Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Re: Domes

[Anne Jackson (a.jackson]

Jock, it seems I missed your message last month, so excuse the delay. I
visited an earthship near Los Angeles, on a tour sponsored by the Eco-Home
Network. www.ecohome.org. It had many excellent features, but the owners
lamented the frustration and high costs of dealing with the bureaucratic
regulations. One example--mandatory sprinkler system in a home that is made
steel and concrete. Still they hope that others will follow their example,
and have less trouble now that they have paved the path. Anne
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jock Coats" <jock.coats [at] oxfordlibdems.org.uk>
To: <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 4:00 PM
Subject: Re: [C-L]_Re: Domes


> Anne Jackson wrote:
>
> >The Geodesic Home at Rosewind looks truly elegant, and the comments about
> >such homes are cogent. I was thinking of the www.MonolithicDomeHomes
based
> >in Texas. They use a totally different technology. They have been used
for
> >the homeless in L.A. and the poor in India, as well as for very expensive
> >projects.  A small, one-bedroom place can be built for $45,000.
> >
> >Instead of handcrafting with wood, the dome is made of polystyrene,
sprayed
> >over a form which is blown up like a balloon. They are steel reinforced.
The
> >thickness, and the penetration into cracks and crevices make it very
energy
> >efficient. It resists fire and wind. Utility costs are about half and
fire
> >insurance is less, according to the promoters. Someday I would like to
see
> >one. Meanwhile, this weekend I will visit my first Earthship home.
> >
> >
> Oooh!  Where are you going to see the Earthship, you lucky thing?  Just
> the fact that we can be creative with so much trash in a way which then
> makes as little impact on the planet as possible and yet returns a
> wonderful living environment that anyone in a dedisgn and build
> developer estate house would dream of I love!
>
> We have only one example that I know of in England and that is a small
> resource centre going up near Brighton on the south coast - so not even
> a house.  I understand there are one or two other attempts in the
> Scottish islands, but I'd really love to get a scheme going with them
> just to prove the concept to people here.
>
> I'm not sure that I warm too much to the idea of foam and polystyrene.
>  It seems somehow less sustainable when earthships are using second hand
> rubber and petroleum products that would otherwise pollute.  But they do
> look interesting.
>
> The other thing I'd really like to see is a proper 'earth sheltered'
> house.  You know - kind of like a hobbit hole.
>
> Jock
>
>
>
> --
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> +  Jock Coats, Oxford Liberal Democrats, M3a Morrell Hall, OX3 0TU  +
> +       T:+44 1865 485019 M:+44 7769 695767 F:+44 845 1275714       +
> +   E(pref):jock.coats [at] oxfordlibdems.org.uk Cix:jockox3 [at] cix.co.uk   
> +
> +     W1:www.oxfordlibdems.org.uk W2:aldco.oxfordlibdems.org.uk     +
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>
>
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