The guidebook · The Works

The Dome

A house that learns its story from everyone it held.

In one sentence

A website for a dome on a mountain that is also a game you play on the land itself: thirteen places, a small game at each, and one line to keep from every one.

A Tuesday

At the fire pit, late

You're at the fire pit with three friends. There's a small card on a post. You scan it, and your phone asks you to hold the ember and pass it on. The phone goes round the circle twice. Then three lines appear, written by guests who sat in this same spot years ago, and a box asks: one line to keep from here?

You type a line of your own. On your phone, one triangle of a small dome lights up gold.

Why I made it

The dome's real story was about to be lost

The dome had 252 messages from its guests sitting on a rental platform it was leaving. Those words were the dome's real story. I wanted them to become the place's home, and I wanted every new guest to add to it.

What's inside

Four parts, like a house with four rooms

1 · The front doorThe website guests will seeThe dome from the sky, the thirteen places, guests' stories, a timeline, a way to stay.Like a house's front porch: you see what it's like before you knock.
2 · On the mountainA card at each of thirteen placesScan it, play the place's game, keep one line.Like a museum's audio guide, except you play instead of listen.
3 · Behind the pointThe dome's own storyTap the small white dot in the corner, and the dome tells its own story.Like a door hidden in a bookshelf.
4 · The keepers' roomNotes, and a dashboardThe keepers leave notes on any page, by voice, and every note gets an answer. Their dashboard holds nightly prices, bookings, guests' words to approve and the ideas board.Like a guest book that writes back.

Walk it

Under 33 minutes, on a phone

  1. Home. Scroll slowly. The view comes down out of the sky onto the dome.
  2. The places. Tap the dome on the map, open one place, and play its game.
  3. Stories. Every word is a guest's own, with their first name.
  4. The timeline. The dome's life, moment by moment.
  5. Stay. Book two pretend nights. Nothing is charged.
  6. On the mountain. In the menu: play a place's game as a guest standing there would, and keep one line.
  7. The keepers' dashboard. In the menu: nightly prices, bookings and the ideas board.
  8. The white dot. Top left, on any page.

What it won't do

  • Put words in anyone's mouth. Guests are quoted exactly; anyone who hasn't spoken yet has an empty, marked space waiting.
  • Keep score. No points, no streaks, no counting.
  • Send away what a guest keeps. It never leaves their phone.

What's real, and what isn't yet

  • Every page, game and tool is built and working.
  • Booking is a rehearsal: no card is ever charged.
  • The full games, the ones that use the phone's microphone, compass, motion or camera, are played on the mountain and still need testing there.
  • Where a season has no real photo, the picture says Imagined.

If you want to try it

The keepers hold the code

The house opens with their code. Anyone can read how every part of it works.

How it works → The house's front door