I recently finished reading the latest biography of Buckminster Fuller. Was fascinating and frustrating how determined he was to invent a standardized container dwelling despite the intractable challenges of fitting mechanical systems and furniture. It didn't start with geodesic domes at first, but his commitment to promoting domes only led to any success as a public novelty and most functionally as a Radome (which are kinda neat).
I think of myself as a bit of a hippy but I never got the fascination with dome houses. They always struck me as a neat looking but impractical solution for anything other than temporary tent like structures. They look good on paper. Cheap to heat, open floor plan allows flexible interior design, structurally robust, amenable to factory/prefab construction, offer good options for bringing in natural light, etc. In real life they seem to be a novelty destined to be a pita. Taming the weather/moisture problem is no mean feat. The number of exposed non vertical seams pretty much guarantees leaks in any environment that has any significant heat and or moisture fluctuations over time. The quality of material and level of precision in manufacturing and assembly required to address this problem are difficult to obtain in practice. Building spaceships in a lab is much different than living in them in a four season environment. Construction that actually is able to address the leak problem is likely to be expensive and not amenable to do it yourself construction, maintenance or repair. Operating costs will get costly over time (or you get disposable buildings). Building SIP’s that can fully exploit the geodesic dome shape to maximize its natural advantages regarding heating imposes another difficult construction exercise that is unlikely to produce results that will stand the test of time. In general, the level of technology required to build them well enough to overcome their inherent challenges means there is little room for DYI’ers here (count me out in this point alone). $60k without a foundation for 300sqft does not sound cheap to me and I would guess that you are looking at 50% or more on top to have it built on site. I, with a couple of semi skilled, handy helpers and material on site could probably build a similar size rectangular, wood frame, fully insulated (r30 in the walls and floor and R40 in ceiling), well lit, steel roofed building (including floor and pad footing) for half that amount in little more than a long weekend. It will last 50 plus years with minimal maintenance and without requiring any significant repair and even then a new roof and and some some minor repair will set it up for another 50 years of service. Maybe geodesic domes will find a place on the moon or Mars someday but I think they will remain a novelty here.
P.S: I am still not a fan of airtight buildings despite the math on the energy use advantages. Again, the level of technology required to do it well is significant, expensive and prone to failures that create serious health risks, it requires significant and expensive maintenance, (no DIYers please ) and it encourages building bigger than necessary by promising low heating and cooling costs. There are lots of simple, low tech, effective, practical ways to make healthy, durable, smartly efficient buildings that can stand the test of time. Build low, build small, build strong, build simple and don’t throw out the baby with the bath water when trying to find a better way to get something done.
Here's the thing about domes. In the 70s. 80s, and somewhat into the 90s, Geodesic domes have always been marketed as a DIY house (as Domebook I was about). And there is nothing wrong with DIY houses IF, those building it actually had any carpentry skills built on experience rather than what they were smoking at the time.
Then in the 90s and later there have been a handful of dome makers that have been training crews to assemble the dome skin and make it weather tight (which is a wonderful concept because roofing the dome is not for amateurs or faint of heart.
Back to the 70s. There was a breakthrough concept of using SIPs. American Ingenuity factory made Concrete SIPS with a "V" shape channel between the triangles. The channel was to be filled with concrete at the build site. AI was also touted as a DIY dome, however, each panel weighed upwards of 250 pounds. And, Lloyd can tell you about two mismatched cement surfaces butting up to one another. Yes, it also leaked. The solution was elastomeric paint (the same stuff used in pools), however, the paint blistered in the south. It wasn't until a couple of years ago I found out why. As some can probably guess, it was the moisture bug-a-boo. Most of these domes were built in the South, the south where the humidity is usually equal to the ambient tempreture, and a couple in the desert. It was also the time when A/C was only installed in high-end (not DIY) houses. Anyways, with the advent of heat-pumps with a built-in A/C cycle, the internal air dehumidifed, which kept the moisture from seeking out cracks in the cement and bubbling the paint... Gotta love building science.
