A home that might survive California's fires, a home that definitely

[HysteryDiagnosis]

would survive a hurricane (already has), a home that if miniturized would be incredibly durable, energy efficient and too cool for school. I'm sure a tornado would have a time trying to tear these apart. This is potentially the style of home that the climate change we find ourselves in is calling for.

http://www.domeofahome.com /



Advantages of Domes Why have a Dome home?
Building the Dome How was it built?
Hurricanes Mother Nature's Cleaners
Media The Dome in the media
Product Information What products were used?
UPDATES: A Chronological History What happened?

[LaurenG]

1. That's a very cool structure. It makes me think of hobbit homes

but more of it is above ground. It makes sense to me.

http://www.green-trust.org/bagend.htm

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. There's something like 2 miles of rebar in this particular home,

do read the story about it surviving the hurricane, people and all on the third floor. The wing walls near the stairs are designed to break away... bottom floor is a parking garage, they hold weddings in there and roller skate etc. The owner I believe was a mechanic... and perhaps that profession led him to see a better way of doing things. This domicile certainly is one.

[LaurenG]

4. I hate to admit this but I can't find the story

is it in the blog or the forum?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. Link:

http://www.domeofahome.com/hurricanes_main.html


Article

Date
Tropical Storm Isadore

2003
Hurricane Ivan

2004
Hurricane Ivan (Post Ivan)

2004
Hurricane Dennis

2005
Hurricane Katrina

2005
Tropical Storm Arlene

2005
After The Storms

2006

[LaurenG]

9. That is a tough little home - sad that the architect died though

This was an interesting remark...

"I guess that is what frightens me most – that the American public has been lulled into trusting that our government has its act together. Complacency exists because we assume that the government is organized and has a plan for catastrophic events. When the directors of FEMA and Homeland Security state they didn't foresee the problems and they were unaware of the situation in New Orleans (although the news networks spoke of little else), we, as the American public, should be concerned about their abilities to lead and protect us in a time of crisis..."

Thanks for posting this.

[SpiralHawk]

3. Looks cool, but crappy front-entrance split feng shui

If you know what I mean...

[AwakeAtLast]

28. I think I found the little man in the boat....

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Buckminster Fuller called it a geodesic dome.

<snip>
The first dome that could be called "geodesic" in every respect was designed just after World War I by Walther Bauersfeld,<1> chief engineer of the Carl Zeiss optical company, for a planetarium to house his new planetarium projector. The dome was patented, constructed by the firm of Dykerhoff and Wydmann on the roof of the Zeiss plant in Jena, Germany, and opened to the public in 1922. Some thirty years later R. Buckminster Fuller further investigated this concept and named the dome "geodesic" from field experiments with Kenneth Snelson and others at Black Mountain College in the late 1940s. Although Fuller was not the original inventor, he developed and popularized the idea, and received a U.S. patent.

The geodesic dome appealed to Fuller because it was extremely strong for its weight, its "omnitriangulated" surface provided an inherently stable structure, and because a sphere encloses the greatest volume for the least surface area. Fuller had hopes that the geodesic dome would help address the postwar housing crisis. This was in line with his prior hopes for both versions of the Dymaxion House. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_House )

<snip>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesic_dome

[Stinky The Clown]

10. Not exactly ........ Bucky's dome was made entirely of triangular panels and a framework

The OP dome is a reinforced concrete single mass pour (probably sprayed on, like gunnite).

[BrklynLiberal]

11. Would the frame be a structure similar to Fuller's Dome?

Dome homes..

http://www.aidomes.com /



http://www.aidomes.com/index.php?option=com_zoom&Itemid...

[Stinky The Clown]

12. The picture you show is a geodesic (bucky fuller) dome

Notice that it is made of a frame of triangluar openings into which are bolted triangular "wall" pieces.

The house you show in the OP is a formed concrete structure. Essentially a monolithic structure with rebar inside. The Discovery Channel had an hour long show about them and a guy who has built a few on beaches in hurricane zones. They do, indeed, stand up well.

This site is for geodesic domes:

http://www.goodkarmadomes.com /

Here is a page with links to all the facts about the concrete dome home ... the very one you show in your OP

http://domeofahome.com/building_the_dome_main.html

[BrklynLiberal]

13. Thanks for those links. Fascinating stuff.

[Stinky The Clown]

16. I agree .... it is fascinating

I am also in awe of Bucky Fuller. A true Renaissance Man ...... and a college drop-out cuz he was bored. I can relate to that. He was a really great thinker and had some ideas that never went anywhere at the time because they were, literally, decades ahead of their time.

Like his Dymaxion Car



Do you see where the minivan came from?

And the VW camper?

[BrklynLiberal]

18. Wow. He WAS a Renaissance Man.

[hedgehog]

7. But what if you want to send your kid to stand in a corner for "time-out"?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

8. Bad hedgehog.... now go stand in the arc. n/t

[madeline_con]

14. Is it built of fire retardant material? n/t

[merh]

15. I tried to built one after Katrina stole my home

but you would be surprised at the opposition to such a built (framed houses put carpenters to work and make the timber industry very happy).

