Driving through a suburb of Boston past charming turn-of-the century Colonial and Victorian homes, listening to Studio 360 on NPR discuss the environmental, safety and economic advantages of these eco-dome houses pictured above, I thought: Sure, those are great in the California desert which already resembles a planet from Star Wars, but could homes like this (which I must say, appear really quite livable) ever be accepted by neighbors and zoning boards here in New England?
The homes are part of the Cal-Earth project, founded by Iranian architect Nader Khalili, a non-profit developing these dome-shaped homes made from a mixture of mud and concrete layered with barbed wire, which are affordable, sustainable, not to mention earthquake, tornado and flood resistant. The project focuses on the idea of creating forward-thinking housing for the world's poor and diaster stricken, but could really be utilized by anyone. Aside from the technology that has been developed, it's also of great importance is that the buildings' designs become widely accepted if they are to become more prevalent throughout the world.
Which leads back to the question, could this type of architecture ever overcome the “not in my backyard” attitude and thrive in our country's suburbs and urban centers? Hearing the story on the radio, I had my doubts, but after seeing the photographs of the domes on Cal-Earth's website, I have hope — I personally find them incredibly cool and the interiors are inspirational. After all, as we noted in our post yesterday about architect Erno Goldfinger's home, even modernism was a passionately opposed in its day.
Would you live in an eco-dome?
Images: www.calearth.org
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Hmmm, interesting intersection of eco-friendly, Smurf Village, and Woody Allen's Sleeper.
...and a soupcon of termite mound.
yes! I would live in a eco-dome! it's beautiful!
Having lived for time (years ago) in a very spiffy cave in southern Spain, and various campers, tents, and cabins for much of my life, YES I'd love to try out one of these homes!
It would be an interesting challenge to use eclectic, but modern, elements in this organic space.
It looks like a Gnome house.
Its a hobbit house! Very cool! The only question I'd have about adapting them to cooler places like New England is how warm are they? The ceilings are a lot higher, and since warm air rises, I could see them being cold.
As for the design aesthetic, in CA there are just as many opininated people who hate unconventional design as there are in NE- I moved here from there, and I work in a connected field, so I've sat at many a public meeting in CA listening to people rant about design. Generally I think more people feel they can control something like that when they live in smaller communities or have higher property values.
In the end it boils down to, can you convince someone it meets the code? If yes, then you can't be stopped, and people will come around eventually.
overall carbon footprint is exponentially better than most buildings, ladymantle, not not zero. Very insulated with extremely low heating/cooling costs - read up, then post.
I'd live in one of this is a second! I visited CalEarth years ago and was impressed with their structures. The plastic tubes are meant to be filled with whatever is on hand...rubble, rocks, dirt...that wouldn't make a structure on it's own. They were experimenting with it as a way to build structures for refugees from war and natural disaster, and the tubes were a minimal amount of material that could be shipped to any area and used with what people there could gather. It's far more ecological than other building techniques where all supplies are refined and shipped in.
As far as insulation value and mold, I'd be interested to see if the domes have any issues. And being domes they are strong and resistant to most any destructive forces including earthquake, high winds, heavy snowfall, etc. The same can't be said for traditional house construction. Heck, I'd just be happy to not have gutters to clean!
@ladymantle: when compared to the way most homes are built today, even trucking the dirt is more ecologically sound than using fired brick, wood trucked in from forests, etc... Essentially every home built today is wrapped in plastic, multiple layers of wood and/or styrofoam, then clad in brick and cement, all of which are very energy intensive to produce, not to mention the amount of waste that goes into traditional home-building (cut-off ends of gypsum board and 2x4s, etc). Comparatively, this is a sustainable way of building, and I have a feeling that almost any type of soil could be used, which adds to its attractiveness as a viable means of emergency shelter for distressed areas (its original intent, let us not forget).
As they say on the website, cement and lime or asphalt can be added to the dirt used, which act as stabilizers for the dirt materials, hardening the walls and rendering them more durable. More energy intensive to produce from a sustainability point of view, alas, but it should help allay some of your fears as to durability.
People in the United States lived in sod houses for years, and people in Europe still live in houses with walls made of wattle and daub (essentially mud over interwoven sticks) without the trouble of mold/mildew that you cite. One of the reasons we have difficulties with mold in the U.S. in "modern homes" is because water becomes trapped within non-porous membranes with no way of escaping because the building envelope is too tight.
