The dome and the arch have been valued for millennia due to their durability and strength; Roman aqueducts and bridges using the arch survive to this day, places of worship belonging to several faiths often top their glorious structures with massive domes, and even the little igloo is known to maximize living space while minimizing heat loss. Those structures were usually built out of contemporary materials such as brick and mortar or ice, and often withstand the test of time. We now live in an era of steel, lumber and concrete, yet our houses are constantly collapsing from extreme weather, forest fires, and neglect. In the last few decades, there have been great strides in marrying the ancient building shape with modern materials, now known as the monolithic dome.
The exterior and interior of the structure is shotcrete reinforced with steel rebar, which is fabricated on site. The result has been described by FEMA as “near absolute protection” from category five hurricanes and tornadoes. There are stories already floating around about their durability. The Weather Channel can vouch for this seeming indestructibility after one of their crews took shelter in a dome during a nasty storm that they failed to evacuate in time. Another family survived a forest fire that destroyed the entire neighborhood except their dome home. There was even one owned by Saddam Hussein’s regime. It was struck by a five-thousand pound American bomb yet amazingly remained structurally sound. My favorite story has to be the one where a wrecking ball was supposed to knock one down as it was to be redone. It survived after having its entire perimeter knocked out from under it and didn’t give up the ghost until the interior structure was tackled.
Money which would have been wasted on high insurance premiums, wooden 2x4s and insulation can be spent more wisely. Dome homes can be and often are, modernized beyond belief with the addition of solar panels, geo-thermal heating/cooling systems, hurricane/tornado windows, grey water treatment systems, and home automation systems. Some of them are even built underground or partially underground. You can dream big and green and safe on a small budget.
Despite paying for themselves in energy savings over approximately 20 years, backward-thinking critics abound. Apparently, domes can be too well insulated, requiring many owners to install dehumidifiers to get rid of excess moisture. Also, their rounded shape makes hanging conventional decorations on the curved surfaces a bit of a challenge. But don’t worry. All of a dome’s interior walls and floors are still straight. This is still a home, not a massive hamster ball. I say treat the gently curving exterior walls as art themselves. Some also say that the new shape is too difficult to construct for conventional construction firms. Could you imagine if a similar argument were made when we switched over from horse-drawn carriages to automobiles? The job seems easily doable by swimming pool installers. Monolithic domes are essentially massive, upside down swimming pools.
Finally, some say that the home is too outlandish and offends more conservative communities. Let the hater’s hate. These homes save so much money on heating and cooling. They are (almost) impossible to destroy and most likely will be the standard home of the future. I personally live in a monolithic dome and despite the grumblings of my neighbors, they all agree whose house to flock to in the event of the apocalypse. In fact, the government is subsidizing massive versions in communities constantly plagued by natural disasters. They are slowly but steadily rising around the world as homes, schools, churches, sports complexes and warehouses. For example, the Archie R-V school district in Missouri just built a new dome for its basketball arena that doubles as a community shelter. The largest one on record belongs to the Faith Chapel Christian Center in Birmingham, Alabama.
If we can find a way to turn moon rock into moon cement, we could more easily build that moon base. It’s time to start thinking outside the box America and save lives, money and the planet while we’re doing it.
