Lets be honest here, the person living in a tiny homemade geodesic dome has no possessions worth stealing.
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Oh I donât know. If you donât spend money on a house then you can spend money on a nice computer, a fancy bicycle, a sack of gold 
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209 square feet? Thatâs a box.
Windows⌠air circulation⌠not blowing away any time the wind kicks up⌠why must you people be so fixated on luxuries?
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There is a fairly large window in the outside photo of the dome. I suppose the interior shots are all taken with your back to it.
All those spaces in the dome exterior are going to be crawling with insects if itâs left there for any length of time though.
Polyiso foam does burn in open air, though not very vigorously. The problem, apparently, is using it so that it lines the insides of a structure, so that it acts like a well-insulated reflector oven. Itâs claimed that the temperatures achieved can be almost an order of magnitude greater than a typical house fire, under which circumstances it burns MUCH more vigorously.
Emergency personnel are said to refer to the stuff as âsolid gasoline.â Foil-lined boards help, but not really enough: the foam is very fragile. The material is meant to be used in situations where itâs protected by nice, flame-resistant sheetrock. Apparently the manufacturers really freak out when they hear about it being used this way.
I canât find any single reference to support all of this. A search on âhexayurt fireâ will find lots of good discussion. I think if I wanted to build a structure like this and use it for more than a couple of days, Iâd try fire-resistant plywood instead - the individual panels still ought to be easy to move - and build a half- or - quarter scale model to test before using it for long
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This construction method could be used with other materials. Some wood-based stuff, or even sheet metal, could be used. The design could also be scaled as needed, for example adding complexity would allow one to make a 3v dome with twice the floor area, using the same 4x8 sheet materials.
Thereâs still the problem of it being a dome. Domes are weird. But think of the possibilities of using a similar sandwich construction method on a less domey structure!
There already are more durable versions of panel construction in use - look up âSIPâ (structurally insulated panel) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_insulated_panel
Very cool stuff. I recently saw they have curved ones now, too; pretty slick.
I think the window is just some 2x4s with plastic sheeting stapled on to them. There probably arenât any pictures of it from the inside because itâs really bad looking.
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That wiki reads like regurgitated marketing material, especially in the benefits and drawbacks section.
I think the design relies on the panels bending quite a bit, I would not think normal construction plywood could bend enough for a dome of that radius. The photos he had of similar plywood domes look bigger, and perhaps made from thinner plywood than is normally used for construction.
A neighbor of mine about 20 years ago built a house using those wood/foam/wood panels (maybe plywood, maybe oriented strand board, canât remember). That went up quick.
Look at how many houses are constructed in the US - 2x4 sticks and foam sheathing with vinyl strips tacked on. You donât even need a drywall saw - a Stanley knife will get you in. Or of course a brick through a window.
Sips are excellent as a way of skinning a timber-frame house. I used them for mine.
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With minor substitutions for the type of tool, thatâs true of any house isnât it?
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See the bucket and hose out on the lawn? Thatâs a space-efficient sink, stew pot and toilet all in one.
as in âwas constructed quicklyâ or âin flames?â
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Thatâs exactly what I was thinking. I never was that big on domes as homes, there was just to much space that was hard to work with.
But spheres as rooms? Yeah, I could see that working, itâs really kind of like a lot of those modular moon-city plans then, isnât it? Except you wouldnât have many constraints on the connecting areas, so some could be more open to the environment and such. They could be shipped as a rectangular or hexagonal container for easy storage, and that container could in part become the base.
There are even potentially advantages over conventional construction techniques, arenât there? A pre-fab bathroom could have cost AND quality advantages over one built by hand, couldnât it?
Yeah, Iâm digging some of the potential here.
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Attach a head to that hose and youâve got yourself a sprinkler system in case of fire.
Well, I was going to make a comment about this being ideal for Burning Man. Then I read the discussion about flammability, and thought about how I donât want to be a burning man.
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No, no, no⌠boxes are made with right angles. But I agree, making it a dome doesnât always help, unless you want something more wind resistant.
