Monolithic Dome News &amp; Stories

Canadian artist creates a Spanish courtyard inside her Monolithic Dome home

Exterior of the Yorkton Monolithic Dome Home in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Posted 4 Nov 2022

CTV News recently featured a Monolithic Dome home in Saskatchewan, Canada. Tonia Vermette constructed the home 18 years ago, and it’s a wonderful place to live, but as an artist, she never seemed to be finished with the house. Over the years, she’s painted murals, vines, and textures on the walls, turning the home into a living artwork. … read more

People came prepared for the Arcadia Dome Home tour in 2022

Posted 18 Oct 2022 By Dave South

Thirty people toured our house — Arcadia Dome Home — during the annual dome tour on October 15, 2022. Most visitors came from Utah or southern Idaho, but some came from as far away as Colorado. They didn’t come empty-handed. They had ideas, sketches and questions about building their own dome home. So. Many. Questions. … read more

Prepare for real-world emergencies — not doomsday

Aerial view of "Bruco: The Texas Italian Caterpillar."

Posted 8 Aug 2022 By Dave South

When the Dallas Observer wrote about the Monolithic Dome Research Park, they connected the domes to prepping for doomsday. That misses the point. We are not preparing for the end times; we are preparing for the end … of a good book, curled up on the couch, peacefully reading while a storm rages outside. … read more

Throwback: Our Monolithic Dome home on a hill

Posted 8 Aug 2022

While writing about preparing for real-world emergencies I realized there is virtually nothing about our home, Arcadia, on this website. We built the home six years ago and posted several great stories on monolithic.org with pictures of its design, construction, and completion. It’s time to migrate and update the articles. … read more

Learn to build a dome at the Fall 2022 Monolithic Dome Builders Workshop

Students learning to apply polyurethane foam.

Posted 14 Jul 2022 By Dave South

Have you ever wanted to build a Monolithic Dome? To get your hands dirty applying foam, hanging steel, and spraying shotcrete? Want to learn from dome builders with decades of experience? Now’s your chance. Come to the Fall 2022 Monolithic Dome Builders Workshop this September and build a genuine Monolithic Dome. … read more

New website is a homecoming for Monolithic Constructors, Inc.

Screenshot of the new monolithic.com website.

Posted 13 Jul 2022

Monolithic Constructors, Inc. — or just, Monolithic — has a new website at monolithic.com. Well, it’s not entirely new. It’s more like a homecoming. … read more

Monolithic Dome home at Lake Texoma for sale [Sold]

Aerial view of the dome home among the trees.

Posted 12 Jul 2022

A Monolithic Dome home at Lake Texoma near the Texas/Oklahoma border is for sale. Situated on 3.65 acres, the house is surrounded by trees. It has three bedrooms, two and a half baths, and an airy, open floor plan. … read more

Marjorie South and the first Monolithic Dome Home

Posted 17 Jun 2022 By Melinda South

David, Barry, and Randy South built the first Monolithic Dome home for their mother, Marjorie South, my grandmother. Instead of calling her Grandma or Granny, she had us call her “Marj.” … read more

Honoring sunflower yellow and sky blue

A yellow and blue dome shows our emblem of support for Ukraine.

Posted 25 Apr 2022 By Dave South

The colors of the Ukrainian flag — sunflower yellow and sky blue — are everywhere. The colors grace magazines, landmarks, clothing, flowers, and even cosmonauts. We are adding our own emblem of support with a Monolithic Dome twist — and a plea. … read more

Why and how Rocketship is building a Monolithic Dome gym and cafeteria

Rendering of Monolithic Dome gym and cafeteria.

Posted 30 Mar 2022 By Dave South

Rocketship Public Schools is constructing an early-elementary charter school in Fort Worth, Texas. The new two-story school building will feature an attached Monolithic Dome multipurpose gymnasium, cafeteria, and storm shelter. The concrete dome shell is complete and while we wait for the August 2022 opening, we can discuss two reasons this particular dome is unique — why they built it and the way it’s made. … read more

On a hill, among the rocks and trees, sits a splendid Monolithic Dome home — for sale

Posted 28 Jan 2022 By Dave South

Beverly and Kenneth Garcia are selling their Monolithic Dome home, the wonderfully named Sweet Dome Alabama. This amazing house is built on a hillside — 140-feet above the valley floor — on 45 acres surrounded by a forest near New Hope, Alabama. The combination of woodsy interior and tri-dome shape make this home both futuristic and rustic. … read more

Beautiful ‘Forgotten Coast’ beach house for sale

The caterpillar shaped design of Golden Eye dome home.

Posted 24 Jan 2022 By Dave South

Margaret Clayton is selling her Monolithic Dome home, Golden Eye. Set on Beacon Hill near Mexico Beach, Florida, the house is caterpillar shaped to fit the narrow lot. Traffic in front of the house is light even though it is only one street back from the busy beach road. It’s also an easy walk to two public access paths to the beach. … read more

Photo tour of Hawaiian dome home

The house with an open ground floor and living space above.

