The CETI Dome House is a one-of-a-kind design that combines the modern look of a glass dome with the practicality of a passive house that results in a sustainable eco-friendly home.
This 140 square meter dome house is made by merging two domes, one of 10 meters in diameter and one of 5 meters in diameter. The large dome has a mezzanine of 45 sqm of floor space and the smaller dome is a very spacious 18 square meters of bathroom.
The building of this dome house is scheduled for the beginning of 2019, with a turn-key budget of 375k euros.
The dome is made with a steel frame and triple glazing laminated security Smart Glass which at a push of a button switches back and forth between a clear window panel and a non-transparent opaque panel.
The glass covers roughly 30% of the house and the rest of the hexagons are made from composite multi-layered Structurally Insulating Panels with an R value of 90 and the exterior layer of the SIPs will be toughened glass which is self-cleaning and will always look as new.
The non-glazed part of the dome can also be covered with a concrete shell in order to create a partial green roof and insulate the building even more.
One of the best features of the dome house is the great amount of natural light that allows for trees to grow in the middle of the house.
We can also expand this dome house by adding and connecting more domes to the main one if in the future there will be need for expansion.
There are many more advantages of building a dome house, here are just a few :
1. Dome homes are the strongest human shelter ever conceived. The spherical and symmetrical shape allows domes to evenly and efficiently distribute the weight and stress along the entire structure.
2. Dome homes are the world's highest earthquake resistant structures. And they don’t require any interior load bearing walls.
Shake Table Test Shows the Dome Shape is Virtually Earthquake-Proof
3. Dome homes are aerodynamic. They can withstand hurricane winds in excess of 320 km/h.
4. Dome homes are the most efficient structures known to man, covering the most living area with the least amount of surface area.
5. Because of the high volume-to-surface-area ratio dome homes have at least 30% less surface area than other shaped buildings. That means it takes at least 30% less energy to heat or cool them.
6. The spherical design of a dome house results in highly efficient and effective air circulation. The ambient airflow inside the dome house is continuous, with no stagnant corners, requiring less energy to circulate air and maintain even temperatures.
7. Dome homes mirror the suns path thus maximizing solar gain all day, all year.
8. Some of the largest buildings in the world are domes; London’s millennium dome and the Eden domes were record breakers when they were built. The Miyazaki Ocean Dome in Japan is known as the world's largest indoor water park (300m-100m-38m).
9. Dome homes use less materials than conventional buildings and still outperform them in structural tests.
10. The larger the dome house, the more efficient it becomes. This is demonstrated by doubling the diameter, which encloses eight times the volume.
