Strawbale in the Interior

[jetgraphics]

EPS FOAM and Shotcrete home of the future.

Basically, it's an EPS foam dome, covered in reinforced cement.

[MissingAll4Seasons]

Hey Jet, those foamcrete igloos are pretty cool... a little more extreme "dome" than I was looking for, but still pretty cool. If they made ones that were a wider radius I might be tempted though LOL.

[jetgraphics]

Originally Posted by MissingAll4Seasons

Hey Jet, those foamcrete igloos are pretty cool... a little more extreme "dome" than I was looking for, but still pretty cool. If they made ones that were a wider radius I might be tempted though LOL.

I agree. The design is "too Japanese" (too cramped) for me.
But EPS foam core modules would make an excellent standard for high performance housing at modest cost.

I'd like to see some American foam company make the forms for a generic home - part quonset - part cube - part hemisphere - part pendentive - part catenary... oh my!

And perhaps a company can make prefab interior modules, too. Just deliver and connect - presto!
Factory built housing with superior performance.

Sigh.
Unfortunately, the status quo is fubar.

[msta999]

Well, I can't find what I was looking for, but I did find some good info on building homes in Alaska, has some good options for foundations.

Scroll down to foundations.

housing_manual

[MissingAll4Seasons]

Originally Posted by jetgraphics

I agree. The design is "too Japanese" (too cramped) for me.
But EPS foam core modules would make an excellent standard for high performance housing at modest cost.

I'd like to see some American foam company make the forms for a generic home - part quonset - part cube - part hemisphere - part pendentive - part catenary... oh my!

And perhaps a company can make prefab interior modules, too. Just deliver and connect - presto!
Factory built housing with superior performance.

Sigh.
Unfortunately, the status quo is fubar.

If I were living alone, I'm sure that I could get by with one of their domes (or two connected together. But it's not quite big enough for more than one person, full time, trying to be a self-sufficient farmstead. You just need more storage space than that LOL!

Our house design is a little bit more like a yurt - round perimeter, vertical walls with a wide conical roof. There are a few companies that make dome and yurt-style kit houses, but they are stick built and expensive. If a foam company made modules, that would be awesome and much more energy-efficient because structure and insulation are the same members.

I don't think it would actually be too difficult to design almost infinitely configurable modules for exterior and interior that snapped together pretty much anyway you wanted. Certain sizes or configurations you might need some additional reinforcement or structural skeleton, but the "Lego" concept would still probably work. A new model of efficient building is definitely called for in any case.

[MissingAll4Seasons]

Originally Posted by msta999

Well, I can't find what I was looking for, but I did find some good info on building homes in Alaska, has some good options for foundations.

Scroll down to foundations.

housing_manual

I love how they say to avoid building on permafrost, and then show the map with 90% of the state in continuous or discontinuous permafrost. LOL!

That new space frame looks pretty cool, you know, if I was building a rectilinear house and didn't mind using all that lumber & steel for a million cross braces.

So, I'm just wondering, after looking at their nifty diagrams, if you can do a "wood pad" but use concrete instead. I loathe pressure treated lumber, but I do want more of a floating pad rather than sinking piles several feet into the ground. I don't really want a basement or enclosed crawlspace on stem walls because I just have a feeling that will be inviting trouble. It makes more sense to me to build up on posts on a floating pad/pier, with a leveling screw on every pad just in case you get frost heave. It's that whole "build on undisturbed soil" thing... so why dig down and disturb your soil? That just seems counterintuitive to me