Thinking and Living Outside the BOX . . . literally!

Not sure which Board to post this because it's not MY creative act. But it surely falls under the heading of creative.

Steve’s Dome Home

https://youtu.be/02NtjypMHwk

A 4:28 minute video of Steve’s Dome Home — inside & out.

For any of you interested in creating a low cost, charming, simple, aesthetically pleasing, quickly constructed place to live, this style of home may give you some ideas. Definitely thinking & living outside the Box — literally.

And the dome structure is better at withstanding high winds — like hurricanes. The acoustics, hot & cold air flow, & heating and cooling may also work better in this shape.

Everyone to whom I’ve shown this video (my 3 neighbors) and my family & friends via e-mail are all in love with this little dome. I told them I could sooooo live in this place . . . and they replied, so could they.

Below is Steve’s story about his dome home — & a link to his site if anyone is interested in checking it out.

Cheers! :)

_http://www.steveareen.com

Steve’s Dome Home Story

In 2011 I had a wonderful visit with my friend Hajjar Gibran. For years he has inspired me with his creative ideas. This time he was building domes at his retreat center in northeast Thailand. He and his wife offered me a spot on their mango farm to build my own dome.

With Hajjar's guidance and design ideas, along with my own, and his son-in-law Tao's masonry skills, I had my dome home up and painted in six weeks.

The cost for the basic structure was under $6000. It took a few more weeks to add the details, such as doors, screens, pond, upstairs structure, stonework and landscaping. All this, including furnishings, was under $3000. ..Bringing my total cost to about $9,000. Please keep in mind this is in cost-friendly Thailand.

As much as I love my dome home, I probably would not have built it if was a long process. The low cost and time-efficiency of using blocks is what enticed me into building. Because suitable compressed earth blocks were not available at the time, cement blocks and clay bricks were used.

Now the goal is to take this design ..which is quick, affordable, strong, beautiful and fun, ..and build with more sustainable materials that better insulate for colder climates.

At the moment I have no plans or blue prints to share, however, Hajjar and I are working on an improved building method and hope to provide helpful information soon.
 
Very nice. :D
I enjoyed the video much better without the sound.
Would I be able to get a permit where I live. Probably not.
 
Wonderful!

The cost for the basic structure was under $6000. It took a few more weeks to add the details, such as doors, screens, pond, upstairs structure, stonework and landscaping. All this, including furnishings, was under $3000. ..Bringing my total cost to about $9,000. Please keep in mind this is in cost-friendly Thailand.

People building their own affordable homes... gosh! Imagine how much that would help folks these days. The cost of housing, like so many other things today is outrageous.

Of course, there is now an all-out war on "tiny houses" of all types, and the PTB is not gonna let people escape financial slavery so easily.

Freedom in the United States today is a moving target, and when the government catches wind of an innovation that makes life easier and more affordable for ordinary people, it always steps in to take control. Take, for example, the growing effort to outlaw offgrid living in the U.S., as well as moves by local governments around the country to criminalize private rainwater collection.

Now, the federal government is making a major move against the tiny house movement, seeking to give the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) authority to require tiny houses to conform to the standards of recreational vehicles (RV’s), of which one of the rules is that the vehicles may not be used or marketed for permanent living. HUD is seeking to regulate tiny house living out of existence or to turn it into a regulated industry by requiring that tiny homes be manufactured in factories, conforming to codified standards.

_http://www.wakingtimes.com/2016/04/05/us-government-declaring-all-out-war-on-tiny-house-living/
 
Mark said:
Wonderful!

People building their own affordable homes... gosh! Imagine how much that would help folks these days. The cost of housing, like so many other things today is outrageous.

Of course, there is now an all-out war on "tiny houses" of all types, and the PTB is not gonna let people escape financial slavery so easily.

Thanks for sharing the link. I followed the FB site for wakingtimes.com

Very good observation...if people can live in their tiny house(s), they won't need a bank loan which is a significant food source for the financial beast.

I wonder if anyone has investigated the new laws for tiny homes, if the cost for building the legal framework has been financed by the 'said beast'?
 
Thank you for sharing and what a beautiful tranquil home with everything one would need. I love all the natural materials used and the attention to subtle details. Very nice! Good luck on your journey of building small houses outside of the box, 13 Twirling Triskeles. :D
 
thanks for sharing, that is simply amazing...we own an apartment complex in sacramento and would love to transition part of it to something similar but don't think building codes would support that idea/dream...we'll need to find a piece of land somewhere else.
 
Would I be able to get a permit where I live. Probably not.

