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Earthbag construction can be a wonderful way to build a small (or large) home. Earthbag domes are also incredibly simple to design and build. These cute little structures can be adorned with a living roof, or covered in mud or plaster. They are structurally sound, and when complete can blend into the landscape thereby minimizing the effects on the environment. They’re also inexpensive to build and might be an option for those folks to build on a limited budget. The earthbag dome structure below was built for Mother Earth News as an example of the construction technique back in 2009 for only $300. With a little ingenuity and creating thinking one can easily see how this type of structure could be scaled up to build a larger sized home. Read the original article below.
Low-Cost Multipurpose Earthbag Building: With this novel technique you can make an earthbag building to serve as a studio, garden shed, chicken coop, or root/storm cellar — no permit required! ~Mother Earth News
“Domes are the strongest form in nature and easily support enormous forces. We added about 20 truck loads of soil on the dome without it moving one bit. I’m confident another 100 truck loads could be put directly on top and it wouldn’t make any difference, because the dome is all in compression, and tamped earth (road base in our case) can support very high loads. So if you want to build underground, domes are a good way to go – that or roundhouses. Both gain their strength from the circle: forces (loads) are transferred directly to the ground. There are no components to fail as in post and beam or wood frame walls.”
Instructables - How to Build an Earthbag Dome by Owen Geiger
How To Build An Earthbag Dome Building
Kind of reminds you of a Hobbit house in the Shire.
so its 8 feet wide inside? no heat or air no water electric? not even a crapper? what is it for? i say its an attractive nuisance and should not be attempted . i support banning all suck structures from north America, period!
Antique,
you need to pull your head out of your butt and it is OK to VOICE your opinions but it is people like YOU WHO TRY TO PASS LAWS that limit other people on what they can and or cannot do, YOU do not have the right to limit people on what they wish to do as long as they are not hurting others, this is AMERICA and we can do what we want when we want and if you don’t like it then YOU need to move to another country and take the rest of the scumbags with you!
He must be a building contractor. (Part of the problem.)
I agree, completely useless unless it’s for a root cellar. Show me a 30 ft dia, 2 story earth bag underground home, then you can brag.
If you want to learn how to build a larger home in this style with all the amenities……do what the rest of us did……research the subject.
It is not our responsibility to hold your hand…nothing good in life comes easy or free. You must work for it.
There are many such large homes built this way. This small structure simplifies the building process. I think it’s very beautiful. This size would be perfect for a tool or garden shed.
That building technique has it’s drawbacks . Try using the rocky soil of the northeast without a backhoe and that project would be a back braking job. even if it could be done with a spade and pick it would be a year of weekends to complete . The only uses I could see range from a root cellar to a small very temporary shelter for protection from a hurricane or a twister but the door would have to be reinforced and the framing would have to include concrete and steel to withstand flying debris . But it could be used as a garden shed especially to warehouse fuel.