Does any one have any experience of, or thoughts
about monolithic concrete dome construction, or
other novel construction methods?

10 responses total.

I'm always interested in such houses.  A lot of people aren't, simply because
they don't like the unknown or they're worried about resale value.

Domes are not convenient if you have rectangular furniture.  They seem to work
fine for nomads who own mostly rugs and mats (but still have rectangular
beds).  You can make them out of stones, mud, or mats over a framework. 
Concrete is a form of mud.  Rectangular windows don't fit quit right in a
dome, or doors.  

Depends on how tightly you pack the furniture in.  A dome will have less
surface area than a box, so you could gain efficiency even with a bit more
floor space wasted on curves.  I could see a cylinder with a dome roof, with
flat wall sections to fit windows.

Octagons have flat wall sections and seem to be more popular than domes.
I have seen some pretty strange floor plans for octagons, with the triangular
parts in bathrooms or closets.  Domes may have more volume for the surface
area, but they cannot be packed together so societies tend to switch to
straight walls when they build cities.  Pueblos still have round kivas.

The currnt building trends are for big houses on huge lots... so the shape
is only based on what will sell.  Oddly enough the trend is a brand-new huge
barn, with enough odd protrusions that it looks like a house that was added
onto a few times.

The kiva was for ceremonial purposes. Their dwellings were rectangular. 
Hogans, yurts, igloos and some African grass houses are built in the
round. Clearly the users of those don't have a problem with their
buildings being round. A large reason for these choices lie in the
properties of building materials and regional climates.

Re #2 & #6: Looking at pictures of some monolithic domes did
  put me in mind of yurts (although I might have more luck
  persuading Mrs. Ball to live in the former :-)

On my most recent trip to Charleston (IL.us) I noticed that
someone seems to be building a concrete geodesic dome North
of Pesotum. I may take a detour to get a closer look at that
next time.

    Wikipedia has a nice article about prefabs in the UK,
which explains why I used to see various types everywhere
there.  Hopefully today's "tiny homes" have less asbestos...
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefabs_in_the_United_Kingdom

I like the Boxabl concept but can't tell if it's just a scam

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