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Step 4

Assembling the dome

After all components had been manufactured, everybody looked forward to the exciting phase of the project: The assembly of the dome.

First of all old, used car tires were laid out on an area of a circle with a diameter of six meters as a foundation under the dome. The tires were waste and could be recycled as free material in this way. They were covered with plastic foil to keep off dampness and odor trouble from below. Wooden panels, laid out on the foil, made a stable, even floor.

The hemispherical dome structure was placed on ten pillars, wooden struts, cut to 40 centimeters, damp proofed to the ground and protected with aluminum sheet. The wooden pillars were positioned exactly around the round bottom of car tires. The installation of the dome was started with ten horizontal wooden struts at the bottom. They were fixed to the ten pillars round the ground. This solid ten-sided figure was the base layer for the triangles of the dome construction now to be attached above. Once the lower triangles were connected to each other, the structure stabilized and straightened up itself. The connections matched even better with each triangle added.

Due to the ever-changing situations for refugees at Europe's external border, attention was turned to mobility that means the possibility of a simple, repeatable assembly and dismantling  in order to respond with new requirements such as a change of location. The basic construction of the Habibi Dome is designed to be built up and disassembled within a few hours. The corners and struts can be connected without material wear as often as one likes.

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