Formerly a building contractor, Seamus specialised in house extensions. Work was plentiful but full-on and around the clock. He and his Danish wife, Nette, had a young family and Seamus wanted to spend more time with them as they grew up.
He’d built the family home himself and it was the search for a greenhouse suited to a windy garden that led to a new enterprise. Ferocious winds can rip through the valley and locals advised that a greenhouse would be blown away. Believing there must be a solution, Seamus remembered a structure he’d come across while leafing through an old book called .
In its pages, Seamus learned of the work of Buckminster Fuller, who in 1948 came up with the name of ‘geodesic dome’ for a style of architectural dome created from rigid triangular elements. Figuring that this could be a solution for a windblown garden, Seamus began investigating where to source a greenhouse dome. They were available online, but the quality seemed poor.
And so he decided that he’d have a go at building his own. Armed with drawings purchased from a YouTuber for £50, his first dome took three weeks and stood outside the house for four months, without glazing. Seamus had the dome bug.
He started on another. This one was better, so he clad it in glass, delighted he’d figured out the puzzle. The family planted it up and decked it out with furniture used for birthday parties and sleepovers.
Visitors were smitten and wanted domes for themselves. I understand why. From t.