Then in the 80s David South and company (Monolithic Dome Institute) developed what the called the Monolithc Dome. What that involved is a big balloon being blowed-up then, on the inside spray-foam is blown in on the sides, then, rebar then shot-crete covers the walls. This is the dome that got the first FEMA certification for being an emergency shelter. The advantage of this dome is it's almost indestructable (when built right), and the internal concrete walls are the thermal mass which will help with theating and cooling. And yes there are places for windows and doors. One of the most famous of these domes in Eye of the Storm located on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
At about the same time there were many other comapinies (too many to name but, three are still around, the decline was do to bankruptcy, and/or death of the owner). Of the three that are still around, two use hubs for the DIY and one of the companies hold a dome school for prospective dome owners (as does Monolithc Domes), one sends out a construction crews to build their domes. The third, still builds with wood triangles and has a Florida Hurricane certification and is also FEMA approved, and he sends crews out to build their domesdomes. The dome builder that still has wood triangles insist on cupolas, while the hub domes make it optional. Each of the domes do offer metal roof options.
There are a few more dome kit manufacturers out there but the ones I list are the ones I am familiar and have a relationship with for the past 20 odd years.
I mentioned building science earlier. Building science is getting more sophisticated all the time, where once uipon a time, all you need to build is frame and skin with plywood (I think you can still do that in Texas), building codes no prevent that as each building must pass local codes and certifications. I mention this because the last couple of years I noticed a new waterprrof product is replacing tyvek as a house and roofing wrap.
If you have the building skill set and can (unlike me) cut a straight line, it is still possible to build your own dome. But for my money, I wouild not roof the dome mainly cause I'm scared of heights and if the dome leaks, I want to use the 50 year warrenty some companies offer.
How do they solve the fact that standard furniture does not fit!
That's what I have always heard is a issue with non standard designs such as domes, my sister worked in a office that was inside a dome - nothing fitting drove them nuts.
It's made from 0.5mm aluminum skin laminated to either side of a PVC core, with a baked enamel coating usually. Lightweight, rigid, and can be bent to make engineered wall systems. Once you're aware of it you'll see it everywhere on of recent commercial buildings and some modern houses.
$60k, Canadian/$42k US gets you a storage shed, albeit a nice one. T looks like the primary use would be as greenhouses, not living space.
To live in one, you need a foundation. You need water and sewer. You need electricity. You need openable windows and doors. How about a kitchen and bathroom?
Where does the plumbing go? Has someone figured out how to flash the (custom made) windows? Can the panels be cut? Or are you stuck with windows the size and shape of individual panels?
Can you screw cabinets to the panels? Of course you need custom cabinets that fit the not flat and not vertical walls.
It isn't clear how the drainage planes work. Each panel has drainage built in. But how does any moisture get from panel to panel to the ground?
Any time you rely on tight fit to fight gravity, you get leaks. There's a good reason why walls are vertical and roofs are shingled.
Fossil fuel based insulation and aluminum cladding?
Arctic Acres, the company that designed these domes, also sell 4 season greenhouses. The GeoHome was engineered specifically for year-round living based on many years of hands-on experience and hundreds of geodesic dome projects.
There are multiple engineer stamped foundation options to cater to a variety of on and off-grid applications, with utility setups directly integrated into those plans. There are also fitted rooms available with the GeoHome kit to provide additional wall space for utilities, a bathroom, kitchen, and flat walls for conventional appliances. and there are videos showing this in action (built and functional, not renders or concepts). Arctic Acres is also expanding their catalogue of features and upgrades that integrate directly into the structure: openable windows, built-in solar panels, sealed appliance connection options, cosmetic choices, and everyday living items. The wood framing of each panel also provides a straightforward mounting system for custom additions without compromising the structural integrity and water sealing.
The panel aeration system is vented with one of the top fans of the structure actively circulating air to prevent any potential moisture buildup, similar to how modern roofs operate. There are additional details about the GeoHome and its systems that will be shared soon, and there is a larger version going into testing that advances this design even further.
The minds behind this product and approach, including myself, have put in a lot of thought and testing into refining this concept, and we have a dedicated in-house R&D team to make more improvements on the design, modular integrations, material science, and more.
They are seductively beautiful things. I knew people back in the 80s who made a tent one from broomsticks, hosepipe and jubilee clips, with a hand stitched nylon cover. It did a few years at Glastonbury, they had plans to build a permanent one in the Pyrenees but they came to nowt (personal and philosophical differences); probably just as well.
I recently finished reading the latest biography of Buckminster Fuller. Was fascinating and frustrating how determined he was to invent a standardized container dwelling despite the intractable challenges of fitting mechanical systems and furniture. It didn't start with geodesic domes at first, but his commitment to promoting domes only led to any success as a public novelty and most functionally as a Radome (which are kinda neat).
