3 comments

  • a_e_k 16 hours ago

    Is it the shape or the material?

    I notice that the destroyed house next to it seems to have been made of the typical light timber frame and regular glass windows.

    By comparison, my parents' house in Puerto Rico isn't dome-shaped -- it's rather boxy, but it is constructed with fairly thick concrete walls on the exterior and has hurricane shutters over all the windows. The biggest problem that it's ever had from hurricanes (e.g., Hurricane Maria) has been from flooding and extended loss of power rather than anything structural.

    • BizarroLand 15 hours ago

      Both.

      The material on the outside of the pictured dome is usually just a covering over the wood or steel hexagonal frame.

      Sometimes it's concrete originally formed with an inflatable, but that's rarer.

      I live in a geodesic dome home and I learned a lot about them, originally designed by Buckminster Fuller, they are inherently resilient against hurricanes, earthquakes, and all manner of environmental events.

      The Adobe coating on the pictured one just replaces roofing and helps seal them up. Most domes don't use that.

  • xrd 16 hours ago

    Deltec makes some great homes that offer similar structural features. And they look nice as well.