The Remarkable Benefits of A Geodesic Dome Home

By Harry Cooper – Buckminster Fuller set out to design the most efficient style of home that he possibly could. For all intents and purposes, his geodesic dome house accomplished that goal.

Efficient Architecture

Geodesic dome houses are some of the cheapest houses to build and maintain on the market. Their simple yet sound design was made to provide quality housing for as many people as possible for as cheap as possible.

While these houses are not the most conventional living space, they require very few building materials, naturally regulate their own temperatures, and are built to last for an incredibly long time. You can even buy your own geodesic dome kit online if you want to build one yourself.

What makes Geodesic Dome Homes so Remarkable?

When there are so many options for buying other homes, but eco homes are important to you, then it’s crucial that you study the many benefits of dome homes. From being the strongest shape, safer in earthquakes and hurricanes, well insulated resulting in less energy use to their cheaper price and easy assemblage they are a wonderful option.

The Spherical Shape of a Dome House

The spherical shape of geodesic dome homes is meant to create as much support and stability while using as little materials as possible. This provides it with incredible structural integrity.

The secret to this design comes from its use of the lightweight triangle plates that make up its hemispherical shape. While not strong on their own, when put into a dome formation these plates can be incredibly practical, and structurally sound.

When geodesic domes are built with these triangles, the weight is distributed evenly across the house making it incredibly stable. This unique shape allows for geodesic homes to be built with as little materials as possible while still retaining a stable structure.

A Geodesic Dome Home Is Easy to Build

By having such a simple design that requires so little building materials, geodesic domes are not just sturdy, they are also very cheap and easy to build. This can help make housing more accessible to people everywhere.

Making housing so accessible was one of the original purposes of the geodesic dome home. By using such light materials that are easy to put together which enables geodesic domes to be constructed easily, quickly and almost any where.

Not only do these light transportable materials make it easier to build a home, it also makes it cheaper. By using so little materials and requiring so little effort to construct, geodesic homes cost much less than a traditional house.

A House That Is Resistant to Severe Weather

The geodesic dome’s efficient design is not only practical for making them cheap and easy to build. It also makes them more resilient in the face of strong winds and severe weather.

This is because their spherical shape makes them much more aerodynamic. By being so aerodynamic, strong storm winds are less likely to do damage to a geodesic house than a regular house.

By being such resilient houses, geodesic dome homes can survive nearly any weather. This makes them able to be built in all different kinds of environments around the world. With increasing severe weather scenarios as a result of climate change geodesic dome homes offer a solution.

Energy Efficient Geodesic Dome Homes

Geodesic dome homes’ shape aren’t just useful for structure and aesthetic. It also allows them to be a lot more efficient with their energy usage.

This is because their round interior allows for relatively uninhibited air circulation. This makes it a lot easier to regulate air temperature within the dome. Dome homes also have a lot less surface area than traditional house designs which makes them less susceptible to temperature changes outside. As a result, they are even better at regulating temperature than regular homes.

Cheaper and Cleaner Energy Usage in A Geodesic Home

By being so energy efficient, geodesic homes are made cheaper by reducing heating and cooling costs. Along with this, their energy efficiency is much better for the environment. By reducing the amount of energy used to heat and cool homes, less fossil fuels are needed to be burned for energy.

Downsides of Geodesic Dome Homes

While geodesic domes were designed for cost and energy efficiency, there are some drawbacks to living in one. One of these issues is finding furniture that will fit in the house. Since the walls of a geodesic dome home are curved it can be incredibly difficult to find cabinets, appliances, and wall art that fits neatly into the unconventional home structure.

Another issue is privacy. While the circular design of these houses allows air to flow easily throughout the house, it also causes noise to echo and travel around the house. This can make privacy in a geodesic home harder to come by, especially when the houses are already so small.

While building dome homes are hypothetically easy, actually constructing them can come with a lot of red tape. Many home owners associations may make it hard to get the building of a dome home approved, and since they are such unconventional houses, it may also be difficult to get your dome home appraised.

Nonetheless, geodesic dome homes were meant to provide cheap efficient housing, and that’s exactly what they do. The geodesic dome house works to solve both the housing crisis and the energy crisis. Despite its few flaws, its technology like this that drives us towards a more sustainable future.

The Spiritual Origin of The Geodesic Dome Home

The Geodesic dome home was invented by R. Buckminster Fuller, “an American engineer, architect, and futurist.” As the Buckminster Fuller Institute explains, Fuller was committed to improving human shelter with modern construction technology to make them more comfortable, more efficient and more affordable.

Fuller was working on his design as far back as 1928, but it wasn’t until 1944 that the time was ripe as the United States “suffered a serious housing shortage. Government officials knew that Fuller had developed a prototype single family dwelling which could be produced rapidly, using the same equipment which had previously built war-time airplanes. They could be ‘installed’ anywhere, the way a telephone is installed, and with little additional difficulty”. Unsolicited checks began to pour in from people who wanted to purchase these houses, but there were serious problems inhibiting the production of these homes from unions, stockholders and financing.

In the words of Buckminster Fuller, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete”. This is just what Buckminster Fuller sought to do with his geodesic home design. While his homes did not reach the wide-scale distribution he dreamed of in his life time, they are inspiring people around the world and manifesting in new forms every day.

Domes and Religion

Domes have a long history in religions around the world. An article in Hurriyet Daily News discusses their origin:

From early on in the Middle East and Southwest Asia it was a popular method of roofing in places where there was no timber. It was easy to build using mud bricks that either tilted slightly inwards or by placing layers of brick in circles that gradually became smaller. There have been a suggestion that the circular huts used by nomadic tribes may have had some impact. The Romans adopted the dome, as we see in the Pantheon in Rome, and the Byzantines used the dome to cover their monumental buildings.

The first domed building constructed by Arabs was the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (691), even though it wasn’t “until the 12th century that it became popular to place domes on mosques”. Today, almost every mosque has a dome shape.

An article on Aleteia proposes that “Domes on Christian churches invite pilgrims to “look up” and remember that their lives are not meant to be downward in focus, but pointed upward, towards the heavens above”, a lesson that we all need to remember.

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