How to Build a Half Dome for a Project

Make a tiny half dome to act as an outdoor theater covering for your miniature village.

A dome is essentially a bowl that is flipped over; therefore, a half dome is a half of an upside-down bowl. The half-dome shape is often used by architects when creating outdoor theater stage coverings. However, there are several ways in which you can construct a half dome at home depending on how large your project is, and how sturdy you need the dome to be. For instance, you can create a tiny, half-dome model to build a theatre stage covering in a toy village, or a much larger half dome to grow vines on as a decorative covering in your backyard or garden.

Things You'll Need

• Plastic or wood bowl
• Pencil
• Craft paint
• Electric saw
• Metal or PVC piping (desired size)
• Metal or PVC piping elbows (same diameter as piping)
• Painters cloth
• Marker
• 3 concrete blocks

Instructions

Miniature Half Dome

1. Turn a plastic or wood bowl of your desired size upside down on a flat surface so the bowl forms a dome.

2. Use measuring tape to draw a line across the center of the dome from one end of the dome to the other.

3. Use an electric saw to carefully cut the dome in half down the center line.

4. Decorate the bowl with paint or other craft supplies as desired so that it is specific to your project.

Large Half Dome

1. Lay a painter's cloth on the floor and draw a large pentagon to your desired size. Each line in the pentagon should be the same length. Draw a line through the center of the pentagon to create a half pentagon and cut along the line. You only need half of a pentagon to serve as an outline for building the half dome.

2. Purchase metal pipes that are roughly the same length as the lines in the pentagon, which you drew. The number of pipes and elbow fittings you purchase depend on how large you make your pentagon.

3. Lay out the pipes following the outline of the half pentagon and connect the pipes together by screwing on elbow fittings.

4. Lay two to three concrete blocks on top of the first layer of metal pipes for extra support to keep the pipes down before you continue to build upward.

5. Continue to connect pipes, working your way upward so you form rows of triangles, which alternate from upside-down triangle to right-side up triangle. Keep filling in the empty spaces until you reach a half-dome structure. You may need a ladder depending on how large you make the half dome.

6. Secure the structure to the ground by either keeping the concrete blocks in place or pouring concrete over the bottom layer.

References

• Hila Science Camp: Build a Dome
• Garden Dome: Garden Dome 4