There was a hard enough time after Katrina finding a contractor who was available for a build, let alone one willing to build a dome house such as in that image. I wrote to every dome company I could find to see if they had lists of contractors that would be able to build in the area, I didn't get any responses. Most dome home builders/manufacturers have their hands full.

And the nightmare of getting building permits and inspectors that can inspect --

I settled on a modular, 25 months in a travel trailer was long enough.

[intheflow]

17. I saw that OP and thought of your dream for a dome home.

There are times when living in the South is particularly hard. I remember your contractor search and that was definitely one of those times.

And OT, how the heck are you? I've been thinking about you a lot these past few days, wondering how you're doing and what you're doing. Did you have a good holiday?

[merh]

21. Hell, the torment and frustrations I went through with the modular

were a nightmare, if I had tried the dome, the city would have never let me get a permit let alone a cert of occupancy.

I'm doing good and I had a very good holiday.

How about you, how'd it go with the frustrations you were dealing with, the roommate from hell.

And how is bear?

[uppityperson]

22. reading over you guys shoulders.

hi guys

[Swamp Rat]

19. Nanu Nanu!

[merh]

20. Actually, they are pretty cool houses

they stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter - the dome home in slidell was one of the few homes in its neighborhood that remained standing after Katrina.

I would love to have been able to build one.

[Swamp Rat]

23. hey merh

I'd love to live in a dome home someday.

[Swamp Rat]

24. How about a Hobbit home?

http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm

[Vinca]

25. If I was lucky enough to have an oceanside spot in hurricane country,

I'd definitely build one of these. The ultra contemporary design possibilities are exciting and you couldn't get more energy efficient.

[nashville_brook]

26. the SO is a BIG monolithic dome fan -- this home cost 4 mil, and the couple got FEMA

money to build. it's been thru a couple of hurricanes (Ivan, etc) already and the shell has never been damaged.

It's a fascinating house -- not all monolithic domes have this degree of good design. It also has a lot of other eco-senisible features like geothermal.

If you like this, you'll love Cloud Hidden near Asheville NC:

http://www.sheelahclarkson.com/mtnestates/contemporary /

[HysteryDiagnosis]

27. If someone who is supposed to care about making things better

were to develop a proper system AND equip contractors to efficiently build these homes we would be far better off than having to look at the total destruction that has been left by numerous tornadoes and many hurricanes. Say, a government initiative to improve housing to a point where far fewer people are left homeless in the future, regardless the weather based insults.

[merh]

29. But what you are missing when you advocate such a policy is

that requiring that homes be built like the home in the OP harms the timber industry. Stick homes keep the lumber industry in business, gives work to the carpenters and all those who make their living building stick homes.

The companies that make homes like the American Ingenuity dome homes don't have the capacity to produce a large volume of the domes.



The AI dome and the monolithic dome, like in the OP, require contractors and workmen trained in building these specific type homes, trained in working with the concrete - qualified contractors are limited as the demand for these homes is small.

And then there is the freedom of expression, not everyone likes the looks of the dome - to require that every new build is a dome infringes on the freedom of expression of home owners who like the ranch.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

31. Lower insurance rates for people who own "gorilla type" homes..

then we'll see just how important aesthetics are.

[merh]

32. But the insurance companies don't care

The "new" flood maps required that I build up 4 feet - I went up 10. My house is a modular designed to take 160 mph winds, the windows are storm windows with the added protection of the tinting to keep the house cooler during the heat of the day and to protect the windows from shattering if struck by a flying object. In addition, I invested in the hurricane fabric to cover the windows during the storms. My roof is a metal roof that is stronger in hurricane winds than architectural shingles and it was put on over the existing architectural shingles, so I have double insulatation. I built as green as I could afford and as I could get with a wood frame home, but the hurricane resistant features mean nothing to my insurance company that doubled my premiums this year to make up for the payouts (laugh, most didn't pay 1/2 of what was due) after Katrina. To keep my insurance I even paid the premiums when I had no structure.

I wanted to utilize solar energy but it is far too costly, it would have cost me an additional $25,000 to $35,000 to go solar.

What FEMA needs to do is provide solar energy grants that make it affordable to make the rebuilt or repaired structures solar powered.

Requiring all new home builds to be concrete chokes the timber industry and what our economic mess shows is that choking off one industry to satisfy another need is no answer, it only creates more problems.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

30. How cute! It looks like a doggie wearing a sun visor!

[Liberal_in_LA]

33. Pretty home.

[tomreedtoon]

34. "Xanadu, Home of the Future"

This was built in Kissimmee, Florida, and it was basically plastic foam sprayed over inflated balloons. On the plus side, it was cheap to build. On the minus side, it exuded toxic fumes and nobody could, or would, live in it. It eventually fell apart and was abandoned.

This new place promoted in this piece is larger, and will probably disintegrate and be vandalized in the same way.

[Strelnikov_]

35. Worked for the Mandans

[dysfunctional press]

36. a tornado could still make rubble out of something like that...

all it would take is one slightly open or un-locked window.

the close-in winds in a tornado are WAY worse than those of a hurricane.