Ok well I probably havent stated this before, but I'm planning on building a nice dome home as soon as I find a nice piece of property near someplace I want to live.

I've been contemplating using concrete since it's such a sturdy material (when reinforced with rebar) and it has excellent "R" ratings when compared to traditional building materials. I found an ad for such homes in the back of popular science magazine with these folks at the monolithic dome institute. www.monolithicdome.com


Anyways after having thoroughly read their site. I ran across some information that seemed too good to be true. They claimed that some of their structures could withstand winds above gail force and even tornadoes. Ok I'm a bit of sceptic, I do realize that a dome shape is one of the strongest shapes out their, and that concrete is one of the stonger materials. But I'm a little leary when it comes to structual engineering and trusting the math....I dont know I just look back at some of the engineering disasters and I have to be a little skeptical, until I see something has been tried and true.

Well folks I now have my evidence. One of these structures located on a barrier island off the coast of florida has survived the brunt of one such event and did so with grace. While the exterior stair wells of the house did break off due to heavy tidal beatdown, the actual structure of the house is intact.

I included a couple links, including one where a MSNBC crew was in the house during the storm and they slept through it!

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6011773/

www.monolithicdome.com/domene.....van3.html

Really if your thinking about making yourself a nice eco-friendly house that takes little to cool and heat you should consider a dome home.