A Yellowknife business is hoping to be recognized for having the world’s first geodesic dome made of recycled bicycle wheels and 2×4 triangular frames.
Matthew Grogono, an artist and co-founder of Old Town Glassworks and the owner of Old Town Bikeworks, said the dome incorporates around 800 bicycle wheels.
“It’s unique, aesthetically pleasing, acoustically very satisfactory … and all around is quite an innovative structure,” Grogono said.
Matthew Grogono repairing a bike as part of a workshop in 2025. Serra Hamilton/Cabin Radio
Located at the back of Old Town Glassworks, the giant dome is protected on the outside by a white cover. Inside, it’s a cozy canopy of circular rims, spokes and wooden beams.
Grogono said he first made three domes like this in 2000 for the city’s now-defunct Caribou Carnival.
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Eleven years later, he said he found those domes in storage and put one in his backyard for a bicycle repair facility. He continued developing the project over the years with help from Philippe LeBlond and Wade Carpenter.
“It’s now in its current stage where I would say it’s stabilized and come to a point where I’m happy with it,” he said.
Gronogo has named his dome the Littlewood Geodesic Dome after a business in Alberta that sold dome skins to the Caribou Carnival.
Grogono said he is aware of only one other dome made from recycled bicycle wheels in the world: LeBlond’s dome, located in Whitehorse. That dome does not have wood framing.
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The exterior of the geodesic dome. Photo: Old Town Glassworks
Grogono has applied to Guinness World Records for recognition of the dome in Yellowknife, which he expects will be a long process.
Beyond possibly holding a world record, he said the structure is an example of the “community ingenuity, sustainable reuse and the creative spirit that thrives here in Yellowknife.”
He also hopes it will show people they can make emergency shelters from recycled bicycle wheels. He noted that scores of bicycles have been discarded in China following the country’s bike-sharing boom.
“If everyone starts driving more and more cars, we might have an acceleration in erratic weather patterns, and we might have more extreme weather situations. So we might need more emergency shelter,” he said.
A smaller dome made from bicycle wheels, which was a joint project between Old Town Bikeworks and the YK1 school district, is on display in front of the business.
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