Thoght you guys would be interested to read this article.
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Didn't work. But I know a guy in NE Ohio who has a lot of doors that could be cut up into triangles if it's about geodesics. If it's about sprayed concrete, maybe not.
PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
Link didn't work for me either.>If it's about sprayed concrete, maybe not.:)The use of "dome" to describe things has become a pet peeve of mine. I practically never use that term anymore...eliminating it wherever I find it in my work be/c it makes an inaccurate connection be/t what I do and geodesics. Geodesics have much more in common with wood-framed houses than with my house. My house(s) have much more in common with ICF's than with any other construction method. Structurally a geo and a thin-shell concrete have practically nothing in common and when media accounts refer to a "dome" in the context of disaster resistance, real estate sales, etc, it likely as not will confuse people into thinking the wrong one.I need a good wordsmith to come up with a new term...
So I have a question.
What happens to the airform? Is it reusable? Does it stay on the concrete thingy?
How about "bunker"?
kidding, man, just kidding.
Your invite is hereby rescinded.Just kidding. <G>
Hi there!The air form either stays and is coated with some form of elastomeric coating, or is removed (and the foam coated), depending on the builder. My opinion is that each works if detailed properly.
You have my sympathy. "Thin shell" works for me, although it has nothing to do with your shapes. I'm sure you know that a lot of Candela's were very hard edged flat planes. So I figured it was "thin shell dome", which fortunately isn't something I have to try to sell.... LOL
Actually, on the alt architecture lists they're usually referred to as "Monolithics". Not that those folks approve of the concrete, far from it. Now, if you could talk Monolithic into changing their name, you could have monolithics, which actually sounds kinda nice. Guess you'd still need something to offer a shape suggestion though. Bubbles?
Geodesics, or "domes", have sure been the kiss of death here for resale. One (geodesic) here was actually razed in favor of a trailer, and it sure wasn't a "mobile home" in the nice sense.PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
Monolithic is a trade name, like Band-Aids. They are pretty aggressive in protecting their trade and service marks, which makes sense. They say, as in the article, that they invented this and that, but it all pre-existed by decades, which is why the patents are very, very, very narrow. Plus, if a builder uses an air form (which is really all they make) from another manuf, then it really isn't a Monolithic Dome (unless it's a high-end house, in which case they'll allow the confusion). Get the gist? :) It's an interesting little soap opera between the various industry participants. I feel like Rodney King, as in "can't we all just get along?"It'd be kinda like referring to a Lindal house instead of cedar timber frame. Or saying a house has TJI's instead of I joists. Gets confusing when it doesn't need to be.I don't know if the "best" moniker needs to be descriptive of the shape, structure, or whatever. Just needs to uniquely indicate this type, instead of the other stuff, be/c we've never seen a case where the comparison to something else dome-ish has been helpful.
hey cloud, was your house on one of the "unique houses" TV shows? i swear that i've seen it before.
Yes, numerous times. Most recently it was on HGTV's Offbeat America...they did a really nice job showing interesting angles and perspectives.
No triangles. Too much work. be a hex/pent panel
How come 4 floors anyhow? Roar!
be VaTom's handle is now 'SuperShed'
r u a feckless dastard?
How come 4 floors anyhow? Roar!
You figured it was you eh? Go ahead and laugh. Your turn will come.....
I got a little carried away. Not like I'm short of land or anything. Well, maybe good sense. The top 1/2 story actually got eliminated when I realized I didn't have the cojones to go up there and set rafters. So, only 4 floors. You've seen the copper and translucent panel pix. Kinda hard to find a spot that shows all floors.
Now I've gotta go continue siding the "thing"....
Pretty sure handle-changing is a thing of the past. Did Bite Me, or whatever Snort morphed into, ever get it figured out?PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
Pretty sure handle-changing is a thing of the past. Did Bite Me, or whatever Snort morphed into, ever get it figured out?
heh heh yep.
Bite me is now officially Bite me
r u a feckless dastard?
Here's a good site.
http://www.one-eleven.net/~domekits/constructionpics.htm
http://www.one-eleven.net/~domekits/domehomephotos.htm
Joe Carola
Edited 9/28/2005 7:46 am ET by Framer
Lets see if this works.
Here ya go: http://www.ebuild.com/guide/resources/product-news.asp?ID=195798In fact it IS the stuff I design--and NOT geodesics--and the article is fairly accurate except for some technical stuff about patents, etc....no significant part of the process is patented, or ever has been...y'all are free to build this way as much as you want to. But the stuff about disaster resistance and cost is consistent with my experience.Still, we need a name other than "dome", be/c most of what I do isn't even technically a dome...barrel vaults, amorphous shapes, etc. Any ideas?
Any ideas?cement thingy?
bobl Volo, non valeo
Baloney detecter
Beats the heck outta "dome", though, you know, you really should call it concrete thingy rather than cement thingy. Geez... :)
I was wondering who would be the 1st to mention concrete rather than cement. figured if i called ita thingy, might as well use cement
bobl Volo, non valeo
Baloney detecter
At first blush, I would tend to regard concrete dome owners as "bubble heads" and geodesic owners as "flat heads." :-)
While obviously different, both forms share some positive characteristics over traditional structures.
