7th day - a new week

After the participants had 1 and 1/2 day off during the weekend, everybody was looking forward to take the building to the next level. Some had visited the Hričov festival, others spent some quality time in the Auqa Park or lakes nearby. A great weekend with great weather!

On saturday afternoon I got some help to drill holes for the ventilation system, and on sunday the ring for the skylight arrived. The carpenter put it on the roof of his car. Only old cars are strong enough for such load.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

We checked the fit of the skylight. The skylight ring has a rather high ring, because we plan to insulate the skylight also from the outside to avoid the worst heat bridges.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

On monday the real building started. The dome was going from a vertical wall to a horizontal slab...

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The dome is slowly closing up... rather fascinating!

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Placing the bales is not so easy, and a small change in the cuts produced some bigger gaps than anticipated. Probably the bending does change the calculated geometry a bit.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

From the outside the dome looks already complete:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The "electricians" at work putting in the internet cables - we want to avoid using wifi in this building.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The straw bales need a "haircut" before plastering - now the vaults look much neater on the inside.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Piet the plasterer arrived a bit exhausted from a long trip from Germany - but we got the machine running after putting on new plugs (good to have Alexander the electrician in the team) and getting some sand.

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The "mud" machine. The plaster is our own mix based on clay from the Czech producer RIGI - Picas:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Plastering the vaults:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Also the girls got to try:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Smoothing out the surface:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Today was a hot day with some wind, so the first coat of rich clay plaster is drying out quickly:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

The dome and the plastered vaults at the end of the day:

From Strawbale Dome Minke

Tomorrow we should be mounting the ring for the skylight!