shelter (1973) and Shelter II (1978). However, he had created so much hype about domes that he continued to be asked about their construction for years and years. He finally wrote up this piece, Refried Domes, along with a comparison of dome/rectangle construction. His arguments against domebuilding are many and seem to have been earned through the pain of experience.
Reading Kahn’s later words killed some of the excitement I had upon discovering the book. Over a hundred pages of beautiful people trying new and exciting ways of living resonated with my current view of the world. Domes might make bad homes, but they certainly seem appealing when the rest of the world is so square. I also love the idea of starting with a stack of triangles and a group of friends and building an object of wonder together.
Kahn, now 72, lives outside SF, CA. He has a blog and wrote a new book, Builder’s of the Pacific Coast.
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