Styrofoam Domes, Fibreglass Yurts, Shipping Containers, is this the future of housing in Australia or other parts of the world?
It seems that every now and again (generally when affordability of housing is being questioned) alternative housing pops up in the news and general discussion.
I know that shipping containers as homes have been discussed on SS before, but I only recently heard of dome homes and wondered what the general consensus was.
Once you get over the fact you are basically living in a smurf/hobbit home, I can see that there would be a lot of benefits to dome homes. Construction costs would be cheaper, the material is not prone to historical housing problems like termites/rot, cheaper to heat/cool (materials act as insulation), environmentally friendly, the list goes on. It also seems like a relatively easy way to create high density housing without building up.
Some of the designs are incredible inside and work well with an open plan design. Have a look through some of the videos on the sites linked, they seem relatively easy to put the basic construction together, infact if you were handyman inclined you could probably do much of it yourself.
My worry would be that it might be difficult to get something like this approved through council as it probably wouldn't fit in with surrounding homes...Any thoughts on this? Considering the environmental benefits surely it would be public suicide (with environmental awareness at an all time high) for a council to outright deny an application for this sort of home simply on it's looks?
Has anyone here built or thought about using non-conventional materials or designs in their property adventures?
Links
Domes:
Dome Shells
Dome House
Article About Above Dome Houses
Yurts:
Alternative Buildings
Grey Water
Shipping Containers:
Out of the Box Developments
Realestate.com.au Shipping Containers Article
The Age Article
SMH Article
Other Alternatives:
Mixture of Designs
Styrofoam Panels - Regular House Designs
It seems that every now and again (generally when affordability of housing is being questioned) alternative housing pops up in the news and general discussion.
I know that shipping containers as homes have been discussed on SS before, but I only recently heard of dome homes and wondered what the general consensus was.
Once you get over the fact you are basically living in a smurf/hobbit home, I can see that there would be a lot of benefits to dome homes. Construction costs would be cheaper, the material is not prone to historical housing problems like termites/rot, cheaper to heat/cool (materials act as insulation), environmentally friendly, the list goes on. It also seems like a relatively easy way to create high density housing without building up.
Some of the designs are incredible inside and work well with an open plan design. Have a look through some of the videos on the sites linked, they seem relatively easy to put the basic construction together, infact if you were handyman inclined you could probably do much of it yourself.
My worry would be that it might be difficult to get something like this approved through council as it probably wouldn't fit in with surrounding homes...Any thoughts on this? Considering the environmental benefits surely it would be public suicide (with environmental awareness at an all time high) for a council to outright deny an application for this sort of home simply on it's looks?
Has anyone here built or thought about using non-conventional materials or designs in their property adventures?
Links
Domes:
Dome Shells
Dome House
Article About Above Dome Houses
Yurts:
Alternative Buildings
Grey Water
Shipping Containers:
Out of the Box Developments
Realestate.com.au Shipping Containers Article
The Age Article
SMH Article
Other Alternatives:
Mixture of Designs
Styrofoam Panels - Regular House Designs