Have you thought of calling it an art project? It is a sculpture.
I think a work-around like this might help in some areas so long as keeping things off the grid.

My community prohibits keeping of livestock, but pets are OK. The difference in pets and livestock = names.
 
100c said:
I wonder if anyone has investigated the new laws for tiny homes, if the cost for building the legal framework has been financed by the 'said beast'?

Well, the crackdown is coming from gov agencies, but we the people always end up paying for everything, sometimes twice it seems.
 
Yes, I've been following the news about the Tiny House movement . . . and the gov't crackdown on people living in them.

Of course! Anytime we finally find a way outside the 'box', the Matrix Control System finds a way to shove us back inside our little boxes. They can't create any solutions themselves. But oh how they can put the kibosh on ours. Aaaaargh! :)

Do any of you remember that song, Little Boxes? Here's a YouTube video with lyrics. Sorry about the very high pitched singing voice. There are other versions sung in lower keys, but I wanted you to get a chance to read the lyrics because they pretty much describe the human progression from beginning to end while under the Matrix Control System. No wonder the Beatniks of the '50's used to call non-beats 'squares'.

https://youtu.be/6Lkx4hpDcKI

Cheers!
 
Yupo said:
Would I be able to get a permit where I live. Probably not.

Have you thought of calling it an art project? It is a sculpture.
I think a work-around like this might help in some areas so long as keeping things off the grid.

My community prohibits keeping of livestock, but pets are OK. The difference in pets and livestock = names.

I love your way of thinking...what about calling the tiny home, a home for my cat :)
There's probably no code laws for a cat home.

Of course, this won't help anyone who wants to actually live in the structure, full time.
 
Mark said:
100c said:
I wonder if anyone has investigated the new laws for tiny homes, if the cost for building the legal framework has been financed by the 'said beast'?

Well, the crackdown is coming from gov agencies, but we the people always end up paying for everything, sometimes twice it seems.

Well, I don't actually know all the details about how writing new laws works, but I always have my suspicions. Someone has to pay a bunch of lawyers to do research on the existing laws concerning home building and permits. Then they have to come up with a strategy for how to prevent people from building affordable homes - thus requiring them to get a big juicy home loan which will keep feeding the big banks for the next 15to30 years :mad: . They also have to consider all the different ways people will attempt to get around any new laws and take that into account.

There's no way that the big banks will leave all this up to the incompetent politicians/government. No, they only use the politicians to get their laws enacted. Of course, the big banks have their own legal departments which they are already paying. Just a cost of business.
 
I've been following the Domegaia website for a while because I've been looking for fast to build, economical home to build when I buy my next block of land as I'll probably be on a tight budget. I've been in contact with them because the domes as they are can't collect rain water off the roof and that would be a necessity in the area's I'm looking at building in. They are apparently working on an integrated rain water collection modification that they hope to release next year.

The blocks for the dome are made out of a mix of Portland cement and a foam made out of dishwashing liquid or body wash (needs to contain sodium laurel sulfate to create foam) so they are very light blocks and that will suit me just fine!

This mix can be used to make normal shaped bricks or blocks for regular rectangular buildings too with the benefit of them being very light, stronger (if you get mix ratios right) and much more workable with hand tools than regular bricks or blocks. I found a youtube vid where a bloke made boxing out of steel wall studs and filled the boxing with the air-crete, then just stood the boxes up and bolted them together to make shed walls.


There's also a few youtube vids around where blokes have made the foam generators for the air-crete mix for about 1/4 of the price or less of the 'Little Dragon' foam generator that is sold by Domegaia.

It looks like a very versatile and economical material to build with.
 
I see 13 Twirling Triskels has not been posting since 2017 but this thread seems to be related to the idea of creative homes. I just saw this and found it fascinating and creative. Mr. Heang's artistic creativity is amazing I think. Of course, the building codes are a huge obstacle in most countries. Even Frank Lloyd Wrights' creations won't meet the current codes. I couldn't stop watching this so just be forewarned (only about 20 minutes long though}.

72Days In Jungle With Underground Building Mr.Heang Update: I am from United States of America (USA). In this video I'm going to show you about how to build a huge modern underground house with very simple tools and primitive skill ! This underground base I been working very hard with my friend for 60days to build and 12days we enjoyed there, This underground is in a small jungle of South America, we did only two people my friend (camera man) and me (project planner). Underground Base Dimension: Depth 3m , width 17m, height 5.8m I knew the most of visitor they hard to believe but it real 100% by hand made with tools in video !

72Days In Jungle And Underground Building
 
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