Creating a door for your dome

(keep scrolling down for 3v ideas)

Principles

Hubs won’t hold sticks in position if they aren’t supported by triangulation.
You’ll quite quickly get a sense of this if you remove a stick or two.

So it’s good to support the shape of the dome until your adaptation is in place and supporting the dome, otherwise it will deform.

Adaptor sticks

For new / unknown lengths we suggest using overlapping batten.

Screw ball connectors on one end of two battens that are more than long enough for the stick you want to make. One batten goes into one hub, the other into the second hub. You then overlap the sticks until you’re happy with the length. Then screw together. You can keep this stick in place or measure it to create your final sticks.

Can I just remove a 5-way or 6-way to create a door in a pentagon or hexagon?

Unfortunately not :(

If you remove the sticks in a pentagon:
It will stand up if the base ring is securely fixed to the ground but it will be weak around the edge of the pentagon. What will tend to happen is the topmost hubs will fall down and the hubs midway down will push out, so the dome will deform. Any significant load on here could lead to a collapse.

If you remove the sticks in a hexagon:
It might just hold its position if the base ring is fixed but likely it will collapse.

If you wanted to do either of these you would need to brace around the edge of the pentagon / hexagon. More on bracing here.

Door ideas for 2v

In under a 6-way hub

Up to 4m, needs a base really.5m you could duck or crawl in, no base.6m you could duck in, no base.
Adding a base makes it easier. You can see relative heights of areas of the dome on the 2v page and our dome calculator, which will help to give you a sense of how much base you might want to add.
Roughly:
20cm will enable you to duck in at 5m.
40cm will enable you to duck in at 4m.
80cm or so at 3m will do the same.

Large rectangular door

Leans back a bit and can also be a base structure which you build a regular door frame onto, either straight down from the top, so inset in the dome. Or coming straight up from the bottom / base of the dome, such that the top of the added door frame would protrude a bit from the dome.

Raise a hub

You can do this in a pentagon and a hexagon. Here’s an approach for a hexagon which re-uses the Shorts and Longs. Swap the positions of the Shorts and Longs and introduce two new lengths for the bottom two sticks.
We suggest getting the new lengths right by using overlapping batten; screw ball connectors on one end of two battens. One goes into the top hub, the other into the bottom hub. You then overlap the sticks until you’re happy. Then screw together. You can keep this stick in place or measure it to create your final sticks.

Door in a pentagon

You can create a door in a pentagon by inserting sticks into the base hubs and then cutting the sticks to length and screwing them onto the upper sticks. We did this to create the base structure for the Mud Shell project. There’s a quick example of how to do this on our instagram here.

Add a separate door frame

Build your door where you want it, then attach the dome to it.
The sticks you attach from the dome to the door could be new struts added while the dome is complete. Or you could support the dome while you attach some of the sticks already in the dome to the door frame.
Note!
Supporting the dome while you’re doing this will prevent it deforming when you disconnect the struts in the dome. You could use the large rectangular door option in a hexagon to provide this support initially.

Open-sided - A

You take a large section out and insert two long struts to provide the triangulation. For the new sticks try to measure from the centre of the socket to centre socket, then take off 88mm. If you’re not 100% confident you can always use the overlapping method described above.
Note!The base ring needs to be securely anchored to the ground for this to work - without doing that it won’t be stable!

Open-sided - B

Matthias from Germany removed a big section of the dome. See pic below.
Note!He had to brace at the hubs along the edge of the section he removed (red circles) - without doing that it would have collapsed.
Hubs won’t hold the sticks in place without the structure being adequately triangulated!
It was also important to anchor the dome to prevent it tipping over.

'Pod' structure

Good headroom in a neat footprint with a practical door. See more on this here.
Note! We don’t recommend going above 3.2m diameter for this structure. So if your dome is that size or smaller it could be a good option

In under a 6-way hub - thanks to Ellie in the UK

Large rectangular door - thanks to Nick in Montreal

Raised hub - swap over the Shorts and Longs and add in two new lengths

Raised hub - thanks to Ellen in Valencia

Door in a pentagon - check out a little how-to film here.

Add a separate door frame - thanks to David in Switzerland

Open-sided - A - you need to make sure the base is securely anchored.

Open-sided - B - you need to brace across the hubs around the opening.
Thanks to Matthias.

'Pod' at 3.2m diameter - Chris is approx 6ft tall for reference

A pod fruit cage

Door ideas for 3v

3/8 door - A

This would be a duck or crawl-in door but would just involve putting two verticals in, so not a lot of work and doesn't affect the look of the dome too much.

3/8 door - B

Note that the point of the door would be further into the dome than the base. It's also important here that the two posts (shown in green) are securely anchored into the ground, as they would need to hold the hubs at the top in position.

3/8 asymmetric door

Works in much the same way as the 2v 'pod' door does. Remember to support the dome to prevent it deforming when you insert the new sticks.

3/8 pentagon door

Brace at the hubs making the pentagon, it won't be strong without doing this.
Note!
Hubs won’t hold the sticks in place without the structure being adequately triangulated!

3/8 on a base

If you can put your 3/8 dome on a base this is a good way to create a doorway. You can add a door frame on the outside and connect it back to the dome. Or have it positioned slightly inset.

5/8

This is a good way to create a doorway in a 5/8 3v. You can add a door frame on the outside and connect it back to the dome. Or have it positioned slightly inset.