Ultra Low Cost Housing in an Emerging Country

To really accomplish ultra low cost housing in an emerging country, much of the discussion has to be about conditions there, rather than the domes.

by David B. South

David B. South,
President of the Monolithic Dome Institute

What Needs To Be Considered:

I. Infrastructure

Is there a road? If there is not, how big is it going to be? Does it need bridges? Is it going to be dirt or paved? What is the drainage? What is the topography? What size are the lots? Unishells are 20' diameter domes requiring 20' lots. But to provide access, more space is needed and the domes need to be staggered. So assuming we use 25' lots that are 50' deep, we could place a lot of houses on a small piece of property.

II. Water

Is there water. If not, what is it going to take to get it there? How about piping? Size of piping? Number of homes? This is stuff that engineers have to work on all the time.

III. Sewer

If we bring water into a house, provisions must be made for taking sewage out. Not only do we have to pipe it out, we have to do something with it.

Both water and sewer need treatment plants, in most cases. Water needs to be treated to be clean and potable going into homes. Sewage needs to be treated so it does not create a problem leaving the homes.

IV. Electricity

The modern world requires electricity. If for nothing more than a light bulb and an outlet, these structures must have electricity to be truly habitable. Does this mean that we need to set up generating equipment? If not, where do we get power? At what voltages? What amperages? All of the infrastructure will cost more than the domes.

V. Other Considerations

The size of the project will dictate, dramatically, the scheduling and method of construction. A minimum sized project for ultra low cost housing would be 100 homes. But even it will be quite costly per unit, because of its size. A thousand houses would be more cost effective.

A crew would build the infrastructure. It would be followed by a crew that would build the foundations and floors; followed by a crew that would inflate the Airforms and apply the reinforcing steel; followed by a crew that would apply the concrete; followed by a crew that would do the doors, windows, and exterior coatings; followed by a crew that would finish the structures.

If five homes are started per day and if work proceeds without interruption, theoretically, we could build 1,500 homes in 300 days. If we allow one-third of the time for interruptions, a 1000-dome project, at three homes per day, will take about a year.

Since we expect to build one hundred homes using one Airform, the project would require ten Airforms.

Equipment needed for this project could be awesome or almost nothing. Here again, site situations dictate the answer. For instance, roads can be built by hand or with heavy equipment. The same goes for most of the infrastructure and the domes. The only absolutely required mechanical device needed is the inflator fan. An inflator fan for a simple EcoShell I is the same as that used on commercial vacuum cleaners -- almost nothing.

If labor is very cheap, I recommend we build the domes by hand. This would employ vastly more people and would accomplish three things. It gets them a home, teaches them how to build such structures and provides an opportunity to earn money for other necessities.

Materials needed to build an EcoShell I or a Unishell cost less that $1000, but to that you must add infrastructure costs which could easily be $2000 to $5000. To that we also need to add overhead, profit. This means that the finished Unishell, in place, with infrastructure will run anywhere from $3000 to $10,000 each. This is beyond the budget of those who are trying to serve, unless they can get a low-cost loan.

Therefore, it is essential that any plan have financing in place for the end buyer.

If there is an ideal place and if there is an ideal project and if wishes were fishes, we could suggest the following:

One thousand units moderately adjacent to some existing infrastructure. The cost of extending simple roads, simple water, simple sewage with sewage treatment, including land costs would run approximately $2000 per unit. We add $1000 per unit for the raw cost of the structure. To that, we add $1000 for inside finish. And then $3000 per unit for overhead, sales and profit. We are now at approximately $7000 per unit. A thousand units, therefore, would cost $7 million.

With the right conditions, I think the above is absolutely doable. The results would include trained personnel who could continue constructing and could train even more workers.

177 Dome Park Place - Italy, TX 76651
Tel (972)483-7423 - Fax (972)483-6662
| Press Room