GeoDesignzShop

Hello, my name is Todd Mitchell Gossage, and I am the owner, designer, and builder here at GeoDesignz LLC. It has been a long journey to take me where I am now, but it started out originally with a fascination with two things: Domes and Earthships. Now if you haven't heard of Earthships, they are a type of house that was invented by Mike Reynolds, and over the years Mike and his Earthships have developed a kind of cult following, which I am totally understanding of, as they are what set me on my journey to where I am now.

In short, Earthships embody the philosophy of living off grid, and more to the point, they are houses that supply a person with everything they need to survive. These houses catch water from the sky, and also allow one to grow food and create heat to warm the home from the south facing glass/greenhouse that is attached to the front of the house. I first saw them and Mike in a documentary called, "Garbage Warrior", and from then on I was hooked.

Also, nearly simultaneously, I came across the work of Raphael Guastavino, who built many of the iconic works in America such as Ellis Island and Grand Central Station in NYC. I was enthralled with these structures, which are thin shelled masonry domes, and I couldn't believe something so thin, and yet still so incredibly heavy, could just sit in the air so effortlessly. My thinking was that this exceptional dome building method had to be combined with off the grid structures, and from there I was set on my path of inspiration.

So what does this have to do with coffee tables??? Well, in thinking of how I might build a masonry dome, I knew I would need a wooden form work, and to build the strongest form work possible, I would need to build it in the shape of a 3D catenary. So, in order to do this, I knew it wasn't going to be possible to merely guess at the angles needed to do this, and my journey has been a long one, but in short I was given this ability when was introduced to calculus III while studying electrical engineering, and specifically, the equations of points, lines, and planes in 3D space.

So in the process of working and laboring at this for many years, I have the ability at this point with my design process to plot points in 3D space, which are the skeleton of the coffee tables you see, and to figure out the lengths, angles and correspondingly the cuts needed to build the tables. At first there were lots of screws needed, and the very first one, if you notice, looks like a dome, and was a proof of concept of sorts. But as I have come along, and keep at it, I am slowly starting to figure out, and be enthralled with the ability to build things that are held together exclusively by notches, and which need no screws whatsoever.

So this is where I am at in the process now, and while I haven't forgotten about the END END goal of building off grid dome homes out of natural materials, I couldn't be happier with where I am at the moment, as building coffee tables allows for a real expression of creativity, as there are many complex and interesting shapes that can be used to form the structure of a coffee table.

I hope you like the tables, and feel inspired when you look at them, as my whole journey has been nothing but inspiring. During this whole process, I have, and still am always trying to see what else is out there, or what is possible, and I am constantly being amazed and inspired by what others have built and discovered before me. In a sense, my journey is an extension of their journey, and to quote the great Issac Newton, "If I have seen further, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants."

Thank you for visiting,

Todd Mitchell Gossage