I think of myself as a bit of a hippy but I never got the fascination with dome houses. They always struck me as a neat looking but impractical solution for anything other than temporary tent like structures. They look good on paper. Cheap to heat, open floor plan allows flexible interior design, structurally robust, amenable to factory/prefab construction, offer good options for bringing in natural light, etc. In real life they seem to be a novelty destined to be a pita. Taming the weather/moisture problem is no mean feat. The number of exposed non vertical seams pretty much guarantees leaks in any environment that has any significant heat and or moisture fluctuations over time. The quality of material and level of precision in manufacturing and assembly required to address this problem are difficult to obtain in practice. Building spaceships in a lab is much different than living in them in a four season environment. Construction that actually is able to address the leak problem is likely to be expensive and not amenable to do it yourself construction, maintenance or repair. Operating costs will get costly over time (or you get disposable buildings). Building SIP’s that can fully exploit the geodesic dome shape to maximize its natural advantages regarding heating imposes another difficult construction exercise that is unlikely to produce results that will stand the test of time. In general, the level of technology required to build them well enough to overcome their inherent challenges means there is little room for DYI’ers here (count me out in this point alone). $60k without a foundation for 300sqft does not sound cheap to me and I would guess that you are looking at 50% or more on top to have it built on site. I, with a couple of semi skilled, handy helpers and material on site could probably build a similar size rectangular, wood frame, fully insulated (r30 in the walls and floor and R40 in ceiling), well lit, steel roofed building (including floor and pad footing) for half that amount in little more than a long weekend. It will last 50 plus years with minimal maintenance and without requiring any significant repair and even then a new roof and and some some minor repair will set it up for another 50 years of service. Maybe geodesic domes will find a place on the moon or Mars someday but I think they will remain a novelty here.
P.S: I am still not a fan of airtight buildings despite the math on the energy use advantages. Again, the level of technology required to do it well is significant, expensive and prone to failures that create serious health risks, it requires significant and expensive maintenance, (no DIYers please ) and it encourages building bigger than necessary by promising low heating and cooling costs. There are lots of simple, low tech, effective, practical ways to make healthy, durable, smartly efficient buildings that can stand the test of time. Build low, build small, build strong, build simple and don’t throw out the baby with the bath water when trying to find a better way to get something done.
A beautifully faceted gem of a column, Lloyd! And thanks for the link about aging at the end.
There was a Jamaican architect who lived in a geodesic dome:
www.lumisphotography.com/22-3-phoenix-patrick-stanigar/
Here's the thing about domes. In the 70s. 80s, and somewhat into the 90s, Geodesic domes have always been marketed as a DIY house (as Domebook I was about). And there is nothing wrong with DIY houses IF, those building it actually had any carpentry skills built on experience rather than what they were smoking at the time.
Then in the 90s and later there have been a handful of dome makers that have been training crews to assemble the dome skin and make it weather tight (which is a wonderful concept because roofing the dome is not for amateurs or faint of heart.
Back to the 70s. There was a breakthrough concept of using SIPs. American Ingenuity factory made Concrete SIPS with a "V" shape channel between the triangles. The channel was to be filled with concrete at the build site. AI was also touted as a DIY dome, however, each panel weighed upwards of 250 pounds. And, Lloyd can tell you about two mismatched cement surfaces butting up to one another. Yes, it also leaked. The solution was elastomeric paint (the same stuff used in pools), however, the paint blistered in the south. It wasn't until a couple of years ago I found out why. As some can probably guess, it was the moisture bug-a-boo. Most of these domes were built in the South, the south where the humidity is usually equal to the ambient tempreture, and a couple in the desert. It was also the time when A/C was only installed in high-end (not DIY) houses. Anyways, with the advent of heat-pumps with a built-in A/C cycle, the internal air dehumidifed, which kept the moisture from seeking out cracks in the cement and bubbling the paint... Gotta love building science.
