hee-hee! these are so cute!
i know, maybe not the most green options, but sooo cute!

whati the carbon footprint and the possible health hazards of this material?

styrofoam is a word for expanded polystyrene.

To me, dome homes have always said hippie commune or cult.

I think the green movement would be best off avoiding these things like the plague. There are plenty of ways to create energy efficient and beautiful buildings inexpensively and sustainably that don't involve making your home look like a bubble.

Looks like the perfect solution for extreme climates. I wonder if these can be burried or bermed for added thermal mass benefits? I guess I'll just have to research that.

"Since expanded polystyrene is made only from carbon and hydrogen.... ". Perhaps this could be coupled with a carbon seqestering manufacturing process.

I keep looking for the Hobbits. :-) The world is changing. New ideas will help us get to solutions that will work for everyone. In the meantime, keeping an open mind and positive attitude will get us there faster.

I keep looking for the Hobbits. :-) The world is changing. New ideas will help us get to solutions that will work for everyone. In the meantime, keeping an open mind and positive attitude will get us there faster.

I don't know that I'd want to live in that fugly foam home. The interior looks nice, though.

I've always loved circular housing, I think it flows well with nature... I like the "thermal and insulating properties" My question is, if this is styrofoam, which it sounds like it is, is this a good thing for our planet?

& where's the carbon come from? Oil or natural gas? & the hydrogen? As far as not producing any waste goes, I'd be surprised if there was a process that could produce their feed stock without creating waste products. It seems a little strange that they point out that their product doesn't cause deforestation. Not all timber products necessarily do either. If I were to build a new house I think I would be seeking out sustainably produced natural materials

Any idea how something like this would perform in a snowy climate?

I once lived in a house in which none of the four walls were parallel. We called it the trapezoid house. It was horrible. We thought we would go stir crazy. We had to leave after about a year, it got so bad.
I can only imagine what it would be like living in a house with round walls. First of all, there would be all sorts of acoustic anomalies that would freak a person out. (A person talking quietly to themselves across the room sounding as if they were right in your ear...etc)
Unless you were born and raised in a yurt in a nomadic culture, I suspect that most all humans throughout most all of human history preferred the four-walled home environment.
This round house strikes me as one of many faddish waves.
Buckminster Fuller tried to popularize his domes too, but they never 'took'. I suspect mankind prefers the rectangular solid, just as bees prefer the hexagonal solid.

Wow that looks BIG inside for such a small looking dome on the outside! In the article it mentioned assembling, I don't see how you can assemble it! The walls looks so...clean looking and they don't look like parts! Man I'd love to have one of these when I grow up in a backyard

I suppose the dome would make a good form for guncrere or grancrete. Otherwise, I think the fire insurance folks would not want to talk with you.

Expanded polystyrene IS styrofoam, for all wondering. It's very hazardous and I don't know why this product is being given plugs on treehugger. It's totally disappointing. And yes, dome homes are very cliche and won't be kept out of a landfill (simply because a neighborhood will get sick of looking at it and want it out before the 900 years styrofoam takes to decompose).

I stumbled upon this site when i tried to search for green restaurants the other day- www.gofoamfree.com - which i looked into, and is going to start allowing businesses that are taking green measures to join a local search directory. This styro-home company should go under their list of culprits.

Wikipedia says:"Expanded polystyrene is not easily recyclable because of its light weight and low scrap value. It is generally not accepted in curbside programs. Expanded polystyrene foam takes 900 years to decompose in the environment[citation needed] and has been documented to cause starvation in birds and other marine wildlife.[citation needed] According to the California Coastal Commission, it is a principal component of marine debris. Restricting the use of foamed polystyrene takeout food packaging is a priority of many solid waste environmentalist organizations, like Californians Against Waste.

The city of Berkeley, California was one of the first cities in the world to ban polystyrene food packaging (called Styrofoam in the media announcements). It was also banned in Portland, OR, and Suffolk County, NY in 1990. Now, over 20 US cities have banned polystyrene food packaging, including Oakland, CA on Jan 1st 2007. San Francisco introduced a ban on the packaging on June 1 2007:

"This is a long time coming. Polystyrene foam products rely on nonrenewable sources for production, are nearly indestructible and leave a legacy of pollution on our urban and natural environments. If McDonald's could see the light and phase out polystyrene foam more than a decade ago, it's about time San Francisco got with the program." Board of Supervisors President, Aaron Peskin"

I love round environs and domes, and always have been fascinated by them. I agree that they are unique, and perhaps too unique to use for a home you will live in everyday. The Pueblo Indians in NM built their homes into the sides of cliffs out of stone and adobe. Their common, everyday areas were all rectangular & square, but their holy areas were always round. It is an inspiring environment.

More domes for our public spaces, our churches and festivals! And the good zen asthetic can rest in a rectangular and peaceful home, made without the use of styrofoam. :)

I'm very intrigued by domes, and would love to live in one. The shape offers the ability to enclose the most floor space with the least amount of material... and since the dome limits the amount of surface area, compared to rectangular houses, it seems like you would save a lot of energy on heating/cooling. The single story design of these domes seems like they would add to sprawl, though. But you don't have to order a Japanese styrofoam dome; check out Monolithic Domes.

