The R value for two layers of blueboard foam is 7.5 plus the r value of the corrugated plastic. But the structure is pretty darn tight and the shape tends hold heat much better than I expected.
You can always add more insulation layers and get more R value.
So do you live in this or is it just a workspace? EDIT: Duh, the title says "live in", so I guess you do :) Maybe I read too fast but I didn't see anything about cooking, bathroom needs, and showering, so I got confused.
How does it fair again strong winds in a storm and occasional hail? Is the isolation good enough to provide comfort in environment ranging from 35°C to -15°C ?
What is your solution for a bathroom? Where do you shower?
This. I'm curious as to how the bathroom is laid out, where you go for any and all of those purposes.
This "house" is missing a lot of viable (standard) infrastructure to be considered what we usually call a house in North America. It's closer to that of a very small travel trailer, or a tent. All in all I still love the idea.
This doesn't have a bathroom, it's just a place to sleep and work. Think of it like a workroom, or greenhouse. It was built on a foundation of masonry blocks and 2x4s If you wanted plumbing, you could certainly add it. That's the idea, you build it yourself.
I'd actually try going green in one of these - a composting toilet (http://www.letsgogreen.com/index.html) and plumbing that collects rainwater, then drains into a gray-water tank to be used on the gardens.
This is super fascinating! You mention snow, but I didn't notice what part of the world you're living in. I'd be curious about building something like this, but I'm in a part of Canada where -40 and LOTS of snow is a real possibility.
If you have lots of snow, then I would advise a sparse frame , imagine an outline of octagons and pentagons but not the internal triangles, more insulation would also be required.
In my country I'm not sure what the legal situation would be - as I understand it you can't just throw up a trailer park where you want. And a plot of land with permission for a permanent residence is worth about half the cost of a house. What's the legal situation in your country?
Have you ever invited girls home, and if so how did they react? I think your dome looks awesome and fascinating, but I don't know if everyone would be so enthusiastic?
Those things are largely ignored in rural areas, unless there is a complaint. Believe me I've seen people living in structures that violate every building, electrical, and plumbing code in the book, but out in the backwoods nobody cares.
I love it! I especially like that it is in fact a closer to a proper dome rather than a flat faceted solid since the panels are flexible. It reminds me of an igloo.
We get a fair amount of snow, so if I went about this, there would probably be a frame underneath. There are plenty of tutorials on the web for the assembly of geodesic structures.
The idea was very similar, but I think the original designer became disinterested and moved onto other things. The fact that you provided exact shapes and sizes makes me more hopeful.
Bravo! Fantastic attempt (thinking way outside the box), with interesting results (low cost, rapid construction). Great step in the tiny house concept.
Not sure how to reconcile the shape with societal expectations, as we're trained to expect 3+ rooms with rectangular layout (even "tiny homes" adhere). Does look a bit tight inside, at least for usable floorspace juxtaposed with headroom. Cost is impressive (low), but might need something of a sales pitch to motivate living in the 4-digit expense.
I'm most impressed that you did it. Would love the opportunity to try it myself (alas, priorities).
This is definitely a consideration and a trade off. I don't advocate having a wood stove in this structure. I haven't done any tests for air quality. The polystrene isn't exposed that much on the interior.
But this is a really good question which applys to all structures that use this material.
I think my favorite part was "I have iterated on this idea a bit." where you post the fails.
It can get discouraging looking at all the beautiful stuff posted and thinking it just sprang out of nothing. Clearly this is neat because you put a lot of work into making it so.
Thanks for taking the time to write it up and share it.
You ignored the vast majority of the practical problems pointed out in the parent link. Plumbing, roof pitch, acoustics, privacy, ventilation, insulation, etc.
I think plumbing was solved by not including it. Acoustics can be solved by not having a loud child living in there with you as can privacy. Ventilation, insulation, etc, all easy to deal with if you don't concern yourself with building codes.
You and the author are free to ignore these problems (at least, until the government evicts you from your own residence) but don't conflate ignoring a problem with solving it.
> If I want to spend my time writing blog posts, exploring new programming languages, and other things that I want to do but I am unlikely to get paid for, it’s helpful to opt out of certain common expenses. Housing is a major expense that is ripe for pruning.
I'd say "the intended use case" here is clearly to replace your primary residence, which is both what makes the project interesting and what casts the ignored topics in sharp relief.
You can replace your primary residence and at the same time change your lifestyle expectation.
From the article:
"If you are considering a canvas dome, teepee, or yurt you should consider building a frameless dome as well."
I'd say that if you're considering replacing your primary residence with a teepee, you're looking at certain lifestyle expectation that don't necessarily include building codes.
You're probably also looking at a lifestyle that makes it difficult to "explore new programming languages." For that, you'll need to live in a city, so you can go poop and charge your laptop somewhere nearby, in which case building codes are relevant.
This is a great post! it seems a lot of the shortcomings he points out stem from ALL goods and services available to home-owners being planned around square housing of standardized measurements. Besides that, there are some inherently 'different' aspects of a dome (acoustics, floor arrangement, extra length requirements in wiring & wall surface jointing, unusual structural stresses) that are both interesting, and probably hard to realize without having lived in and worked on one of these things.
