The construction of the hillside cottage began a year after the big plydome. After building large, I was quite at ease working with an 18ft. diameter structure. We assembled the plywood sheets almost completely before mounting the posts in what resembles a Tiffany setting. This little building is beautifully crafted, and was in my mind a prototype. The patterning is simple: all the sheets of plywood are drilled the same, and there are only two kinds of polycarbonate windows. Hardware is stainless steel machine screws for nearly everything.

Because the cottage is extremely light, the airborne design seemed appropriate. The 9 ft. diameter pods that extend from the larger sphere weigh only about 350 lb. The locust posts that provide foundation go 5 ft. into the clay and small rocks were packed into the postholes.

A young couple moved into the cottage and named it Chrysalis. It is a primitive 3 season dwelling they lived in year round for perhaps three years. We installed a wood stove, they ran cold water in; there was never any insulation. The little green dome is the outhouse.

Inge and Torn moved into Chrysalis when it was a single 18 ft. ball with no door. They asked for a loft to sleep in. Instead I fabricated a 9 ft. diameter miniature of the ball they were living in, and with the help of most of the people on the farm, and a few visitors, we hoisted and jacked the plywood sphere into position and bolted it firmly in place. We were working on a steep, slippery clay slope, sliding the ball up a skinny pole. It soon was out of reach, and not yet high enough. Cynthia videotaped the process, which when I viewed it made me wonder how many of us would it take to change a light bulb. We were using sticks and stones and rope to make places to stand and push, and nailing little boards into the post to keep the ball from sliding back. There must have been a dozen of us actually working on it at once.

After a few hours, I called a break. Time to think. I came back in the evening with Michael and Russ, and we built a little platform to mount a floor jack, and raised it to its final position.

The sleeping area was pleasant, nestled in the branches of an apple tree. I started another one, slightly larger, but this time I built it on the ground, let it sit for a week to get the plywood bent, then took it apart and reassembled it on the east side of Chrysalis. Several weeks later Inge and Torn asked again for a loft. I dug up some locust poles from under the leaves in the woods and arranged them in a five sided star overhead inside their house. There wasn't much room up there, but they seemed to enjoy being able to get up there, and the locust poles were handy to hang things from. They made some little platforms and got some of their things off the floor.

The door was a challenging project. I had cut in the round opening not knowing how I was going to make a door for it. The opening was slanted and more of a hatchway than a door. I thought a swivelling flap, much like a choke on a carburetor, would be a good place to start. I set the pin near the side so the middle of the opening would be clear. Because of this I had to cut some of the door away so it could turn without hitting the doorframe. There were a number of minor adjustments and details to make it work properly, but in the end it was a satisfactory and amusing door. Still is, I suppose- last I knew Chrysalis was still in use. This little 'luxury camping unit' was the best expression of my early ideas of human scale dwellings and frameless shells. The pointed polycarbonate windows are not suitable for a heated building, but were beautifully integrated with the geodesic pattern.

Chrysalis and the little green outhouse were my first Fat Helicopters. I published a design in BackHome #59 a few years ago with the directions for the construction of an 18 ft. diameter 7/8 sphere, designated The Fat Helicopter. The rotorlike parasol/raincap has become standard equipment on my domes. It covers the venthole on the top of the dome which lets air in and out, and provides me with safe access to the top of the roof. Chrysalis has a stubby rotor made of 4 ft.x4 ft. sheets of plywood. I prefer larger ones now.

Building a complete sphere was a surprise. The integrity of the complete geodesic ball is quite impressive. Making this dome prepared me for the construction of my own house, which had to be done expeditiously. The sphere design actually sped the construction of my house, (link to Sphere Cottage)because the foundation was only a nine foot wide pentagon, with no concrete involved.