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Illinois' connection to disaster-proof dome homes
Axios ^ | 8/5/2023 | Sami Sparber

Posted on 08/06/2023 12:40:54 PM PDT by Right Wing Vegan

More people are talking about dome homes and disaster-proof designs as a solution to climate threats.

Why it matters: Experts say increasing extreme weather could give mass-market appeal to dome structures, which are relatively cheap to build and resilient against hurricane-force winds, Axios' Cuneyt Dil writes.

What they're saying: Natural Spaces Domes, a Minnesota-based company with customers across the country, has seen demand surge in recent years. Owner Dennis Odin Johnson tells Axios he's doubled his staff and expects to sell around 40 domes this year, up from 20 last year.

"Our clients are looking for something different, and they're attuned to climate change," Johnson says.

Zoom in: The shape certainly stands out in Somonauk, about an hour from Chicago, where owner Bill McVay said he recently listed his 4,000-square-foot dome for $475,000.

"The wind just goes around it," McVay tells Axios, referring to the property he and his partner, a late radio psychic, had built in 2002.

They wanted to "stay off the grid as much as possible," and found the home's energy efficiency and then-secluded location especially appealing.

The big picture: With fewer flat walls and its round shape, domes can weather severe winds and heavier snowfall while using less heating and cooling energy than a conventional house, Johnson says.

Also, the entire exterior can be built with fire-resistant material.

The intrigue: The geodesic dome structure was popularized by famed 20th-century inventor R. Buckminster Fuller, who lived in a Carbondale dome while working as a professor at Southern Illinois University.

By the numbers: A completed dome is generally 5-to-15% less expensive to build, requiring 60% less lumber than a standard house of the same size, according to Johnson.

For an average-size dome, completed building costs range from $350,000 to $450,000 in rural areas, with costs up to 50% higher in cities and suburbs, he says.

Details: Other perks include low-maintenance living. "There are no gutters to clog or surfaces to repaint," reads an advertisement for the home McVay got from Domespace, a Canadian company that once viewed its fleet of spinning domes as "the homes of the future."

"It is virtually impossible for the roof to leak, as it has no valleys and ridges," the flyer reads.

Roughly 2% of people in Illinois say they were displaced in the last year because of a natural disaster, per the latest U.S. Census Bureau data.

Nationwide, the average is 1.6%.

Louisiana, Oklahoma and Florida saw the highest share of disaster-related displacement among U.S. states, the data shows.

What's happening: The threat of climate change-related disasters is a big factor driving up consumer costs and putting insurers out of business in parts of California, Florida, Louisiana and elsewhere, Axios' Andrew Freedman and Nathan Bomey report.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: buckyballs; domehome; geodysicdomes
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Better get that climate change proof housing Lolz
1 posted on 08/06/2023 12:40:54 PM PDT by Right Wing Vegan
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To: Right Wing Vegan

Is it just me, or does that thing look like a...erm, um...certain species of bird...?


2 posted on 08/06/2023 12:42:21 PM PDT by mewzilla (We will never restore the republic if we don't first secure the ballot box.)
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To: Right Wing Vegan

“Our clients are looking for something different, and they’re attuned to climate change,”

Going to gouge the suckers?


3 posted on 08/06/2023 12:43:14 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: mewzilla

Those travel in pairs.


4 posted on 08/06/2023 12:43:58 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: Right Wing Vegan

[... resilient against hurricane-force winds,..]

How many hurricanes does Illinois get?


5 posted on 08/06/2023 12:43:59 PM PDT by Farmerbob
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To: Right Wing Vegan

Buckminster Fuller houses.


6 posted on 08/06/2023 12:45:15 PM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: BenLurkin

Only if they’re...ha hah...shacking up.


7 posted on 08/06/2023 12:46:28 PM PDT by mewzilla (We will never restore the republic if we don't first secure the ballot box.)
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To: Right Wing Vegan

They should be painted beige.


8 posted on 08/06/2023 12:47:37 PM PDT by servo1969
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To: Right Wing Vegan

Comes with its own transgender approved bathroom and the sign out front saying, ‘cult parking only’ is preinstalled.


9 posted on 08/06/2023 12:47:57 PM PDT by Track9 (You are far too inquisitive not to be seduced…)
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To: Ann Archy

I’d prefer a Levittown house myself.


10 posted on 08/06/2023 12:48:04 PM PDT by mewzilla (We will never restore the republic if we don't first secure the ballot box.)
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To: BenLurkin

https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/hurricane-ian-florida-house/

Hurricane Ian Destroys Iconic Florida (dome) House Meant To Survive Hurricanes


11 posted on 08/06/2023 12:48:58 PM PDT by Farmerbob
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To: Right Wing Vegan

Wow, 40 whole homes.

That’s about... oh.... 5% of my last subdivision.


12 posted on 08/06/2023 12:50:47 PM PDT by PittsburghAfterDark (There is no one more racist than a white liberal.)
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To: Right Wing Vegan

Cuneyt Dil, Samie Sparber. Where do they find these people?


13 posted on 08/06/2023 12:51:25 PM PDT by Fungi
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To: All
img
14 posted on 08/06/2023 12:54:59 PM PDT by Right Wing Vegan (Conservatism's last hope, last recourse, in fact last expedient, against the libertarian hordes)
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To: Right Wing Vegan

More climate cult idiocy.


15 posted on 08/06/2023 12:55:35 PM PDT by beethovenfan (The REAL Great Reset will be when Jesus returns. )
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To: Right Wing Vegan

A lot of building material is wasted building these due to the shapes the panels have to be cut into. Same with Geodesic homes.


16 posted on 08/06/2023 12:56:51 PM PDT by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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To: Right Wing Vegan

On Guam our house was typhoon, Earthquake, and Tsunami proof. I felt really safe in side. Of course, the down side was it looked like a machine gun bunker.


17 posted on 08/06/2023 1:00:28 PM PDT by Fai Mao (Starve the beast and steal its food!)
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To: Right Wing Vegan

I belive they are also earthquake resistant.


18 posted on 08/06/2023 1:02:50 PM PDT by sauropod (I will stand for truth even if I stand alone.)
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To: Farmerbob

Sort of like Climate Change Conspiracy Hoax killing all of the Penguins at the North Pole ... those people will believe anything.


19 posted on 08/06/2023 1:04:54 PM PDT by RetiredTexasVet (Biden not only suffers fools and criminals, he appoints them to positions of responsibility. )
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To: Right Wing Vegan

20 posted on 08/06/2023 1:05:29 PM PDT by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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