Zome

A zome is a building designed using geometries different from of a series of rectangular boxes, used in a typical house or building.^[1] The word "zome" was coined in 1968 by Nooruddeen Durkee (then Steve Durkee), combining the words dome and zonohedron.^{[citation needed]} One of the earliest models became a large climbing structure at the Lama Foundation.^{[citation needed]}

The term "Zome System" refers to the mathematics underlying the physical construction system.^{[citation needed]}

Building concept

Following his education at Amherst College and UCLA, Steve Baer studied mathematics at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (Zurich, Switzerland). Here he became interested in the possibilities of building innovative structures using polyhedra. Baer and his wife, Holly, moved back to the U.S., settling in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the early 1960s. In New Mexico, he experimented with constructing buildings of unusual geometries (calling them by his friend Steve Durkee's term: "zomes" — see "Drop City") — buildings intended to be appropriate to their environment, notably to utilize solar energy well. He was fascinated with the dome geometry popularized by architect R. Buckminster Fuller. Baer was an occasional guest at Drop City, an arts and experimental community near Trinidad, CO. He wanted to design and construct buildings that didn't suffer from some of the limitations of the smaller, owner-built versions of geodesic domes (of the 'pure Fuller' design).^{[citation needed]}

In recent years, the unconventional "zome" building-design approach with its multi-faceted geometric lines has been taken up by French builders in the Pyrenees. Home Work, a book published in 2004 and edited by Lloyd Kahn, has a section featuring these buildings. While many zomes built in the last couple decades have been wood-framed and made use of wood sheathing, much of what Baer himself originally designed and constructed involved metal framing with a sheet-metal outer skin.^{[citation needed]}

Zomes have also been used in art, sculpture, and furniture. Zomadic, based in San Francisco, CA and founded by Rob Bell, incorporates zome geometry into artistic structures constructed primarily from CNC machined plywood components. Bell is a frequent attendee at Burning Man, a yearly artistic showcase event located in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.^{[citation needed]}

Richie Duncan of Kodama Zomes, based in southern Oregon has invented a structural system based on a hanging zome geometry, suspended from an overhead anchor point. Constructed of metal compressive elements and webbing tensile elements, the structures are able to be assembled and disassembled. This suspended zome system has been used in furniture, performing arts, and treehouse applications.^{[citation needed]}

Yann Lipnick of Zomadic Concepts in France has an extensive study of, and multiple project construction of zomes in many different materials. He highlights the universal appeal and healing atmosphere that zomes provide and has training classes and reference books on zome construction.^{[citation needed]}

References

• Steve Baer. Zome Primer. Zomeworks Corporation, 1970.
• David Booth. The New Zome Primer in Fivefold Symmetry, István Hargittai (editor). World Scientific Publishing Company, 1992.
• Coxeter, H. S. M. Regular Polytopes, 3rd edition, Dover, 1973. ISBN 0-486-61480-8.
• Brian C. Hall. Lie Groups, Lie Algebras, and Representations: An Elementary Introduction, Springer, 2003. ISBN 0-387-40122-9.
• George Hart, Four-Dimensional Polytope Projection Barn Raisings. Proceedings, Sixth International Conference of the Society of Art, Math, and Architecture, Texas A&M University. May 2007.
• George Hart and Henri Picciotto. Zome Geometry: Hands-on Learning with Zome Models. Key Curriculum Press, 2001. ISBN 1-55953-385-4.
• Paul R. Hildebrandt & Marc G. Pelletier (1985). "Geometric Modeling Kit and Method of Making Same". United States Patent No. 4,701,131.
• Paul Hildebrandt. Zome-inspired Sculpture. Proceedings, Bridges London: Connections between Mathematics, Art, and Music, Reza Sarhangi and John Sharp (editors). (2006) 335–342.
• Paul Hildebrandt & Clark Richert (2012). "Domes, Zomes, and Drop City". Bridges 2012.
• Cass Wester (1973). "Steve Baer and Holly Baer: Dome Home Enthusiasts". Mother Earth News 22.
• David A. Richter. Two results concerning the Zome model of the 600-cell. Proceedings, Renaissance Banff: Mathematical Connections between Mathematics, Art, and Music, Robert Moody and Reza Sarhangi (editors). (2005) 419–426.
• David A. Richter and Scott Vorthmann. Green Quaternions, Tenacious Symmetry, and Octahedral Zome. Proceedings, Bridges London: Connections between Mathematics, Art, and Music, Reza Sarhangi and John Sharp (editors). (2006) 429–436.
• Steven F. Rogers & Paul R. Hildebrandt (2002) "Connections for Geometric Modeling Kit". United States Patent No. 6,840,699 B2.
• Sadler, Simon (2006). "Drop City Revisited". Journal of Architectural Education 59 (3), pp. 5–14.

Further reading

• Examples of zome usage in North American prefabricated housing construction
• Examples of European zome buildings (in French)
• The zome building concept explained^{[dead link]}
• Advanced Zome Projects by David Richter.^{[dead link]}
• Zome Geometry by George W. Hart and Henri Picciotto.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zome (architecture).

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zome (construction set).

• Zometool - Manufacturer's site.
• ZOME Energy Networks
• Kodama Zomes
• Zomadic
• Heliss (in French)
• Zome at Bridges London
• Japan Zome Club (in Japanese)
• Metazome (in Japanese)^{[dead link]}
• Weisstein, Eric W. "Zome". MathWorld.

Software

• Z5omes - A web application to create 3D models of zomes in GoodKarma.
• Zome modelisation - Open-source sketchup plugin.
• Zome Creator - Open-source code for Zome modelisation software.
• vZome

This page was last edited on 29 January 2024, at 19:17