Housing Structures, Building Materials and Design Options
What type of structure do you want to live in? Have you considered why you live in the type of house that you live in? Here are some alternatives to consider as well as alternative building materials.
Geodesic Domes
Read about all different dome types at Dome Living Magazine.
Here are two independent directories that contain a lot of information:
Here are some that we have contacted personally:
- Natural Spaces Domes located in Minnesota
- Timberline Geodesic Domes
- Good Karma Domes
- Albata Geodesics
- American Ingenuity Domes
- Geodesic Domes, Australia
- Geodesic Domes and Homes located in Texas
- Pacific Domes
- Oregon Dome, Inc. located in Oregon
Keep up to date on Do Life Right's Desierto Cúpula in Southern Arizona. The house pad is cleared and ready for the foundation. Dome raising is estimated to be Spring 2007. If you are interested in helping, please fill out the contact form and we will e-mail you with specific information.
Here are a few stories of actual dome home builders:
Horton Dome
Monolithic and Other Domes
- Monolithic Dome Institute
- Domes International
- Starplate Sheds
- Dakota Domes
- Growing Spaces Dome Greenhouse Kits
- Solardome
Straw Bale Houses
Information coming soon
Manufactured and Modular Houses
Prefabricated houses are built inside of a factory and can be built to higher standards than many site built houses. They can be ordered to specifications.
Earth Bermed Houses
- Dirt Cheap Builder has information about many building styles including papercrete, solar information, and straw.
Yurts
Other Interesting Housing Structures
For fun, we could just all live in Tree Houses.
Building Materials:
In order to have a fully healthy livestyle, we need to be spending our time in healthy surroundings. When building new or remodeling, consider all of your green choices.
- Oikos: Green Building
- Concrete Bubble Deck
- More information coming soon
We also spent time looking to what other people are doing for the living situation around the world. Many people in the United States are living a life of luxury. After months of writing out all of our actual needs and wants, we discovered that we no longer dreamed of having a huge house. We no have no need to covet the 3000+ square foot houses that we had previously been led to believe were the true American Dream. We realize that we actually like each other and we want to be with each other. Why would we need such a big house? Other cultures around the world live in much smaller places than we do and they live with a feeling of abundancy. We wanted that feeling for ourselves.
The Not So Big House Collection
Sarah Susanka
Material World: A Global Family Portrait
Charles C. Mann,Paul Kennedy
If the World Were a Village
David J. Smith
Houses and Homes
Ann Morris,Ken Heyman
Design Options:
Round kitchens! Clever Kitchen has a very efficient kitchen design that could change the way our houses are built.
Energy Choices
Where will you get your energy? Solar and Wind are finally feasible options!There is a lot of interesting reading on the BackHome Magazine, Backwoods Solar Electric Systems and Mother Earth News sites.
Living off-grid is also becoming popular again. If this is a goal of yours, you might be interested in:
- News about Sustainable Healthy Living site
- A Whole Again Resource Guide
- Off Grid Sources
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- Home Power Magazine
- Alternative Energy Options: Utility Free
- Lehman's - Productsfor Simple, Self-sufficient Living
Common Wealth Solar Services is a one-stop solar shop with a lot of online information as well.
Have fun learning about solar energy with this cute car:
The Solar Car Book
Klutz Press
Other Power contains products and services for sale, including wind and solar.
The Solar Alliance is specific to Tucson, AZ.
There are many ways to control the environment of a house. Here are some interesting heating and cooling choices:
Hydronic Cooling
Healthy Heating
Radiant Floor Heating companies include:
Radiantec
Radiant Floor Company
Uponor
Other options include:
Reiker Fan and Where to Buy One
Air Floor (alternative to radiant floor heating)
Geothermal Options include:
WaterFurnace
Geothermal Exchange techniques at Deep Creek Lake, Maryland
How are you heating your water?
On demand water heaters are becoming more and more popular as the technology is perfected. These save energy, and thus, money, for the end user. Plus, they are smaller than a traditional water heater and never run out of hot water. Here are a couple of companies that have very good products:
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