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Design Blog

Monolithic welcomes and encourages the ideas of architects and designers. We have found those design ideas, for both privately and publicly owned Monolithic Domes, as varied as the professionals who authored them. This blog presents such innovative thinking, as well as design-related articles of general interest.

 

Curved Dome Walls: Easy and Fun to Decorate

Image: The indoor courtyard entry at the Atalaya ...

Monolithic Dome walls are not only good for our environment, safe from natural disasters and cost effective, they’re easy and fun to decorate. Yes, curved walls are finally coming into their own. What decorators used to puzzle over and dread now has them cheering and praising. (Continued…)

A Green Roof

Image: We covered an EcoShell garage with a ...

Check out nature’s way of coating a dome by scrolling through the pictures. (Click the top image and scroll thru the images and captions.)  This unique way provides protection as well as beauty to the outside of your dome. (Continued…)

An old fashioned approach to dome layout

Image: 3-D Model — After brainstorming their floorplan, ...

Chris Ecker, a Monolithic Dome owner and designer, says, “There are numerous ways you could go about designing your dream dome, whatever the intended use will be. Based on our experience, here are our suggestions.” (Continued…)

Up and Down in the Round

Image: Yuma Dome in Yuma, Arizona — This ...

Can a Monolithic Dome home have a loft? A stairway? An elevator? A basement? My answer is an emphatic yes to each, followed by an equally emphatic reservation: Carefully analyze your need and/or desire for any of these features and consider the alternatives. (Continued…)

Dome Homes Featured on Green Living Blog

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These days news travels faster than ever with social media sites like Twitter and Facebook adding to the viral nature of the Internet. So it’s no surprise that Monolithic Domes are making news on blogs and other Internet sites dedicated to green housing. (Continued…)

How do you like your pizza?

Image: A Metaphor — A round pizza in ...

Consider the ubiquitous pizza. How do you like yours? With extra pepperoni and mushrooms? With peppers and onions? With one topping or the works? Picked up piping hot from the pizza shop? Or from the grocer’s freezer and baked in your oven? Maybe you’re the adventurous soul who makes their own dough and cooks their own sauce. Do you value convenience or quality? The next time that pizza is on your dinner menu, what type will it be? (Continued…)

What It Costs, Part 2

Image: Choices — A curved-top front door may ...

A cost index won’t tell you what your house will cost, but it does show you opportunities for upgrades and downgrades, and it does show trends. (Continued…)

What It Costs, Part 1

Image: Build site — Flat, open land with ...

Estimating the cost of a house is tricky because houses have so many parts. Industry averages aren’t a substitute for a specific estimate for a specific plan, but they help to show trends and tendencies. (Continued…)

The Current State of Solar

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I’ve discussed solar electric with numerous clients over the years, so I figured it would be instructive to go through the process myself. Most of those clients considered solar in the context of living off-grid, totally separating themselves from the power company. In almost all cases it was prohibitively expensive because of the size of the solar arrays and storage needed to fulfill 100% of power needs. (Continued…)