Adobe is also an excellent thermal mass (also cited on the website): it holds not just heat, but cools, as well. During the day, it will absorb heat from the sun, and releases that warmth at night (one of the reasons it's prized in the southwest). Would it work better in the southwest than in the northeast? Possibly. I don't know. I live in the south, so we concentrated on the use of thermal masses in mitigating the effects of summer heat in design school. If you're interested in reading up on it, try here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_mass#Thermal_mass_in_buildings
Yeah, it's wikipedia, but from the bit I read, the author does seem to know his business.
Sculpey house!
I absolutely would.
SuperAdobe (Cal-Earth's material) is also exceptionally fire-resistant. Because Superdobe structures are built out of dirt, barbed wire, and concrete, there just isn't much (other than the trim) to burn in a wildfire.
The domed shell also helps because the structure lacks any valleys or pockets to capture airborne embers that on conventional homes are one of the greatest dangers for home loss during wildfires.
If you're interested in more about SuperAdobe and wildfire, check out: http://www.firescaping.org/blog/?p=99
Oh, I would love to live in one of these houses! Especially if I lived somewhere in the Southwest, a home like this would be perfect there!
dream home
I would totally live in there! So much light, and it'd feel a bit like being a hobbit!
Super cool! would totally live there! Cob houses are quite cool too! Organic modern, love that look. Cobs are still built in England today & they have some wet weather. Those houses live for like 500 years vs our piddly 200 year olds! :)
i absolutely would! I love clay plaster!
@ladymantle: it says it's a mixture of mud and concrete. I'm guessing that if it rains, the mix of mud and concrete wouldn't wash away like just mud would. Did you read at all? Also, transportation of building materials automatically equals not "ecological?" Because most houses' wood, concrete, Tyvek, plastic, and asphalt is mined from the premises just prior to construction? Also, the water part of the clay (i.e. the heavy part) would come from an on-site source. You can whine about "ecosuckers," I'll whine about naysayers who can't read. Deal? Sheesh.
This reminds me of photos I saw of the old city of Yazd;
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/AbAnbarNain2.jpg
Also;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakhchal
I'm investigating this very subject myself for building in upstate New York. My wife and I are very excited at the possibility that we could afford to build our own home this way, with modifications for insulation, freezing ground and other New England winter challenges.
We also hope to do solar heating and electricity and perhaps hydroelectric power, if we find a piece of property on it with running water.
There are good answers and solutions for all the negative points ladymantle offered above. You can also build these (we're planning a cluster of domes for our home rather than one big dome, which is a difficult space to build this way - see my blog at www.adobedome.com) for around $10/sq. ft. Compare that to $150-250/sq ft. for conventional stick houses...that burn, blow down, shake apart.
These domes, as developed by cal-earth, have passed the stringent earthquake building codes in the high desert of California. They'll take it better than most structures because of the way they're put together.
We don't expect it to be easy to get through the code process, but we're hoping to build in rural eastern upstate NY or western Mass.
@skypix7: oooh. If you can and/or don't mind, if and when you do this, will you submit to AT/Re-Nest? I'd love to see how it all works out. Yay for alternative dwellins (esp. those with small-scale hydro, which I've not seen often)!
@skypix: gah -- missed the link the first time, am reading now. Heh. Still, I think a submission, when the time comes, would be excellent -- like regular designophiles love to see cool conventional homes, ecodesignophiles love to see cool ecohomes! (Re-Nest is also a friendlier crowd for "green" things, if you don't mind a smaller audience.)
ladymantle - after a heavy winter rain the house will look like the sidewalk in front of your house: a little wet and totally intact.
Are you unable to read the CalEarth website? What is your resistance to these designs? If you don't like them aesthetically, say so. Don't just pull childish objections from the air. It's silly.
@kirstlambert: or, equally likely, "if you're suffering from 'green fatigue' and want to medicate by sitting back and tearing 'green' ideas apart...." Blargh.
I would love to connect with people that have built and actually live in an earthbag dome - especially in cold climates with the New England challenges. I have been researching this building concept for days and am encouraged to learn more.
ANYONE LIVE IN ONE ALREADY?