BambooDome  
    in Luxembourg
           
       
      The BambooDome is mounted!!!  

Assembly on July 16th 2004 - more pictures of the assembling

Visits: International Day July 25th 2004

  
     
 
 
             
       

In July 2004 the Lehrstuhl für Tragkonstruktionen (institute for structural design) at the RWTH Aachen (technical university of Aachen) will be planning and constructing a bamboo dome of 12 m height for the international scouts camp 4u in Luxembourg. This project, initialised and taken charge of by Dr.-Ing. Evelin Rottke (doctor of engineering) and Dipl.-Ing. Christoph Tönges (graduate engineer) follows the institute´s tradition of developing innovative constructions techniques and realising them in experimental architecture, involving students from the design to the realisation of the project.
On the 19th of June the construction was put to test in Lasauvage, Luxembourg, without encountering any major problems.

  
      photo-mounting of the future dome  

 

  
       

On the 19th of June the construction was put to test in Lasauvage, Luxembourg, without encountering any major problems. The final set up will presumably take place on the 19th of July on the site of the scouts camp near Lasauvage / Luxembourg.

more pictures of the construction test...

 
     

construction test

  

 

  
        Naturally grown bamboo-poles are the major elements of the construction which was developed by the Lehrstuhl für Tragkonstruktionen at the RWTH Aachen. As can be seen in the picture, their ends are reduced to a conical shape and wrapped in resin-soaked fibre-glass threads to prepare for the grouting of connecting elements. This way of pre-fabrication allows a quick on the spot construction, using equally pre-fabricated connection elements which, so far, have been used mainly in steel constructions. They are now applied to a bamboo construction for the first time.  
     

connection point with conical rods and metal joints

    
       

The design of the dome results from Christoph Tönges´ diploma , for which he examined the maximum length of bamboo rods in order to minimise the number of rods and joints. The resulting dome geometry is reduced to 50 poles, 31 joints and two rope-tied junctions, in which two poles stabilise each other. The dome in Luxembourg, which will not be covered by a roof, is constructed from rods with a maximum length of 8 m, creating a diameter of 15 m at ground level. The realisation of this project could not have taken place without the particularly well-working co-operation with the scouts of Luxembourg and their head Georges Schutz.

  
      design of the dome    
     

 

 

The realisation of this project could not have taken place without the particularly well-working co-operation with the scouts of Luxembourg and their head Georges Schutz.
All of the material was provided by sponsors. The high quality bamboo Guadua Augustifolia was embarked in Columbia as additional cargo and transported to Aachen. This was organised by Jörg Stamm, a german bamboo-constructor living in South America and one of the institutes project partners. The connection elements, which are grouted into the conical bamboo-ends, were made by pupily of the technical highschool Emile Metz. The grouting compound was and is being tested at the Université du Luxembourg.

  
pre-fabricated bamboo-rods, ready to be transported to Luxembourg
        The pre-fabrication of the bamboo-rods is quite simple, but time-consuming. For this reason, a workshop took place in a scouts home near Aachen between the 4th and 8th of April. 20 scouts of Luxembourg and Aachen, as well as RWTH - students, finished the approximately 100 bamboo-end joints. Despite the bad weather conditions all those involved worked with a lot of effort and creativity. Therefore, by the end of the workshop, we had got a stock of pre-fabricated bamboo-poles, which, in June, were transported to Luxembourg and filled with self-compacting concrete. Many thanks again to all those involved!

 

  
some participants of the workshop
       

Since the construction test passed without any problems, the dome will be set up in July and will be the landmark of the international scouts camp 4U. As the reusability of the rods is part of the construction principle, the dome will be rebuilt and used as an info-pavilion to a nature trail when the camp is over.

Dr.-Ing. Evelin Rottke, RWTH Aachen
Dipl.-Ing. Christoph Tönges

Dipl.-Ing. Georges Schutz for the scouts of Luxembourg

 

  
      The preparation of the rods takes a lot of effort.      
         
      The parts to be removed are marked accurately....   ...before they can be sawed away  
         
      The reduction of the end of a rod takes a lot of
manpower. 		  The reduced ends are wrapped in resin-soaked
fibre-glass threads. 		 
         
      The stabilising, rope-tied connections are exemplified.   Some of the participants, trying out ways of
construction.		  
             
           
      More pictures of the construction test:  
         
      The straightness of the rods is tested before the
construction.		   The upper tension ring of the icosahedron is
assembled first.		  
         
      The rods which form the upper end of the
icosahedron and, therefore, of the dome, are
connected to the tension ring...		   ...and bolted together.  
         
      The upper, stabilising pentagon of the
dodecahedron is tied to the construction.		   The finished upper part of the dome is craned to
its final height.		  
         
      Alternatively the assemblage from bottom to top
is tested...		   ...and found out to be a lot more complicated.  
         
back to the beginning
  
             
      More pictures of the assembling 16.7.2004:      
         
         
         
         
         
         
back to the beginning