Bamboo dome 10m

I harvested the "moso chiku" bamboo from the top of the land in the autumn. I split it with my 160mm steel "takewari" and proceeded to remove the "fushi". I made a scale model of what was in my head using craft paper webbing. I used 17 x 10 metre lengths as follows: 2 slats for the base/circumference were dowelled and lashed together then I drilled holes every 2m and joined the ends to form a ring. The remaining 15 slats were divided into 5 and again were all pre-drilled every 2m. 5 slats for the central star were placed on the ground, and I formed a pentagon where the apex is, then temporarily lashed the slats together where the pre-drilled holes meet. 5 slats for the polarised star were loosely lashed on top of the first star and again temporarilly and loosely lashed at the same 5 nodal points as before, then I was able to lift the assemblage at the middle point and rested on a 3m high step ladder. Then working from the outside I gathered the extended ends and brought them into line with the base. The rest was easy. The 10 main nodal points were Pre-drilled at 12mm and I inserted 12mm dowels to hold 4 intersecting slats together. We have 20m tall bamboo in the forest so selecting the straightest lengths was a breeze. If you don't have access to long slats then you could bind/dowel 2 slats together to achieve the same result. But it is more work.

I got some ideas from simplydifferently.org and www.stardome.jp/index-en.html