io9
Deep in the heart of Saskatchewan, in the beautiful prairie city of Saskatoon, you can find one of the most futuristic building businesses in the world. It's Canadian Dome Industries, a company responsible for building the monolithic dome house you see above, in Red Deer, Alberta. The monolithic dome house, which has become popular among eco-conscious types all over the world, is incredibly sturdy and energy efficient. Dome houses like this one in Red Deer are completely off the energy grid; and a dome house in Florida famously withstood several hurricanes. Want to see more domes?
Here is a cutaway view of a dome, showing you what it's made of. 
And here's a recently-completed expansion to the School of Communication Arts in Raleigh, North Carolina. It's made of three two-story domes, with 120 foot diameters. They call it the "art school of the 25th century."
And here's a huge, 5,600 square foot dome with domettes, in Colorado. It's for sale, and you can check out interior photos here.
Of course, we couldn't forget the Florida luxury dome. Are these the houses of the future? I could actually see them becoming more popular in disaster-prone areas like Florida, where hurricanes tear the crap out of people's houses all the time.
If you need to ogle more domes, there's a whole bunch of them at the Monolithic Dome Institute.
Comments
I thought about putting a geo-desic dome or one of the smoother domes like the Monolithic ones on my family property which is a little North of the second to last picture. You see a lot of them in S. Colorado because they're kind of cheap to build and maintain.
A post about monolithic domes, including a link to the Monolithic Dome Institute (located in Texas), and no link to the restaurant there? What kind of sci-fi blog is this? ;)
[static.monolithic.com]
Wow the good old SCA, got my start there back in 95' learning Softimage. Back when 3-D was "the unclaimed territory". Good times, Good times.
Geodesic domes are totally cooler.
Some cool dome photos below.
[pure-research.net]
Rest of the site contains some scifi worthy technohippybabble.
I'd be all for it however, the resale value of such a structure might suffer. Can you imagine the typically unimaginative wife of some potential buyer barking "I don't like it! I doesn't look like the Jones'. " Alas how much progress has been denied mankind because 'it' did not match the window treatments...
Love those domes! I generally like to live in old houses with history, but if I were going to build a new house, I'd be doming it all the way.
I'm keeping my teapot clear of these.
Otherwise I find them quite attractive in a non-scandalous kind of way. ;)
@deckard97: Yeah, god knows if women would stop complaining we'd be driving flying cars to our new jobs in the sky by now.
I did a thesis on similar architecture and while I support it wholeheartedly a simple, pragmatic problem that always arises is the cartesian nature of our furniture, flooring materials, cabinets, etc. Furnishing a room in one of those houses - particularly the smaller domes - is like fitting the proverbial square peg in a round hole.
I'd live in one. But that Colorado photo looks like a collection of carbuncles.
Oh, and garges become a huge waste of space.
I remember reading about an early variant on these built in the Washington DC area during WWII, in order to relieve the housing crunch in the region. They were simply concrete and rebar pours allowed to harden and cure. They were considered a bit of a failure as homeowners gnerally did not like them. There were uninsulated, damp and hot in the summer and cold in the winter. There was an echo effect because the dome was literally in place with no room or ceiling panels, and because of the curve of the walls, if was extremely difficult to place shelving or even pictures up. It appears the Monolith has fixed all these problems. BTW, the last extant DC area domehome was torn down in the early 1960's.
heh, I found a geocache hidden near the NC building a few weeks ago.
As long as they don't come with teletubbies, i like the idea a lot.
@taxbaby: Yeah, just what I was thinking. Those ladies are always holding us back.
Those domes would be just the ticket in Saskatchewan. Cozy in winter! I guess today is just one of those days when I miss Saskatoon.
@deckard97: This future-happy wife would love to take a look at your listing if you ever (in what must be a fit of insanity) feel you must sell this theoretical dome home of yours.
Nice, but I've been in Red Deer for more than a couple decades and I've never seen one of these things in person. That one looks like it's on a farm or something - the city of Red Deer typically has between 60,000 and 80,000 inhabitants at a given time - it's not a BIG city, but it's not a speed bump in the middle of the highway either - there are miles of downtown.
@fuchikoma: Yeah, it's apparently near the banks of the Red Deer River, outside the city proper.
There was one (on the Monolithic site, I think -- I can't re-find it) where the owner built a big dome, painted the inside sky blue and rigged it with star lights and other gizmos to maintain the illusion of being outdoors, and then built an open villa-style building without windows on the inside. I can't remember if he had any windows to the outside or not, but it was a very intriguing idea.
My dad will be pleased. He used to be a construction manager and architect. He used to despair that nobody would let him use a geodesic dome. He would go on about how he could cover the same amount of space in half the time and a third the cost.
@Annalee Newitz: Solidarity, sister. I'd love a dome house, if my traditionalist, patriarchal man would have one.
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