I’ve wanted a dome home since I first stumbled upon one in high school; my friend’s uncle lives in one. His is a wooden geodesic, which you can get kits to build starting at $30k or so for a smallish one. They can be erected in a week by two people with power tools. They can also be multi-story.
$11k is a significant amount of savings, though I’m wondering about the logistics of running plumbing and electricity. (That might be covered in the video, I’ve seen it before so didn’t watch through again.)
I’m in no position to undertake such a project anytime soon—missing the land, time, and funds—but it’s always cool to see it pop up.
If you like alternative house styles, and especially this kind of some, you should check out earthships too. Even higher efficiencies/lower carbon footprints, but friends who stayed in one say they haven’t really worked out the bugs yet.
In any case, stick frame square housing is a “good enough” idea that we have been treating as “solved” when we really shouldn’t. In a lot of places, even building a wood-frame dome home requires all kinds of extra paperwork and time investment with codes enforcement because it’s unfamiliar to them. Not sure how to change that situation.
Interesting. I had not seen aircrete before. It apparently has about 50% of the strength of concrete and has been used since the 1920's. [1] Being very light is a great property. I can think of many uses for this.
There's a lot of great videos on YouTube about it; how to make it, how to use it, capabilities of it, etc., etc.
Apparently it can be made cheaply, with relatively modest tools...
If graphene is the new wonder material for electronics and electronic devices -- then certainly aircrete is the "new" wonder material for housing construction...
Also great is that it saves builders from using as much wood; which in turn saves forests/prevents tree depopulation, etc.
I am already envisioning projects I could use that with. I will find those videos. I am curious to see if anyone has used it with a shotcrete sprayer. I bet they have.
Also, if you are entrepreneurially inclined, if you learn how to make Aircrete well enough (post learning curve that is! <g>), I'll bet you could sell your self-manufactured Aircrete bricks -- to various parties...
In other words, Aircrete might make a good product for a future business, if you were so inclined...
(The reason I point that out is because it's on my list of "things that might make good products for future bootstrap businesses" (although, there's probably one too many products on that list already! <g>))
Note the synergy here between Dome Homes and Aircrete...
Also interesting is the use of counterweights during the construction process to prevent the increasingly angled dome walls from collapsing during the construction process...
$11k is a significant amount of savings, though I’m wondering about the logistics of running plumbing and electricity. (That might be covered in the video, I’ve seen it before so didn’t watch through again.)
I’m in no position to undertake such a project anytime soon—missing the land, time, and funds—but it’s always cool to see it pop up.
If you like alternative house styles, and especially this kind of some, you should check out earthships too. Even higher efficiencies/lower carbon footprints, but friends who stayed in one say they haven’t really worked out the bugs yet.
In any case, stick frame square housing is a “good enough” idea that we have been treating as “solved” when we really shouldn’t. In a lot of places, even building a wood-frame dome home requires all kinds of extra paperwork and time investment with codes enforcement because it’s unfamiliar to them. Not sure how to change that situation.