Then in the 80s David South and company (Monolithic Dome Institute) developed what the called the Monolithc Dome. What that involved is a big balloon being blowed-up then, on the inside spray-foam is blown in on the sides, then, rebar then shot-crete covers the walls. This is the dome that got the first FEMA certification for being an emergency shelter. The advantage of this dome is it's almost indestructable (when built right), and the internal concrete walls are the thermal mass which will help with theating and cooling. And yes there are places for windows and doors. One of the most famous of these domes in Eye of the Storm located on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
At about the same time there were many other comapinies (too many to name but, three are still around, the decline was do to bankruptcy, and/or death of the owner). Of the three that are still around, two use hubs for the DIY and one of the companies hold a dome school for prospective dome owners (as does Monolithc Domes), one sends out a construction crews to build their domes. The third, still builds with wood triangles and has a Florida Hurricane certification and is also FEMA approved, and he sends crews out to build their domesdomes. The dome builder that still has wood triangles insist on cupolas, while the hub domes make it optional. Each of the domes do offer metal roof options.
There are a few more dome kit manufacturers out there but the ones I list are the ones I am familiar and have a relationship with for the past 20 odd years.
I mentioned building science earlier. Building science is getting more sophisticated all the time, where once uipon a time, all you need to build is frame and skin with plywood (I think you can still do that in Texas), building codes no prevent that as each building must pass local codes and certifications. I mention this because the last couple of years I noticed a new waterprrof product is replacing tyvek as a house and roofing wrap.
If you have the building skill set and can (unlike me) cut a straight line, it is still possible to build your own dome. But for my money, I wouild not roof the dome mainly cause I'm scared of heights and if the dome leaks, I want to use the 50 year warrenty some companies offer.
How do they solve the fact that standard furniture does not fit!
That's what I have always heard is a issue with non standard designs such as domes, my sister worked in a office that was inside a dome - nothing fitting drove them nuts.
I understand the construction but what is the "Aluminium composite panel " identified as the last/outer layer?
It's made from 0.5mm aluminum skin laminated to either side of a PVC core, with a baked enamel coating usually. Lightweight, rigid, and can be bent to make engineered wall systems. Once you're aware of it you'll see it everywhere on of recent commercial buildings and some modern houses.
Right - thanks for that - will be looking for it now......
$60k, Canadian/$42k US gets you a storage shed, albeit a nice one. T looks like the primary use would be as greenhouses, not living space.
To live in one, you need a foundation. You need water and sewer. You need electricity. You need openable windows and doors. How about a kitchen and bathroom?
Where does the plumbing go? Has someone figured out how to flash the (custom made) windows? Can the panels be cut? Or are you stuck with windows the size and shape of individual panels?
Can you screw cabinets to the panels? Of course you need custom cabinets that fit the not flat and not vertical walls.
It isn't clear how the drainage planes work. Each panel has drainage built in. But how does any moisture get from panel to panel to the ground?
Any time you rely on tight fit to fight gravity, you get leaks. There's a good reason why walls are vertical and roofs are shingled.
Fossil fuel based insulation and aluminum cladding?
Arctic Acres, the company that designed these domes, also sell 4 season greenhouses. The GeoHome was engineered specifically for year-round living based on many years of hands-on experience and hundreds of geodesic dome projects.
There are multiple engineer stamped foundation options to cater to a variety of on and off-grid applications, with utility setups directly integrated into those plans. There are also fitted rooms available with the GeoHome kit to provide additional wall space for utilities, a bathroom, kitchen, and flat walls for conventional appliances. and there are videos showing this in action (built and functional, not renders or concepts). Arctic Acres is also expanding their catalogue of features and upgrades that integrate directly into the structure: openable windows, built-in solar panels, sealed appliance connection options, cosmetic choices, and everyday living items. The wood framing of each panel also provides a straightforward mounting system for custom additions without compromising the structural integrity and water sealing.
The panel aeration system is vented with one of the top fans of the structure actively circulating air to prevent any potential moisture buildup, similar to how modern roofs operate. There are additional details about the GeoHome and its systems that will be shared soon, and there is a larger version going into testing that advances this design even further.
The minds behind this product and approach, including myself, have put in a lot of thought and testing into refining this concept, and we have a dedicated in-house R&D team to make more improvements on the design, modular integrations, material science, and more.
Great questions and feedback!
This is really cool, thanks for sharing! I'd love to plop one down on a lake here in Colorado. Maybe when the kids are moved out. 😁
I was always enthralled with getting one in my mid-twenties. Now glad that I didn't pull the trigger.
Now?
They are seductively beautiful things. I knew people back in the 80s who made a tent one from broomsticks, hosepipe and jubilee clips, with a hand stitched nylon cover. It did a few years at Glastonbury, they had plans to build a permanent one in the Pyrenees but they came to nowt (personal and philosophical differences); probably just as well.
Like the Lloyd Kahn quote very much.