The Red Rockers’ 60-foot dome in Colorado, built from math in Domebook One. Jack Fulton and I dropped in on them unannounced on a snowy Saturday night in 1972 when we were on a trip shooting photos for Shelter (published in 1973). We lucked into a venison dinner and then a rock-and-roll band in a small nearby town.
The Rockers had moved to Colorado from LA and built the communal dome.
But as time passed, couples wanted more privacy and began building little outlying sheds.
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About Lloyd Kahn
Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the
Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include
Shelter,
Shelter II (1978),
Home Work (2004),
Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008),
Tiny Homes (2012), and
Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:
Lloyd, I think what you launched with your photography and Domes was an Aesthetic, even though the practical sides were challenging that never died.
My 1st trip to Colorado in the late ’70s was a visit to the Red Rockers dome where my cousin David hung out with the Red Rockers …. fast forward 50 years, Huerfano valley is where my ‘life’ began (married in Walsenburg, worked the land by Spanish Peaks) and yearly trips are part of the circuit for my wife and I. A few years back, I took a copy of ‘Shelter’ down to Gardner ‘Hippie Days’ and festivarians were recognizing themselves under the Red Rockers roof.
Hello Lloyd Kahn – this historical photo of the Red Rockers dome (Huerfano Valley, 1970s) is a part of my DNA. I will be sending two photos, 50 years apart to this email address –> shelter@shelterpub.com
If that is no longer a valid account, please advise
I remember the incessant leaking of the dome during rainstorms. This turned out to be a common problem of Buckminster Fuller’s dome designs. I moved to the Huerfano in the summer of 1970 as part of the first contingent to purchase the Ortiviz Ranch. Anyone remember the neighbor who was sheriff and who planted alfalfa that we helped harvest (“bucking hay”) in the fall. Thanks for the photo and history.