The door is in the last photo at the top of the post. It is essentially a round door that functions much the way cooler lid functions. There is a wood frame to support the opening in the structure.
What's really refreshing about this is that it opens up something we think of as completely static (housing) to the possibility of continuous improvement. I really appreciate the effort to refine the structure. Our concept of improving our immediate environment almost never extends to the walls themselves.
Clearly your approach is not for everyone, but it's great that you have taken the time to share your experience since it will likely push likeminded others towards experimenting as well.
As an aside, I have some limited experience with these: http://shelter-systems.com/ and it has been a fun and simple place to start. Since they're without a foundation I think they're considered 'temporary structures' in California so they don't require any permits.
This particular post presents a very interesting structure / design. But I don't see this solving any major issue. There seem to be better alternatives to this that solve "housing issues".
Why wouldn't you build a log cabin instead of something like this?
While neat this seems to offer zero advantages in reality vs. traditional housing, unless you're a lone hermit living away from everyone else.
Assuming you have 10-20 people to house, each person having their own dome seems less efficient than building a more traditional house with shared kitchen, bathroom, etc. facilities, since the dome cannot contain those, at least without scaling up significantly at which point its utilization of space becomes really inefficient.
EDIT:
To clarify I'm assuming that:
A) He's living a commune with this, and sharing cooking/bathroom facilities with others. Thus my comment abotu 10-20 people to house.
B) The point is efficiency/ease of housing people. I don't think a bunch of individual (or 2-3 person domes) is any more efficient than one or two traditional houses to hold everyone and all the facilities needed.
I dunno if you know this but you can build them pretty big pretty easily. And you can easily fit 2-4 people per bedroom if you build them spaciously and people are willing to sleep in the size of beds featured in the dome.
I've stayed in this house http://i.imgur.com/EgZRY9g.jpg It easily held 30 people. There was a large upstairs room with many beds side-by-side, and 5 other small rooms with one or two bunk beds each. This left the downstairs mostly open with a big kitchen, two medium-sized meeting/dining rooms, and a big classroom.
Well for starters, the surface area per person is a lot lower. Even with framing and siding, it's probably less material per person than building a little bubble around each person. Certainly running 20 little air conditioners is less efficient than central air. Maintenance over time is probably lower. The big deal is that it uses way less land per person, partly by using a two-story design which a dome can't do.
Seems we need a study considering the juxtaposition of property costs, property size, housing cost, housing size, and (oh, how to say this tactfully) social strata.
There isn't enough innovation in alternative housing. The cost of buying a house in the UK is astronomical. Even a flat-pack build is still very expensive although a fair bit cheaper than brick and mortar, but you still have to buy land and deal with regulatory policies with regards to construction.
There's loads of info out there on websites and torrents, which I've spent the last year or two devouring. The main thing is to understand where you might like to live and find a technique that's suitable. If you're happy to move somewhat outside of a city, I'd recommend checking out information around straw building in particular... it's pretty impressive in terms of cost, longevity, seismic, audio and thermal insulation properties and is well proven, and suits a surprising range of climates.
I may come back to you personally for some more information at some point .
The biggest challenge in the UK for any kind of alternative construction is still the price of the land. Have you discovered any ways to overcome this challenge?
The UK is almost (bar perhaps Singapore) a worst case scenario: huge land holdings by a small number of established parties, all jobs in essentially one area, and a culture of huge numbers of people living in cramped housing which reduces the demand for proper living space. I lived there for a year and have visited a few other times myself, plus I have a friend from there with a strong interest in alternative construction techniques who is presently searching for a solution to this issue himself. According to him, getting permits to build pretty much anything is really expensive and difficult, which represents an even greater hurdle than the cost of land. On the plus side, a subset of the out-of-town transit links are quite OK if your work in some parts of London or remote.
If I were you I would look about 40min or 1hr commute out by train for special situations (long term land minding, basic groundskeeping on estates for free accomodation, etc.) and/or try to ingratiate yourself with someone with significant landholdings who wouldn't mind carving off a portion to a friend at an agreeable price. Honestly though, why not just leave the UK? It's not really that exciting. France is far cheaper, you get brilliant food, and the people are less football thug slash coke-snortin' bankerish. If you really want to go to London, you can live in Brittany and get a ferry back now and then for not that much money.
Yes. This is what I am up against at the moment.
You are right though. I should consider moving abroad. My worry with somewhere like France is - being Muslim - I don't know how I would be treated and to what extent the problems shown on TV are representative of what it's actually like on the ground.
That said. I do know someone with some land in France . Maybe I could have a chat with him!
My partner's Muslim. There's plenty of Muslims in France. Everyone in London told me French and Parisians in particular were rude and horrible, but I found them far nicer than the English and have never had a bad experience! I'd say they're more likely to get snooty if you fail to drink with them, which, if you're a little on the conservative side of Islam, might be the case. I have a theory, though, that what most of them are really after is animated conversationalists and philosophical arguments! If true, drink is optional.
