1. Domes have a long history. Domes occur in nature. Lava domes form when viscous magma from deep below Earth's crust erupts and hardens. Weathering and erosion shape natural domes. Salt even forms domes when it breaks through surface rock layers. For example, Avery Island in Louisiana is a salt dome.
2. For centuries, native peoples have built huts shaped like domes. The nomadic Inuit built domes for dwellings. They cut snow into blocks and piled them in a spiral shape, leaning in slightly, to form a dome.
3. Domes as architectural elements proliferated after about 100 A.D., when the Romans realized that an arch form could be turned into three-dimensional space. Before the Romans, buildings looked like squares or rectangles with pillars to hold up the heavy roofs. The Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis is a good example of architecture based on pillars. The ancient Greeks built the Parthenon using 46 outer pillars and 23 inner pillars.
4. Compared to the Greek method of using pillars for support, Roman domes derived support from rotunda walls. The domed ceiling of the ancient Roman Pantheon is intact today, although it was built using heavy concrete.
5. The architectural dome, simply defined, is type of roof structure. In appearance, it resembles a huge bowl. Domes were built taller over time and therefore heavier. Builders tried various methods to reduce the weight, including iron or tension rings to reduce stress and prevent collapse.
6. A breakthrough came in 1420 A.D. when an obscure goldsmith named Filippo Brunelleschi won a commission to design the heavy dome that still sets atop the Santa Maria del Fiore design puzzled architects until the twentieth century, when a professor discovered Burnelleschi's diagram that showed a bricklaying pattern resembling a series of flowers.
7. The latest breakthrough came in the 1940s, when R. Buckminster Fuller designed the geodesic dome. Fuller conceived the dome as a series of triangles. The configuration of the triangles reduce stress. As a result, geodesic domes not only look different but they are also much stronger in comparison to past domes that evolved from the arch. Spaceship Earth at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center is often cited as a modified geodesic dome.
8. Domes are common architectural features today. They appear on churches, synagogues, and government buildings. Many sports arenas are shaped as domes.
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