Why Emerging Nations Should Seriously Consider Geodesic Domes

Emerging nations are surely catching up with the rest of the world through their significant economic leaps. Their stellar economical performance notwithstanding, these nations are grappled with the housing problem as a result of their high population growth rates. Housing remains an expensive affair throughout the entire world. Owning a home is a privilege for the selected few who are able to afford the sky high mortgage rates. The inherent risks of emerging nations get reflected in these rates thus putting them out of reach of most people. This housing problem can be put to an end once and for all by geodesic domes.

About Geodesic Domes

The first geodesic dome was designed and developed by Walter Bauersfeld in the twenties to house his planetarium projector. Robert Buckminister Fuller (simply Bucky), who was enamored with the idea of improving the housing state on the planet, popularized geodesic domes through his visionary projects. He laid down the geometry and mathematics that underscored designing of geodesic domes.

Geodesic Domes As Homes

Although geodesic domes have been used for a number of purposes, they were designed to be used for housing purposes. The versatility of geodesic domes make them to be used as arenas, as indoor sporting grounds, as water reservoirs, as cinemas and as warehouses just to mention a few uses. Geodesic dome homes have a number of advantages over contemporary homes that make them especially relevant to emerging nations. These include affordability, energy efficiency, ease of assembly and resistance to disaster situations.

Affordability

Although the poverty levels in emerging nations are decreasing, the absolute number of people living below the poverty line is staggering. The poor people resort to living in shackles that are not ideal for human survival. Geodesic dome homes are very affordable to owing to the nature of their building materials, their need for less labor time and their low long term costs. Governments of emerging nations can therefore take serious steps aimed at encouraging adoption of geodesic dome homes by introducing tax incentives, subsidies and similar policies.

Energy Efficiency

Consumption of energy often results in extraordinarily high bills for people living in the emerging nations. Contemporary homes are not optimized to improve energy efficiency. They instead could be seen as mechanisms to protect high energy bills. Geodesic dome homes on the other hand are designed to be energy efficient. In fact, at the very minimum, they double the energy efficiency. Other geodesic domes like the underground ones built by Paul Isaacson could improve energy efficiency by 70% or even more. Poor citizens of emerging nations will be in a position to use energy without straining their already meager budgets.

Ease Of Assembly

One thing that puts off most prospective home owners in the emerging nations is the amount of time taken to put up home structures. This is not only a time consuming affair but also one mired in contingencies that could further extend the time for construction. Geodesic domes on the other hand are structures that can be easily assembled reducing the labor hours by half.

Resistance To Disaster Situations

Many people in the emerging nations live in deplorable conditions because of natural disasters such as storms, earthquakes and floods. These natural calamities often destroy their homes which cannot hold firm in the full force of such natural forces. Geodesic domes are resistant to the stress caused by natural calamities thanks to their aerodynamics and high performance materials.

Indeed many people in emerging nations suffer because of housing problems. It is the onus of governments and humanitarians to introduce positive ideas to them. Ideas such as geodesic domes.