Dome Facts

Domes are the most efficient structures known to man, they use less material, are lighter and stronger than any other type of building, bar none.

Domes use much less material than conventional buildings but are miles stronger.

To enclose the same volume you would need 30% more material and loads more structural metal/wood in a square building.

If you built any other structure using only the skin as support it would simply fall down!

Because domes have at least 30% less surface area than other shaped buildings it takes at least 30% less energy to heat or cool them. 

Yet the same size building with the same volume and the same thickness insulation takes at least 30% more energy to heat or cool just because it's not dome shaped.

Long thin buildings and buildings with extensions perform worst of all. 

Domes are naturally hurricane resistant. Tract style buildings generate huge amounts of turbulence when high winds pass over them, causing massive low-pressure which sucks the roof off.

 

High winds can pass smoothly over a dome because it has no corners and flat surfaces to cause turbulence high pressure air presses the dome down towards the ground.

Domes are not a new invention.  The Pantheon, one of the most impressive buildings in Rome, was built in A.D. 117-125 it's made from an early type of concrete.

Igloos may have been around for longer but it's impossible to tell as the inuit community was isolated from the rest of the world, and believed themselves the only people in the world until the beginning of the 19th century.

Domes only become super strong when they are fixed to the ground. 

Try this simple experiment:  Cut a ping pong ball in half to form a dome, you will notice that each half is floppy and distorts easily.  Now glue on half to a flat piece of cardboard and see how much stronger it becomes. 

 

Some of the largest buildings in the world are domes:

London's Millennium Dome and the Eden Domes were record breakers when they were built.  The Miyazaki Ocean Dome in Japan is known as the world's largest indoor water park (300m-100m-38m).  The Georgia Dome is the largest cable-supported domed stadium in the world, it covers 1.6 million square feed on seven levels.  The 290-foot high roof is composed of 130 Teflon-coated fiberglass panels - covering 8.6 acres.