Tiny frameless geodesic home costs only $2100

[Permalink]

as cool as it is, Iā€™d say calling it a ā€œhomeā€ is a bit of a stretchā€¦ a cabin? sure. a shelter? certainly. but a home? No bathroom, no kitchen, no bathing facilities?
maybe Iā€™m a Western culture snob.

Agreed. Also, with the bolts going all the way through, leakage might be a problem.

I agree. This is an extravagant tent, not a house.

1 Like

An extravagant tent is not so different from a house. The point of the concept is to challenge traditional waste of space. Add a small compost toilet outside, and voila! A gas stove and filtered rain water- boom! A kitchen! My sister had a much smaller ā€˜houseā€™ made of wattle and daub, which was very liveable. Itā€™s all about thinking (and living) outside the box.

3 Likes

This is a cabin, not a full house, but it does its job very well. And the design is stunning. Thereā€™s nothing to it!

For what itā€™s worth, I grew up in a dome not much bigger than this (26ā€™ dia.). We eventually had running water, a bathroom and A/C.

1 Like

Did anyone see a mention of fire testing that I missed? I know that small, self-supporting yurts built of foamboard insulation alone turned out to have unexpectedly severe fire problems, due to the structure acting a bit like a rocket stove. Itā€™s kind of hard to imagine the interior plastic helping all that much, but Iā€™d love to be wrong.

Given that it is just one room and is tiny, I would hope that it would be easy to get out in case of fire.

I also have a minor complaint with people who call bathrooms and kitchens a waste of space. It is cheating if you boast all about how tiny your house is when you have to have external facilities for everything but sleeping/office space. Itā€™s like those gadgets that advertise how super tiny they are, but come with a power brick the size of an actual brick.

7 Likes

Iā€™d call it a shed, but itā€™s quite a nice shed. I really like the idea of dome houses in areas prone to tornadoes and hurricanes. Bigger than this though.

1 Like

I think at 209 Sq. Feet and $2,100, people who want a place to eat and poo and clean themselves could build 2 more domes, one for a bathroom (and storage) and another for a kitchen (and storage). And at 627 sq feet and $6,300, itā€™d be pretty damn cool and still small and, most important, it wouldnā€™t leave me house-poor.

3 Likes

This is a proof of concept more than a feasible project. I endorse that approach, but I still have to wonder how this structure is going to hold up to the scourge of all buildings brave enough to put something above ground, that is, the wind. No skeleton and bolts through plastic wonā€™t hold up for long. Nice for a summer maybe. You would not want to be asleep in there during a severe storm.

3 Likes

Sure itā€™s a home.

Itā€™s a geodesic dome. Isnā€™t leaking sort of a requirement?

5 Likes

How about you kids get off my lawn and go and read the experience-based thoughts of the guy who was most responsible for the popularity of domes 30-40 years ago?

http://www.shelterpub.com/_shelter/smart_but_not_wise.html
http://www.shelterpub.com/_shelter/domes_rectangles.html
http://www.shelterpub.com/_shelter/domebuilder's_blues.html
http://www.shelterpub.com/_shelter/refried_domes.html

4 Likes

This is the answer! This is it! THIS IS HOW I CAN LIVE OUT MY DREAM OF LIVING IN SPACESHIP EARTH!

You still have to own the land. Typically the land is about half the cost of a home, so youā€™re only saving a little under 50% to live like this.

Although this is a moot point since there is absolutely no way this house is going to pass a home inspection. Youā€™re going to have to set this up in someoneā€™s back yard and call it a shed, or well outside of town and just middle finger anybody who mentions the phrase ā€œbuilding codesā€.

3 Likes

Land can be rented or thereā€™s squatting. These plasti-domes are said to be easy to take apart and reassemble.

2 Likes

Windows?

1 Like

Interesting. It also has the added bonus in that anyone can relieve the owner of all their worldly possessions with nothing more than a drywall saw.

Where I think the concept would play though, is instances where youā€™d need cheap, quick shelter such as in response to natural disasters.

3 Likes

Foamboard is typically impregnated with a flame retardant, so it wonā€™t burst into flames when itā€™s around a high heat source. Generally, it melts away from a fire or heat, which is kinda-sorta a safety feature, unless you happen to be standing under it and the liquid drops on you, in which itā€™s really bad. It also gives off toxic fumes when it melts, so yeah, a fire is going to be a really bad time with one of these. Thereā€™s also the issue of outgassing, which makes long-term use an issue.

The way to do it would be to drywall the interior, but youā€™d probably need a frame to do that, and the price would go up and portability would be shot. And if price and portability isnā€™t an issue, youā€™d be better off just doing a drywall interior/EPS foam core/steel-reinforced concrete exterior dome, which is going to cost ten times as much, but it would survive a hurricane and pass any building code requirements you threw at it.

1 Like