Lammert Bies, where I will live in

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Lammert Bies
2001-07-22

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Click for full screen loading A dome home

Mathematics and normal living. Can it go together? In some situations, the answer is yes. One of these situations is the use of mathematical structures to define the shape of a house. In the Netherlands, as in most countries, houses are build using straight walls and a roof on top.

This is however not the only way to build your place to live in. When you visit the tropics, traditional houses tend to be built as a sphere, round with grass and other natural materials on top. I don't know if you ever had the experience to sleep in one, but I had, and such a home has properties not present in modern houses today.

Common housing on Timor If you visit the island of Timor in Indonesia, your eye will certainly fall on the two types of houses which are present on the countryside. Modern type houses on the roadside with walls, windows and a roof, and spherical grass livings in the backyard. You would probably expect the people to live in the first one, but more then fifty percent of all the families on the island live in their traditional home, even with the current governmental rules which demands them to abandon these houses because of health risks. Because there is no smoke hole in the hut and wood is burning all day long to preserve food, lung diseases are common.

But, even with this knowledge in mind, people stay living the traditional way. There must be a good reason for it. In fact there are two. Spherical buildings are capable to resist climat in a better way than normal houses do. The amount of wall surface is less with the same volume. Because of that, it is easier to keep such a home cool during the daytime and warm at night. The other reason people in Timor do it the traditional way, is that the noise of rain is silenced by the grass in stead of attenuated by wood or corrugated iron.


Building your own home The modern way

If you've ever been in the Netherlands, you will know that we have a lot of grass. Because we are using cows to eat it, it is normally not longer than about 5 inches. Not long enough to build a house in the same way the people of Timor do. One other problem in constructing houses of this building material is the climat. A grass home will last for about 15 years in the tropics. Here it would probably damp of in one or two years. Not to mention the local municipal building department which has to be convinced of all the good properties of such a grass home ...

To overcome these problems, Buckminster Fuller developed a mathematical structure to build spherical houses, dome homes, using modern building materials and techniques. These houses can be compared with all other house types if you look at climat resistance, comfort and life span.

Some companies (most in the US) are now specialized in delivering building plans and complete building kits for dome homes. My plan is to use such a building kit to build my own. One problem still present might be the municipal building department here. Because this country is overcrowded, rules for building are very strict.


What's so special about dome homes?

There are some reasons why I want to live in a dome home. One is that I don't like to do things like other people do them. This is however not the main reason. Dome homes have some technical properties which make them useful in a lot of circumstances.

First of all, the outer surface is small compared to the inside volume. Heating and cooling is cheaper than with a conventional building. Secondly, the structure is completely self supporting. This means, that no internal walls are needed for carrying the roof. Because of that, there are no limitations on the position and sizes of rooms, etc.


Links to related sites

The Buckminster Fuller institute. Where it all began ...

Oregon Domes, Eugene, Oregon. Wooden building kits.

Geodesic Domes & Homes, Whitehouse, Texas. Wooden building kits.

Timberline Geodesics, Berkeley, California. Wooden building kits.

Monolithic Dome Institute, Italy, Texas. Concrete domes erected using an inflatable balloon.

Domespace, France. The French way of doing it.

Dome magazine. The only magazine dedicated to dome homes.

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