Very cool idea. Perhaps not the best material, but cool idea. Perhaps something like this could be done environmentally with Bamboo. Bamboo is PLENTIFUL, easy/fast to grow, and lightweight/strong.

I remember seeing dome houses like these being built in the late seventies in New Zealand, infact I wanted to build one but could not get the housing corp finance for one so built a standard timber framed house. There are plenty of these homes in NZ...land of tree huggers....andI am proud to be a tree hugger, now I work as an Architect using anything but timber...

how about making dome houses out of dirt

Monolithic domes are the way to go for longevity.

Dome houses are cool, but these ones are just scrap quality when compared to a real monolithic dome.

A monolithic dome is completely insulated with polyurethane foam, so internal heat cannot escape:
http://tinyurl.com/5hrsv2

Also, since they are made by adding an internal skin of rebar & concrete to the exterior insulating shell, they resist hurricanes, tornadoes, wild fires and even a direct hit from an air-to-ground missile:
http://tinyurl.com/5zv24z
http://tinyurl.com/5uxhj7
http://tinyurl.com/5b9azp

By the way, I'm not related in any way to the builder of these monolithic domes. I'm just an engineer who wants to build one as soon as I can for myself and forget about tornadoes destroying wooden homes all around.

CHECK OUT:
http://www.calearth.org/
For small, cheap, simple and natural dome houses.
and for history, the wallace Neff domes:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/concrete-dome-neff.php

Amazing how many close minded fashion queens there are even among the "tree hugger" community. Fashion is more important than function to them. If it's not square it's ugly. I've been in one. I'm building one. They're great! In addition to energy efficient, unlike wood they don't rot, don't burn, are hurricane & earthquake proof with virtually no maintenance.

I'm not sure I agree with this reasoning: "Since expanded polystyrene is made only from carbon and hydrogen, casting of expanded polystyrene is extremely clean."
Benzene, naphthene, propane, butane, ethane, methane, paraffin, and other hydrocarbons are also made from carbon and hydrogen. Is light, sweet crude then environmentally friendly by this standard?

I don't know about this company, but I have heard of another... Monolithic Domes (the Monolithic Dome Institute).

This here just sound like an over-sized science fair project a middle schooler thought of.

But the concept of the Monolithic Dome has be seriously intrigued. Especially since they are fire-proof, bullet-proof, highly resistant to floods and other natural disasters, capable of withstanding severe earthquakes and hurricane force winds and conditions, and of course, your best solution to anti-terrorism.

While the inside was severely damaged, (not sure how well it was built) a dome built in Iraq as a masque for Saddam Hussein in the early 90's withstood a direct attack by Americans when they dropped a 5000lb bomb later in the Iraq war right on the structure - the dome was still standing!

Not to mention what a minimal cost there must be on living expenses such as heating and electric bills. They are also easy to build, and cost no more than your average house on the real estate market.

I haven't heard much on the carbon footprint, ("go Green!", *sigh* - whatever), but I don't see how that would really be a big concern, since they are designed to stand for centuries, thus eliminating the need to build for masses and move every six months when you get bored.

Interested? Check into it. Research, (and Google), is your friend.

I don't know about this company, but I have heard of another... Monolithic Domes (the Monolithic Dome Institute).

This here just sound like an over-sized science fair project a middle schooler thought of.

But the concept of the Monolithic Dome has be seriously intrigued. Especially since they are fire-proof, bullet-proof, highly resistant to floods and other natural disasters, capable of withstanding severe earthquakes and hurricane force winds and conditions, and of course, your best solution to anti-terrorism.

While the inside was severely damaged, (not sure how well it was built) a dome built in Iraq as a masque for Saddam Hussein in the early 90's withstood a direct attack by Americans when they dropped a 5000lb bomb later in the Iraq war right on the structure - the dome was still standing!

Not to mention what a minimal cost there must be on living expenses such as heating and electric bills. They are also easy to build, and cost no more than your average house on the real estate market.

I haven't heard much on the carbon footprint, ("go Green!", *sigh* - whatever), but I don't see how that would really be a big concern, since they are designed to stand for centuries, thus eliminating the need to build for masses and move every six months when you get bored.

Interested? Check into it. Research, (and Google), is your friend.

Anyone favor to build this in the Philippines?
Or can you answer; if I still want a box-type house, what is the best way to keep cost down?

I love the idea of dome homes (geodesic or monolithic), but I agree with a previous poster about the materials of these particular domes. I don't see how using styrofoam can be "green." One of the best parts about dome homes (economically and environmentally) is that they use up to 33% less material than a conventional home with the same square footage. But I feel this advantage would be more than offset by the use of styrofoam; does the stuff ever break down?
I think for disaster prone areas dome homes can be wonderful. In fact, one company built a whole village of them in Indonesia after the village was devastated by an earthquake.
I think in extreme climates, dome homes also make sense as their R-values (insulation) are generally much higher than a conventional home's. Obviously there are other ways to reduce energy use in a home and make a home more "green," but I think dome homes make a great choice for many people. (With any luck I'll have my own dome home-no styrofoam- within 2 years)