They look straight out of a scene from The Hobbit, but these eco-homes could be one of the solutions to the region’s housing affordability crisis.
What is believed to be the first council-approved dome home in the world is taking shape in the Sunshine Coast hinterland village of Flaxton.
Dome buildings have been around for centuries, often used as a sustainable option due to the fact they are self-supporting, do not require steel frames and are said to be energy efficient, disaster proof and cheap to construct.
Until now, however, similar structures have only been used for garden sheds or art studios.
You don’t need any building experience to build one either, just some space and council approval.
Always interested in sustainable housing, Cath and Liz Wild fell in love with structural domes made using a material known as aircrete.
Essentially, aircrete is an aerated mix of cement, water and dishwashing liquid. The lightweight cementitious material contains stable air cells that are uniformly distributed throughout the mixture, rather than traditional aggregate.
Cath and Liz’s 90-square-metre dome home is now five months into construction and could be a housing game-changer.
“We had been in touch with leading aircrete dome builders internationally and they said our home was a world first as far as gaining council approval, which is not easy,” Cath said. “It’s quite humbling really.
“It’s a 90-square metre home with two bedrooms, bathroom, laundry, study, kitchen, dining and lounge spaces.
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“It feels so much larger than standard square wall builds with roof heights between 3.3 and 4.6 metres high.”
The home will have four interconnecting domes, three at five metres in diameter and one at seven metres, and is costing around $13,000 to build, minus the fit out and windows.
“Windows and fit outs will take it up to about $35,000,” Cath says.
“It could be done much cheaper if you use recycled windows and doors.”
It seems this trend is beginning to emerge on the Sunshine Coast with more residents showing interest in Cath and Liz’s home looking at how to go down a similar path.
That’s where a pair from Conondale come in with their Art of Domes workshops.
Proving there really is “no place like dome”, Charlie Walshe and Megan Ricciardi are on a mission to help residents learn to build these affordable – and novel – dome homes on their own land.
Megan told Sunshine Coast News when she met Charlie, a chippy of more than 20 years, she had no building experience, and he had a dream to find an alternative way of building.
“Charlie took a two-day aircrete course and learned how to build domes,” she said.
“He built one for a friend to practice and adjusted some techniques. I was travelling around the country, and we met at a campground where Charlie convinced me to stay.
“Having no building experience at all, he taught me about aircrete and we built a second dome.
“We then decided to teach other people and that is how Art of Domes started.”
She said in recent years a swing in attitude to look toward more sustainable options, and a lack of traditional housing brought on by shortages over the pandemic had made homeowners seek alternative solutions.
“I think people are realising that there are alternative ways of building so we hope there is a trend in dome homes,” Megan said.
“We get a lot of interest from people wanting to start communities because they are seeing what’s happening with the housing situation and people can’t afford to rent or buy on their own.
“Aircrete domes are a great solution for the housing crisis because they are extremely affordable, really easy to work with, insulating, rot proof, mould proof, critter proof, and you can get really creative with the design.”
Megan said the cost of building a dome home of 10 square metres was about $2500 and that they were a variety of options to make a home suit a homeowner’s needs.
“You could build a three-dome home with one bedroom and a separate bathroom and living area for under $10,000.
“If you decide later that you need more space you could cut a hole in the wall and add another dome.”
Art of Domes hold regular four-day workshops to teach people everything they need to know to build a home on their own property.
“We learn how to make the blocks and build with them, render the walls, install windows and doors, make an arch form for the entrance, and all the other little details that go along with building.
“There is always a great group of like-minded people and since aircrete is so easy to work with we’ve had participants between 12 and 80 years old.
“We also travel and run workshops on other people’s properties around the country.
“It’s always amazing to see people come with no building skills and after four days they are ready to go home and start building.”
Art of Domes’ next work shopping is happening in Glass House Mountains from February 17 to 20.
For information visit artofdomes.com. To follow Cath and Liz’s progress find Aircrete Dome Elysian Falls on Facebook.
