Are dome homes the next big thing?

Dome Incorporated

Look at most any home in America and they all have at least one thing in common: Four walls.

There is, however, a growing sector of housing that bucks this most basic structural element -- the dome home.

The dome's shape and inherent structural integrity make it both stronger and more energy-efficient than a typical family home. Domes can withstand powerful winds and strong earthquakes. Concrete domes have been known to survive flying debris as big as cars and direct hits from bombs.

"They are practically indestructible," said Johnny Delirious, spokesman for Monolithic Dome Institute in Texas, a company that has been building the domes for nearly 50 years. "Anyone who wants one wants it for the protection first."

Concrete monolithic domes are the safest of the dome homes. Built out of concrete over an air form, these homes can look as simple as a bubble over the earth or as complex as a luxury mansion with a curved roof.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency rates them as having "near-absolute protection" from F5 tornadoes and Category 5 hurricanes. They have withstood wildfires in Arizona and California and survived direct hits from Hurricane Katrina and tornadoes in Oklahoma and Texas.

Geodesic domes, made by assembling triangular building materials, are similarly protective but with so many seams don't have the exact same strength as their cement counterparts. They are just as energy-efficient, offering owners savings of around 50 percent, said Blair Wolfram, general manager of Dome Incorporated in Minnesota, a company that builds domes.

"What attracted me to the geodesic dome is that it is simply the most energy-efficient home you can build," he said.

Wolfram, like Monolithic owner David South, was inspired by prolific architect Buckminster Fuller, who first popularized the geodesic dome in the 1940s and 1950s and inspired the most well-known geo-dome, the Spaceship Earth dome at Disney World. Advocates of Buckminster's idea went on to build their own dome homes before selling the concept to the public.

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Are dome homes the next big thing?