Curious what Mr. Frey's opinion is on Chinese greenhouse design vs a Geodesic dome...?

I live in the Sonoran Desert on an urban property (3rdAcreFarm) in Scottsdale, AZ. I do aquaponics and have been considering building a greenhouse using the Chinese design model (Thick wall at the North, partial angled roof and then an arc down to the soil on the South side). It seems to me that this design captures the maximum amount of sun...positioning of the fish tanks inside up against the North wall act as the heat sink in the winter time. For summer use, it would be completely covered with shade cloth and cooled with a solar powered water wall. I am debating this Chinese design against a Geodesic dome design. Do you have an opinion on either of these greenhouse designs?

I'm not mr frey, but have you read the considerations about geodesic domes by the author of domebook? It's pretty self explanatory... check it out: http://www.shelterpub.com/_shelter/smart_but_not_wise.html

in a nutshell:

The other day a friend asked what we were working on. “Well, this thing called Refried Domes, about why domes don’t work…etc.

“Aren’t domes passé?” she asked.

No, I said, there’s apparently a whole new generation of people out there now asking questions again. And then it occurred to me that although we did publish most of the information herein 10-15 years ago, it was never assembled as a whole.

Here then are the results of an experimental voyage. The bitter and the sweet. The great idea (!) and the concrete reality. The ideological principle and the physical follow through . . . Mamas, don’t let your mathematicians grow up to become builders . . .

— Lloyd Kahn
October, 1989

and do take a look at the other articles at the very bottom:

http://www.shelterpub.com/_shelter/domebuilder's_blues.html
http://www.shelterpub.com/_shelter/domes_rectangles.html

Do read this stuff, though lenghtly, it's worth it!

Well, i have visited an early dome greenhouse, the Pillow Dome at New Alchemy Insitutute. i was impressed at its productivity, But i have no experience. Nor do i know about the chinese model you mention, but it sounds good. i would say the chinese version you describe sounds better for cold climated and a dome may be beter suited where less supplemental heat is required