topic BYU Students Design and Build Dome Home in Home

BYU Students Design and Build Dome Home

Iwantcoffee — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 14:36:05 GMT

"BYU students have designed, engineered and built a truly one-of-a-kind, zero-energy, sustainable, transportable, affordable home — right on campus. Nicknamed the “Triple Dome Home” because it consists of three interconnected monolithic concrete domes, the two-bedroom, two-bathroom home is (temporarily) nestled in a plot of land behind BYU’s Snell Building.

The zero-energy, 850-square-foot house was built completely by students as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon. It is designed to reduce its carbon footprint, decrease water consumption and maintain a constant temperature through cold winters and hot summers almost effortlessly.

To top it off, the home is transportable and can be taken anywhere a crane can be placed. In fact, the home will be uprooted and moved to California in the fall to be sold.

“Our goal was to build a home entirely outside the traditional status quo,” said student Ally Atchley. “It’s clear that no home like this is readily available in the market today.” A few unique engineering approaches to the Triple Dome Home include using fiberglass instead of rebar as the primary material to reinforce the concrete structure; applying a PVC membrane to the entire exterior of the walls to create an insulating, water-proof envelope; and berming the home with soil, rocks and plants covering portions of the exterior walls.

The home is powered by 34 double-sided solar panels built into a carport and a pergola directly adjacent to the structure. Because of its concrete dome structure, the home is windproof, fireproof and resistant to extreme temperatures. It also has triple-paned windows for added energy efficiency. The project has stretched the skills, both physical and mental, of the more than 20 students involved in the design, engineering and construction."

BYU team who built the home.

There is a YouTube video of the home.

Channel is Brigham Young University.

Title of video is No Place Like Dome: BYU Students Design and Build Futuristic Home.

Info I posted is from the YouTube channel.

Re: BYU Students Design and Build Dome Home

cimeranrose — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 15:05:08 GMT

Thank you for posting this interesting article @Iwantcoffee . Brigham Young University is an outstanding university. I confess I'm a little biased because that's my alma mater, lol.

What a neat home though!

Re: BYU Students Design and Build Dome Home

spiderw — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 15:11:47 GMT

Wonderful! As a life long environmentalist I am always in favor of what is being done to protect our health and well being. I applaud these students for this energy saving project and the thought, time and effort put into it. The Dome Home may not be for everyone but it is good to know there are those people out there who give us options which are good for the environment. Uplifting post for me, thanks!!!!

Re: BYU Students Design and Build Dome Home

cindyNC — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 16:32:23 GMT

That is amazing! Thanks for posting!

Re: BYU Students Design and Build Dome Home

just bee — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 16:51:17 GMT

How cool is that?

Go Cougars!

Re: BYU Students Design and Build Dome Home

Oznell — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 17:00:11 GMT

@Iwantcoffee , Good ol' American ingenuity. What great kids!

Re: BYU Students Design and Build Dome Home

Desertdi — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 20:59:27 GMT

U.S. Geodesic Dome at Expo '67 World Fair, Montreal, Canada

Re: BYU Students Design and Build Dome Home

We rescue cats — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 13:24:27 GMT

WOW, @Iwantcoffee great insight and info!

Re: BYU Students Design and Build Dome Home

gardenman — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 13:58:15 GMT

"Transportable" is debatable. I mean, you can move anything if you want to, but it wouldn't be easy by any stretch. Huge structures have been moved, including the Newark International Airport Building (7,400 tons), but just because you can move something, doesn't mean it would be easy, or qualify as "transportable." You could move the Empire State Building if you wanted to, but I wouldn't call it "transportable."

I've been a fan of shipping container emergency housing for disasters. Outfit each shipping container with a small kitchen area, sleeping quarters, and whatnot. Maybe solar panels. Fill a ship with them and have them ready to go to any area that suffers catastrophic losses. (Hurricanes/cyclones, floods, tsunamis, fires, etc.) Either make some sort of all-terrain mover or use large helicopters to move them from the ship to the areas where they're needed. Some ships can hold up to 20,000 twenty-foot-long shipping containers. That could be a lot of emergency housing ready to deploy into an area within days. Once the emergency was over, recover them, re-equip them, and have them ready for the next issue. Each one could have water/food pre-stocked, and even some basic medical supplies.

Re: BYU Students Design and Build Dome Home

brandiwine — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 13:59:05 GMT

Wonder what the cost was? Great engineering.