Sure, but the differences far outnumber the similarities, yet they are being defined by their most obvious similarity. It has been hurting with appraisals and comparables, from what lenders are telling me, which is a big reason to create some distance. Again, I'm a fan of practically any well-built house that meets its owners' needs. But I'd like to find a description for what I focus on that distinguishes it from other stuff and highlights its benefits rather than just a simplistic representation of its shape.I'll 'fess up to bubblehead-ness...and some days bobblehead-ness.
Edited 9/28/2005 11:32 am ET by CloudHidden
bobl-headedness?
uhhhh?
bobl Volo, non valeo
Baloney detecter
Really, a bobblehead doll of you would be redundant, huh?
Ooh, ooh, how about nipple? Thin shell nipple or concrete nipple?
Something to nibble on...PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
I saw a huge dome being built use the air mebrane system a couple years ago in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic. Pretty cool
For names......how about Spherical housing_?When in doubt, get a bigger hammer!
How about "Outside-the-Box" homes? Or "Non-Euclidean"?
Joe Bartok
Edited 9/28/2005 4:52 pm ET by JoeBartok
I guess we could call you "The man in the bubble" from a movie by a similar title(:-).
you mean all I needed was http:// to make the link work? criminy these putters are persnickety.
As for alternative names how abought
Bulbous
Curvaceous
Curvilinear
Rubenesque
To be totally serious, I'm wondering if they should be described via shape or structural composition or some other characteristic.Dome is a shape but implies nothing about the structure or benefits. Log cabin describes structure. PAHS implies benefit. ICF describes material and structure. etc...Good marketing--good branding/good positioning--usually focuses on benefits to the consumers. I'm really stumped on the branding of these. All I know is that the current monikers--dome, thin shell, etc--leaves a lot to be desired. The buildings outperform their branding!
Here's another Dome Home site:
http://www.cloudhidden.org/
Hey, Cloud, the enlarged pics aren't coming up. What's up with that?jt8
"Most married couples, even though they love each other very much in theory, tend to view each other in practice as large teeming flaw colonies, the result being that they get on each other's nerves and regularly erupt into vicious emotional shouting matches over such issues as toaster settings." -- Dave Barry
Here's another set of pix... http://photos.itsa.info/The full-sized pix were showing for me. It's straight .Mac stuff which is Windows also. Don't know why they wouldn't be showing for you, nor what to do about it at the moment. I'll ponder it...
Here is the message I'm getting. Are you not hosting the pics on your own site?
OK... did you just fix something? Now they're coming up. Maybe a link somewhere along the line was down.
On a side note, I always recommend folks try to get the ".com" address since most web users automatically put .com in whenever they type in an address. I noticed that the .com of your webname expires in May 2006, you should try to buy it out from under the current registrant.jt8
"If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don't be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning 'Good morning' at total strangers." -- Maya Angelou
Cloud,Since what you do comes in a variety of shapes, your name for it needs to convey what the shapes have in common, as well as the material you use, which is such a big part of the benefit package. As a generic term, how about "curved ferrocement" followed by a term that fits the specific application, like "palaces" or "homes."To go beyond that, you might want to do some branding of your own. It annoys me when a company takes a generic English word like "monolithic" and effectively removes it from the language by trademarking it. You would not need to do this."VoluptoVaults" springs to mind as a light-hearted example of creative branding that describes what you do in a way that provokes interest. Playing with Latin/Greek roots can generate some cool names that point to the essence in a unique way.BTW, I am finishing a hand-trowelled curved thin shell of ferrocement that will serve me as a shower enclosure. 1/2" emt for studs, 2.5# lath on both faces, and filled solid with wall mud. Very stout. I will Red Gard the inside face before setting stone so no rusting issues occur.Bill
View Image
Joe H
Edited 9/28/2005 11:00 pm ET by JoeH
Was that shot taken anywhere near Roswell, New Mexico, Joe?
Jim, missed this post long ago.
That is on Hwy 89 in Southern Utah. Been awhile, I think all the aliens were removed and dissected long ago.
No sign of the mother ship either.
Joe H
Couple more sites.http://www.monolithicdome.com/http://www.domehome.com/http://www.domes.com/http://www.naturalspacesdomes.com/http://www.aidomes.com/FAQ_Assy.HTMhttp://www.aidomes.com/buildingplansfaq2.htmhttp://www.aidomes.com/Pictures%20page.htmhttp://www.aidomes.com/kolb_pics.htmhttp://www.domesbykolb.com/galleries/index.htmlhttp://domebuilder.wecre8.com/Joe Carola
Edited 10/15/2005 9:42 pm ET by Framer
how 'bout "hippy hut"?<grin>...and just think of all the time I could have saved trying to get things straight...seriously, cool stuff, is there a good overview article that talks about these things?
http://itsa.info gives a bunch of infohttp://photos.itsa.info has a lot of pix