Harmony McNish

Homestead Out Building: Puffball Dome

A sculptural structure inspired by a puffball mushroom.

“While foraging for Common Puffballs; an edible tasty mushroom I came across a single one amongst some decaying pine needles. The white little dome peaked through the soil hiding the steam of a not-yet over-ripened mushroom. While closely examining the dome shape of the mushroom I noticed soft, good spikes that gather to make the spherical surface of the mushroom. The observation of the Puffball is what formulated and inspired my idea to create; Puffball Dome. An irregular-shaped building, hollow dome, that has white on the outside, brown on the inside, and a hole in the center of the peak to resemble a past ripped Puffball mushroom.The geodesic dome constructed as Puffball Dome, is a 1V frequency dome, meaning the equilateral triangles are not subdivided into smaller triangles. The 1V frequency design was chosen as the core design of the dome because of its simplicity and for the pentagon shape that is a recurrence within my work and often appears on the homestead. The pre-existing buildings on the homesteads property are traditionally designed in a common house shape, which is geometrically called pentagonal prisms. In relation to the traditional pentagon shape, Puffball Dome took the pentagon shape as the basis of its entire structure. The overall purpose of the Puffball Dome is to function as a seasonally versatile outbuilding on homestead premises. As documentation displays the structure in the winter season will be repurposed as a recreational shelter, designed for homestead residents and guests to enjoy the winter by escaping the wind and providing cozy warmth from a past project; Woodstove. In the growing season, the structure will function as a greenhouse to supply homestead residents with fresh produce and reunite the work with the practice of gathering food. ”