GALLERY ENTRY

Belltown Dome

The Belltown Dome is a single-pad ice-skating rink for the community of Britannia.  In order to create a column-free space, the designers developed a triodetic exoskeleton to enclose this modest hockey rink.  The design was influenced by the work of R. Buckminster Fuller, specifically the geodesic domes that were popularized in the 1960s.   The machine aesthetic of the capsule-like enclosure creates a striking contrast with the natural park-like setting.  Within the National Capital, the Belltown Dome is an excellent example of the contribution of engineering to the modern movement.