Monolithic Domes

[nanasohana]

I haven't thought about these for some time, but as we start thinking of building again, I am thinking this may be a great idea for lots of people no matter where you live.


http://www.monolithic.com/topics/plandesign-residential

[Jay Bondesen]

Now these I know a little bit about. The South family, who run this business, have over 30 years of experience with this style of domes; using airforms, polyurethane, and gunnite. In the 70's the family was building potato storage buildings in Idaho and I was doing small custom homes in California and then in Colorado. It's not something that fits into every neighborhood but they are fun to build and to live in. It's possibly the most functional design, meaning efficient, for extreme weather. The entire building shell arrives in 55 gallon drums and bags and can go up in a matter of a few days with the use of a couple of big machines to spray the foam and the gunnite. And it's mostly inside work since you are in an airform.

Jay

[Carey]

Nancy, it would depend (as most things here...)

We are under the 500' elevation in Keaau and have found that light & air exchange are the most important things to think about... esp venting the attic roof areas and maintaining the tradewind airflow through the house. The dome look to have less window/upper air exchange than most homes down here...

And there is also the question of if you need catchment (how to do, & proper dome coating if you do) & how they do in an earthquake prone area (as you know, we do get a lot of itty bitties & a few not so itty bitty!)

[Seeb]

thin shell ferrocement are great, but look at barrel vault shapes - straighter walls, can build gutters in, can make ends very open and you dont need to buy an air form

[rawvegan]

look at earthbag building. i can put you in touch with someone that has built a few earthbag homes on the island.

[nanasohana]

Jay, what great information!
Not sure if its the best choice for Hawaii.....but what is?

[Correy Smith]

I've stayed in a dome for a bit. It was quite large. Maybe 50'dia. Two story with some cool traversing beams,"cathedral" ceiling, cat walks and reading nook all by itself up on a "wall". It was really unique. But was the biggest waste of interior space I have yet to see in building. The rooms with the curved exterior wall were hard pressed to find spots for furniture.
If I was building one, I might really think about designing in built-in storage and jettison the furniture in all the small rooms save for a scant table or such.
I've built a lot of radius work and enjoy it. But found I had to increase labor estimates by as much as X6 depending on the project. I also found projects to have more waste when reducing square stocks to curvilinear shapes. For example, a radiused 1x4x8 with bead on edge for soffits would suffer up to 50% waste in manufacture.
I think a more earthen plaster, adobe structure would be the most cost effective. Though maybe not the best suited for earth quake territory. Here, I would definately go with a wood frame dome.

[MarkP]

I haven't built one or stayed in one, only read a lot on the net. There seem to be two camps; those that are in love with the concept and quote the fact that domes enclose the most volume per unit of surface area, and those that have built domes and recognize that half of that enclosed volume is useless, half of the surface area is lying outside in a pile of triangular scraps, and it is a bitch to construct, roof, insulate, or drywall. In fact I know a guy who built a dome house and he can confirm all of that.

He loved living in it.

[otter]

WWW.concretecanvas.co.uk/

They have some great YouTube videos.