Waco Street Monolithic Dome Home

Exterior of the Waco Street Dome Home in Italy, Texas.

The Monolithic Dome home on Waco Street in Italy, Texas, is a 32-foot diameter “Oberon” dome home with an 800 square foot interior with one bedroom, one bathroom, kitchen, living room, utility, small den, and loft plus a two-car carport.

Monolithic

Waco Street Dome Home is a one-bedroom Monolithic Dome home in Italy, Texas. Originally constructed for a couple who laid tile for a living, the house features tiled floors and countertops. The 800 square foot (74.7 m²) house has one bedroom, one bathroom, a kitchen, a living room, utility room, small den, and a loft.

The dome is 32 feet (9.75 m) in diameter by 12 feet (3.66 m) tall on an integrated 12-inch (0.3 m) stem wall for an overall height of 13-feet (4 m). It was based on the original Oberon dome home built at the Monolithic Dome Research Park, and since then, all 32-foot diameter dome homes have been called an Oberon.

Outside is a two-car carport with an entrance through the kitchen. The main door opens between the kitchen and living room. The living room takes up a third of the home. A small vestibule leads from the living room to the bathroom, bedroom, and small utility room. A ladder in the living room leads to a small loft upstairs. Off the living room is also a small space for an office or den.

The first spray-in-place concrete fence built by Monolithic was the zig-zag-shaped concrete fence that divides the property from the neighbor. It was created by standing up plywood forms to create the shape, attaching rebar to the plywood, and spraying shotcrete in layers on the open side until the concrete was slightly over an inch thick. The zig-zag pattern adds depth to the fence and makes it incredibly strong.

This single-sided forming technique is a crucial technology used in constructing Orion-style domes, storage bin walls, and other concrete wall structures.

In 2000, the home was part of a documentary-like advertising campaign filmed by PricewaterhouseCoopers called “I want to change the world.” It featured nanotechnology, robotics, aeronautics, health, and the Monolithic Dome segments.

In 2017, the home was cleaned and coated with Sherwin Williams UniFlex Industrial Elastomeric Roof Coating.

Construction of the spray-in-place concrete fence.

The property is lined with a first-of-its-kind spray-in-place concrete fence. Plywood is formed into a zig-zag shape; steel rebar is attached to one side of the plywood, then shotcrete is sprayed in layers to create the concrete fence. The plywood forms are removed after the concrete is set.

Monolithic