Posted 20 Jan 2022 By Dave South

Back in 2020, Jo King listed her Hawaiian home for sale. Needless to say, selling a home during a pandemic proved more than a little challenging. Instead, she pulled it from the market. Now she thinks it’s time to try again. Her Monolithic Dome home is in one of the most beautiful settings we have ever seen — on the island of Kauai. … read more

Hard math, made easy, when calculating a horizontal ellipsoid

Orthographic sketch of a horizontal ellipsoid dome.

Posted 7 Jan 2022 By Dave South

What are the areas and volume of a horizontal ellipsoid dome? There isn’t an easy answer. Spherical domes have well-defined formulas. Vertical ellipsoids are symmetrical. But tip an elliptical dome on its side, and measuring it gets a whole lot harder. … read more

Spencer schools dedicates new gym and arts center in Wisconsin

Light snow on top of the Monolithic Dome gymnasium and arts center in Spencer, Wisconsin.

Posted 7 Dec 2021 By Dave South

The small town of Spencer, Wisconsin, dedicated a new Monolithic Dome gym and arts facility this past weekend. The dome was part of a $5.9 million upgrade to the high school with FEMA providing $2.9 million as a grant to construct the dome as a shelter-in-place facility during severe weather. … read more

Throwback: Why Avalon chose a Monolithic Dome gym

Aerial view of the Avalon Multipurpose Center.

Posted 29 Nov 2021 By Dave South

Twenty years ago, the school board in Avalon, Texas, broke ground on a new Monolithic Dome gymnasium. It would be more than just a place for playing ball, it became a classroom, concert hall, community center, and — when necessary — a storm shelter. No wonder it’s called the Avalon Multipurpose Center. … read more

Throwback: The world’s oldest monolithic dome — the Pantheon

The entrance to the Pantheon in Rome, Italy.

Posted 28 Jul 2021 By Dave South

The Pantheon is arguably the first monolithic dome. Not in the sense of the modern, insulated structure, but as the original one-piece, monolithic, concrete dome — the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world. No other significant structure of antiquity has survived as well preserved nor with the roof intact. … read more

Central City to build Nebraska's first Monolithic Dome gymnasium

Posted 15 Jul 2021 By Dave South

Central City Public Schools is constructing the first Monolithic Dome gymnasium in Nebraska. When the dome is opened in August 2020, it will seat 2,500 spectators and shelter over 3,000 people during severe weather. The facility is years in the making and it started with a simple internet search. … read more

Throwback: Houston area church is a dome of many firsts

Flying over the job site reveals the scope of work.

Posted 1 Jul 2021 By Dave South

Today’s throwback story is from 1984 with a dome of firsts — the Maranatha Church — the first Monolithic Dome over 200-feet diameter, the first dome proving energy savings enough to pay for the building, and the first high capacity auditorium with seating for over 4,000. … read more

The South’s say goodbye to the South Sawmill Lodge

Aerial view of South Sawmill Lodge in Island Park, Idaho.

Posted 16 Jun 2021 By Dave South

It’s time to say goodbye to the South Sawmill Lodge. Randy South’s family of South Industries started the 90-foot diameter dome in 2009 on the old family homestead in Island Park, Idaho. Over the next four years, the family squeezed in time to finish the dome which became a lodge and reunion center rented out to dozens of families over the years. The lodge sold this spring. … read more

The easy way to calculate a dry bulk storage dome

Sketch of the medium dome design template.

Posted 15 Jun 2021 By Dave South

How big is a Monolithic Dome that stores 10,000 tons of ammonium nitrate? Or 750,000 bushels of corn? Or 34,000 metric tonnes of gypsum? These are straightforward questions without quick answers — until now. … read more

Throwback: Breckon Sports Center at Park University’s underground school

Posted 11 Jun 2021 By Dave South

Today’s throwback is the story of an innovative school with an equally innovative campus — the largest underground educational campus in the world. When the school needed a new gymnasium they sought a solution as innovative as building underground — the Monolithic Dome. … read more

The dome builder workshops are back!

Monolithic Dome Builders Workshop Alumni.

Posted 3 Jun 2021 By Dave South

It’s back! After a year and a half hiatus, the Monolithic Dome Builders Workshop resumes again in September 2021. Coronavirus restrictions are lifting. Travel is returning. We can finally gather to teach, discuss, and build another Monolithic Dome. … read more

A stunning tour of the red rock Chavez Ranch Road dome home [SOLD]

Posted 20 Apr 2021 By Dave South

Stunning is the only word for it. It is a massive, red-rock coated Monolithic Dome nestled among the red landscape of Sedona, Arizona. The house contains 10 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, a fitness room, a theater, a beautiful kitchen, and so much more. … read more

Over the edge with vertical ellipsoids

Sketch of concepts used in the vertical ellipsoid dome calculator

Posted 18 Mar 2021 By Dave South

Inflatable shapes are the basic components of Monolithic Dome design. If it inflates, it can be constructed … probably. There are two primary shapes that dominate dome design — the sphere and half-ellipsoid. However, these are not the whole design palette. Sometimes we need to go beyond the basics. or in this case, beyond half of the ellipsoid. … read more

Keeping up with the Domeses