According to onlookers Saturday afternoon, the rolled up RanDome brand geodesic shelter looked more like something out of a Cheech and Chong movie rather than a structure that would provide dozens of protesters protection from the oncoming snowstorm Saturday night.
The sturdy, lightweight, collapsible RanDome emergency shelter – which measures seven meters and is made out of polyethylene plastic – was unrolled onto the Lincoln Park grounds Saturday afternoon. It is serving as the community center for Portland’s Occupy Maine protesters. According to Heather Curtis, interviewed early Sunday morning, “The RanDome is amazing. We were brushing snow off the top all night…”
Siberian native Artur Kaptelinin said, “This technology is really good. It really shows me the ingenuity and the true American spirit … of camraderie.”
Says inventor Dick Fischbeck, “While it is best to err on the side of caution, the dome would have been able to withstand the weight of Portland´s 5 inches of snowfall and most definitely could have withstood even more had the dome been built out of aluminum sheeting rather than polyethylene.” Having himself lived in a RanDome for a year Mr. Fischbeck has already tested out his invention. Two more RanDomes have been requested for the Occupy Maine site.
The RanDome Emergency Shelter won a patent in 2008 for being the only living structure built completely out of vertex elements. It is an ultra low-cost transitional shelter of a construction method so simple even a small child could understand the concept. The RanDome method is licensed for use by absolutely anyone as long as its implementation is for non-commercial purposes.