[Domesteading 00277] Re: Fw: books

[RoConroy@aol.com]

In a message dated 3/23/2008 8:12:38 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
bewise at hypertech.net writes:

I have  been looking at dome houses for some time now and I want to learn 
more.   I am headed to Africa in the Peace Corps and I would like to be able to 
build  or educate about dome houses wile I'm there.  I am looking for the  
newest, most thorough book about dome houses and construction.  I am  looking for 
plans, different types of houses, how-to-build them and or any  
environmentally friendly additions to add to them.  When my wife and I  return I plan on 
building a dome house and would like to find out more about  the services your 
company offers.



Lucas,
     I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya in the mid  70's, designing and 
building water supply systems. You will find most of the  African homes of the 
countryside are either rounded or domed.  The problem  with conventional domes 
is that you will not find the materials available in the  African countryside 
to build American type conventional domes, and the termites  would be a 
problem if the domes weren't built to meticulous standards. 
     I am presently working on a design for Ethiopia,  which is now being 
used as the source of fresh food stuffs for the oil rich  neighboring Arabian 
peninsula.  The housing demand would be great enough in  Ethiopia to manufacture 
insect repellent EPS panels, and modified lightweight  ECC concrete products  
which could be used to coat the panels.  For  information on the design, go to 
_http://members.aol.com/mtdomes/MoldedPanelDome.html_ 
(http://members.aol.com/mtdomes/MoldedPanelDome.html)    The 500 s.f. dome modules can be built up 
into larger structures.  
    With oil at $110/barrel, the oil rich nations have  the money to invest 
in this type of thing, but they want to do it in a money  making, self renewing 
way, and they would prefer not spend little or any of  their money. 
     For when you return to the US, I would suggest  going the more 
conventional route, because the materials are all available in  the US for the 
conventional type of domes.  The EPS panel dome would work  here, but the basic mold 
cost for the dome panels would be around $60,000, which  only works when you 
are building a large number of domes. Build a 1000 domes,  and your cost is only 
$60/dome for the molds.
Bob



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