dome housing

midnight-gamer · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 7:54 pm Post subject: dome housing

I would like opinions about a odd style home design. The claim I have heard is that the shape helps save energy, and uses fewer materials. http://domehome.com/productinfo.html
The website looked so curious I just had to put it out here for your thoughts.

cynthia · Heavy Crude Joined: May 29, 2005 Posts: 379

Domes are strong and economical-even when built with earth. It is an old design. Passive solar should be considered during any housing project.
My favorite site: http://www.deatech.com/natural/
Alas! I did not answer your original question. Still, I plug my favorite building mediums. Good luck with your dome-based pursuits.
cynthia

pstarr · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 1:40 am Post subject: Re: dome housing

domes are great in an non-angular, soft, hobbit-type world.

Unfortunately we live an angular, corporate, industrial, manufactured, pre-made, cookie-cutter, rectalineal, straight-shooting, by-the-books, conservative, basically boring existance where domes have no place whatsoever. So get over it.
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gg3 · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 7:51 am Post subject: Re: dome housing

Yo MidnightGamer: the answer is, domes made of panels in that manner, are susceptible to water leakage at the joints, which will be subject to expansion/contraction throughout the life of the building.

Ideally what you want is a single surface covering the entire dome.

For this, you want ferrocement construction: stucco over wire mesh. Incredibly strong per unit weight of materials used. If it's placed monolithically there are no seams to leak. Keyword serch "ferrocement dome" and read up.

As for curvy walls inside one of these things, you stil have interor a partition walls with linear surfaces for conventional furniture, and the the ability to custom-build built-ins along the curved walls.

midnight-gamer · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 10:31 am Post subject: Re: dome housing

GG3, I have googled "ferrocement dome" and I must say, I like what I have seen thus far. I am sure everyone here knows of "The Empire Strikes Back". Ferrocement domes looked a little like Yoda's house in the swamp. Smile

TommyJefferson · Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 7:57 am Post subject: Re: dome housing

WisJim · Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 7:57 am Post subject: Re: dome housing

I have friends who built a ferrocement dome, and it has been an expensive disaster, in my opinion. They are living in it ,and continuing to work on it, but for the amount of m oney and problems they have had, they could have built and finished a more conventional building and ended up with space that is easier to utilize and more comfortable, and not be over their heads in debt.

I have know folks who have built and lived in geodesic domes, since the late 1960s, and they have either moved out, used them as storage or barns after building a "regular" house, or added lots of rooms with square corners and straight walls to get some usable "normal" living spaces.

I think that a dome would make a great greenhouse, with big trees in the center, and small stuff at the edges, allowing use of more of the space. I wouldn't want to live in one.

thuja · Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 11:19 am Post subject: Re: dome housing

Back in the eraly 90's I lived in a dome on a 40 acre spread out in the woods with 12 other freaks. The land (known as Delphi) had 2 geodesic domes, a converted chicken shack, a 4 story tree house, a couple more outbuildings and a old turn of the century farmhouse that was falling apart- all without indoor toilets.

The dome I lived in was up on a platform and had a canvas mesh cover- sort of like living in a big tent. I'd make a fire in a big old pot bellied stove and get really warm, and then when the fire died down, I'd get really cold- fast! Living out in the damp woods near Olympia, the dome started to develop serious internal and external mold problems...in fact I renamed my domicile "The Mold Machine".

The best part about it was it had a retractable skylight made of visquene. There was a platform that the skylight sat on and you could pop the top and sit up there, smoke a bowl and commune with the pileated woodpeckers and the forest spirits. The problem came during the rainy season (October to May). The skylight had a leak problem and my bed was built as a loft just underneath the skylight.

I remember one night falling to sleep just as a storm rolled in. At first, little drops of water would splash gently next to my pillow. As the storm got fiercer, the drops turned into a tiny trickle. I remember trying to plug the gap with some sort of cloth and inadvertently moving the skylight slightly. The visqueen had sagged with the weight of the accumulated rain and after I tried to adjust it, the entire load of water swished to the gap and poured down on my head in a stream.

Ah the geodesic dome...Good times!

Aimrehtopyh · Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:09 pm Post subject: Re: dome housing

How about "steel span" buildings. I've been intrigued by them for quite a while and I've loved the quonset hut look since I was a kid. They aren't really domes but are definitely more dome-like that the stick-built $#!+ shacks that pass for houses these days.

They're mostly used for storage sheds and such but has anybody actually visited one that was used as a residence

yesplease · Fission Joined: Oct 03, 2006 Posts: 2492

I've seen a couple of those around here. Nice, but a bit pricey imle. I really like the look and hopefully, construction costs of rammed earth. I'd rather go with more labor and less money than the other way around.

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gg3 · Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:55 am Post subject: Re: dome housing

$10 - $15 per square foot of enclosed space is pretty darn good, though of course it doesn't include basement/foundation, interior partition walls, insulation, plumbing, electrical/telecom, etc. etc. etc.

The design is inherently strong, since it's a continuous arch.

I also love the look of the traditional quonset huts. Something very basic & purposive, clean geometry, no frills, looks like it emerged from the earth, it's not pretentious, it's practical.... etc...

The newer variations with the more conventional profiles (quasi rectangular when seen from the front) don't do it for me aesthetically; they look like an attempt to make it into something it wasn't originally. Also the newer designs look very accordion-like and I wonder how that would perform acoustically in the wind.

I would consider building & living in one of these. In fact it might be the ideal solution to the question of how to get an exterior shell up quickly and have the freedom to do the interior build-out over time.

Question is, what to do about an exterior coating that would be waterproof. Stucco over some kind of plastic comes to mind, and would provide good thermal mass & fire resistance, not to mention resistance to various forms of impact damage e.g. falling tree branches, projectiles, whatever. Anyone have any other suggestions in this department?

I think I'm going to bring this up with my group and see what they say...

TommyJefferson · Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 8:12 am Post subject: Re: dome housing

midnight-gamer · Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 7:49 pm Post subject: Re: dome housing

Thanks for the tips. I'll agree with Tommy Jefferson that dome houses seem a little sketchy. The idea was a new one to me and I wanted to look into, and present it to the forum with an open mind.

gg3 · Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2007 12:43 am Post subject: Re: dome housing

Inflatable bladders and shotcrete (sprayed-on concrete) are fairly hightech methods, beyond the reach of your average sustainable community group.

However, similar results can be obtained with a properly organized crew of large enough size. The key here is a) lots of scaffolding, and b) mix & place the concrete quickly enough to get a monolithic structure. This takes a large crew working a long day. How large depends on the size of the dome.

Aimrehtopyh · Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2007 12:59 am Post subject: Re: dome housing