Holes and caves are as old as mankind. Since we settled down and stopped being nomads, we went to live in structures above ground - no doubt because our hunter and angst instincts told our brains that we always have to have a line of sight and an eye on the horizon to see dangers coming.

Dig a pit in the ground, with a form resembling part of an egg. Put water-resistant, strong fabric against the earth which you hold pressed against it with simple, long earth-screws. Plaster the wall with some sort of flexible, water-resistant foam or film (rubbery or polyestery). Put a transparent or translucent lid on it (such domes exist [see link]), to complete your egg. Let in light that way. Build two translucent floors in the egg (with transparent concrete plates - see link), which you support by a few horizontal beams that are supported by the earth (no need for walls). For the lowest floor, you use daylight through fibre-optic lighting [see link].

The advantages are: 1. better thermoregulation of the house 2. cocooning atmosphere 3. no need to pump up water, you're close enough to it 4. no risk of earth-quakes making your house collapse on your head (because the walls are flexible) or tornados (the cone shape of your lid sucks itself onto the ground in case a tornado blows over it. 5. no need for strong walls, these are flexible and 'live' and breathe via the membrane

Could be quite an affordable and cute home.

See pic.
-- django, Aug 26 2006

The egg http://i3.photobuck...diesel/egghome1.jpg
Could be quite comfy [django, Aug 26 2006]

Mass produced rotomoulded dome homes MeinHaus_ae
MeinHaus - brilliant!! [django, Aug 26 2006]

Light transmitting concrete for the floors http://www.gizmag.co.uk/go/5093/
I have seen even lighter, more translucent plates [django, Aug 26 2006]

Lighting spaces with natural light through fibreoptic cables http://www.gizmag.co.uk/go/4145/
New lighting system transports sunlight to where it’s needed [django, Aug 26 2006]

Chinese Earth-Sheltered Dwellings http://www.class.ui...h499/nonwest/china/
I particularly like the "pit cave" style [wiml, Aug 28 2006]

Egg dome home digger, fixer, sprayer thing! Tool_20to_20make_20...0few_20hours_20time
Okay [django, Aug 28 2006]

from a design standpoint, i think its brilliant but there are a couple of glitches i think you should address before u get my bun:

what about ventillation? you got light in without windows but how about air? especially for toilets...

and what if municipal sewage lines are above you? you won't need to pump water but you might end up having to pump sewage. significantly nastier.
-- arvin, Aug 26 2006


I want one!
-- pigtails_and_ponies, Aug 27 2006


Consider the pressure up against the bottom of this fabric/foam structure when the water table is at ground level after a big rain. I think it will be pressure equal to a column of water the same height as the bottom of the egg is deep. Under these circumstances the soil will also be wet, and I do not think the earth screws will hold.

This might be more reasonable in a very arid climate.
-- bungston, Aug 27 2006


What [bungston] said. Hydrostatic pressure can be immense and relentless. If you get a hole in your plastic membrane it's going to be a bitch to fix.

I would also like to address the insulation issue. You have great insulation below the frost line but above it and including the transparent dome you might have a problem. You could plant trees on the north side (depending on you location) for wind protection and use the south during the winter for heating whatever thermal mass is inside the house but during the summer it's going to get pretty hot and during the long cold winter nights you'll be burning a lot of fuel (relative to the size of the house, of course).

But these are mere trifles to be dealt with later. What I really want to know is how you're going to hang pictures on the wall.
-- NotTheSharpestSpoon, Aug 27 2006


Waste water treatment plants generally keep tanks full of water even when they are out of service to keep them from floating out of the ground due to hydrostatic pressure. And they are constructed out of reinforced concrete, not plastic.

Part of the reason that we live above ground is that it is far less expensive to do so and the potential problems are reduced.
-- jhomrighaus, Aug 27 2006


I think we need to check if [django] is part mole, and part Weeble.

Or maybe he's actually Weebl, which would explain his need to build a house, especially an egg-shaped one!
-- Canuck, Aug 27 2006


//Holes and caves are as old as mankind//

Actually somewhat older, I think you'll find (pfthhhhh!)
-- squeak, Aug 28 2006


Peoples, please make sure to check out the machine I designed to build these errr... egg dome homes... in just a few hours time. [see link].
-- django, Aug 28 2006


Earth sheltered homes are not exactly new. See Chapter 1, Line 1 of "The Hobbit"
-- Galbinus_Caeli, Aug 28 2006


what happens when there is bedrock?
-- jhomrighaus, Aug 28 2006


Perhaps you could hybridize these dome homes with your airdropped rainforest homes, and drop the eggs out of planes for emergency shelters. Wait - if I recall you have that type of dwelling covered somewhere else...
-- bungston, Aug 28 2006


/This might be more reasonable in a very arid climate./

True, it might be good in the Sahel, where the ground is cool during the day, and retains heat during the night. Also no problemo qua water pressuring against the shell.

But indeed, I recall that there is something similar (prefabricated plaster shelter) out there - just add water to the shelter and it hardens to become a shell. That one's above ground though. On the other hand, it doesn't require any kind of machine to erect it, only water.
-- django, Aug 28 2006



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