You've inspired me. Is there a place you know of in South France that is economical to live in where i could rent for a while. I've started my freelance career not so long ago so surviving on savings till i can build it up - but if there's a place that's quite affordable then i'd jump at the chance of moving out for some nicer weather and nicer people.
316 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 402 ms ] threadYou can always add more insulation layers and get more R value.
What is your solution for a bathroom? Where do you shower?
This "house" is missing a lot of viable (standard) infrastructure to be considered what we usually call a house in North America. It's closer to that of a very small travel trailer, or a tent. All in all I still love the idea.
"If you are considering a canvas dome, teepee, or yurt you should consider building a frameless dome"
For bathroom activities, I would suggest some kind of humanure solution.
I'm also curious how this will hold up against strong weather conditions... heck even light weather conditions
Have you ever invited girls home, and if so how did they react? I think your dome looks awesome and fascinating, but I don't know if everyone would be so enthusiastic?
Some standup comediant joked that if women agreed to have sex in cardboard boxes, men wouldn't buy houses.
http://www.elkinsdiy.com/survival/rapid-coroshelter/
We get a fair amount of snow, so if I went about this, there would probably be a frame underneath. There are plenty of tutorials on the web for the assembly of geodesic structures.
This touches on another project that didn't quite take off called the "Icopod" http://eksith.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/icopod
The idea was very similar, but I think the original designer became disinterested and moved onto other things. The fact that you provided exact shapes and sizes makes me more hopeful.
Not sure how to reconcile the shape with societal expectations, as we're trained to expect 3+ rooms with rectangular layout (even "tiny homes" adhere). Does look a bit tight inside, at least for usable floorspace juxtaposed with headroom. Cost is impressive (low), but might need something of a sales pitch to motivate living in the 4-digit expense.
I'm most impressed that you did it. Would love the opportunity to try it myself (alas, priorities).
Beds, tables, chairs, etc. are mostly rectangular.
But this is a really good question which applys to all structures that use this material.
I think my favorite part was "I have iterated on this idea a bit." where you post the fails.
It can get discouraging looking at all the beautiful stuff posted and thinking it just sprang out of nothing. Clearly this is neat because you put a lot of work into making it so.
Thanks for taking the time to write it up and share it.
Key question: do the ladies like it?
This link is written by somebody with quite a lot of experience with domes. http://www.shelterpub.com/_shelter/domebuilders_blues.html
> If I want to spend my time writing blog posts, exploring new programming languages, and other things that I want to do but I am unlikely to get paid for, it’s helpful to opt out of certain common expenses. Housing is a major expense that is ripe for pruning.
I'd say "the intended use case" here is clearly to replace your primary residence, which is both what makes the project interesting and what casts the ignored topics in sharp relief.
From the article: "If you are considering a canvas dome, teepee, or yurt you should consider building a frameless dome as well."
I'd say that if you're considering replacing your primary residence with a teepee, you're looking at certain lifestyle expectation that don't necessarily include building codes.
Thanks for sharing this.
This guy's a classic: "My name is Jamie, and I have decided to build a giant robot damnit!"
for this to scale up, we are looking to replace having a traditional house right nearby, right?
are you doing all takeout or something like a camping stove outdoors ?
Clearly your approach is not for everyone, but it's great that you have taken the time to share your experience since it will likely push likeminded others towards experimenting as well.
As an aside, I have some limited experience with these: http://shelter-systems.com/ and it has been a fun and simple place to start. Since they're without a foundation I think they're considered 'temporary structures' in California so they don't require any permits.
Great work!
Why wouldn't you build a log cabin instead of something like this?
Assuming you have 10-20 people to house, each person having their own dome seems less efficient than building a more traditional house with shared kitchen, bathroom, etc. facilities, since the dome cannot contain those, at least without scaling up significantly at which point its utilization of space becomes really inefficient.
EDIT:
To clarify I'm assuming that:
A) He's living a commune with this, and sharing cooking/bathroom facilities with others. Thus my comment abotu 10-20 people to house.
B) The point is efficiency/ease of housing people. I don't think a bunch of individual (or 2-3 person domes) is any more efficient than one or two traditional houses to hold everyone and all the facilities needed.
There isn't enough innovation in alternative housing. The cost of buying a house in the UK is astronomical. Even a flat-pack build is still very expensive although a fair bit cheaper than brick and mortar, but you still have to buy land and deal with regulatory policies with regards to construction.
I may come back to you personally for some more information at some point .
The biggest challenge in the UK for any kind of alternative construction is still the price of the land. Have you discovered any ways to overcome this challenge?
If I were you I would look about 40min or 1hr commute out by train for special situations (long term land minding, basic groundskeeping on estates for free accomodation, etc.) and/or try to ingratiate yourself with someone with significant landholdings who wouldn't mind carving off a portion to a friend at an agreeable price. Honestly though, why not just leave the UK? It's not really that exciting. France is far cheaper, you get brilliant food, and the people are less football thug slash coke-snortin' bankerish. If you really want to go to London, you can live in Brittany and get a ferry back now and then for not that much money.
That said. I do know someone with some land in France . Maybe I could have a chat with him!
Let me know if you have any ideas.