Word: domes
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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There are conflicting explanations for the new-found popularity of the dome. For some, it is a matter of lifestyle. Says Lloyd Kahn, a California teacher who is a leading proselytizer of dome living: "People who like domes are people who want to change their lives, who want to break out of the little boxes in which people have always lived in the Western world." Gary Miller, vice president of Tension Structures, a Michigan dome-building firm, points out that circular living is not new. "Indians and Eskimos used it for centuries. People like circular things because they give...
More pragmatic reasons are offered by Chicago Architect Lawrence J. Harrison, who is building his own dome home. "The dome is the greatest thing since the tent," he says. "It's cheap, efficient, simple to put together and is the most economic way of covering space. This is not just the answer to low-cost housing. This is the answer to low-cost, cooperative, self-built housing...
...Domes are indeed relatively easy to put together. The basic units are equilateral triangles bolted together at each angle to form a many-faceted hemisphere. Four men only moderately skillful with tools can put up an average dome in about eight hours. Costs are modest. Cadco of New York State offers a 39-foot diameter dome with 1,100 sq. ft. of living space for $4,900 (erected). Doors, windows, heating and foundation all add to the cost. Cadco's rule-of-thumb estimate of total cost is about $9.50 per square foot. Dynadome, of Phoenix, Ariz., sells...
There are disadvantages too. Kahn, author of Domebook One, a basic dome dweller text, says: "Leaking is the dome's biggest drawback." He adds, however, that the problem is well on the way to solution: new caulking materials make it possible to seal chronically leaky seams. Another disadvantage is the free movement of air in the usually non-partitioned domes, which makes them noisy to live in-but easy to heat and cool. Ordinary furniture looks awkward in domes: built for rectangular homes, familiar chairs and tables do not fit against curving walls (dome dwellers have already designed furniture...
Class Struggle. Richard Slater, an engineer and expert on low-cost housing for the Federal Government, doubts that the dome will ever become the favorite form of housing for the masses. "Lowincome families," he says, "usually aspire to the split-level ranch-style homes that higher-income families have. As long as the dome has the reputation of a low-cost home, no one will want to live...