The History of Dome Homes

Earliest Domes

• Historians do not know when the first domes were constructed. The very earliest dome was made of Mammoth bones and tusks, discovered by a Ukraine farmer in 1965. Bas-reliefs from Neo-Assyria had pictures of domed buildings. People constructed wooden domes in Eturia, an Italian peninsula. Domes appeared as huts in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and India. Originally, only very small buildings used domes. Many old civilizations used domed houses, such as igloos and yurts. Domes created strong shelters that required less weight and fewer resources, which made these structures easier to transport.

Romans

• The ancient Romans created the first very large dome, called the hemisphere, made using innovative masonry. They also used geometric framing to build geometric domes made from concrete. These domes were strong enough to last several centuries. The Romans used domes for villas and palaces. Romans originally used the domes for their public baths before people started using them more for their homes. Domes became more common during the fall the Roman Empire, as resources became less available, so people used domes to construct homes.

Byzantines

• The Byzantines discovered how to raise domes on piers. Originally, people had to build domed homes on cube bases. The use of piers, however, allowed Byzantine architects to put domes on four pendentives, which are triangular parts of a surface that is otherwise spherical. Domes in Byzantine originally served as a single roof under which the entire building was housed. However, over time, domes became more common as separate functional spaces. Domes were highly popular in Islamic architecture and spread from there to Russia. The Russians created pointed and onion domes and created roofs that looked almost like domes.

1900s

• While people have used domes for thousands of years, they became particularly popular in the 1900s when many homeowners discovered they were very resistant to weather damage. They are resistant to the weight of snowfall and their shape causes snow to fall off the edges. They have become even more popular in the new millennium due to their energy efficiency, which causes them to require less fuel, thereby reducing carbon emissions.

Modern Domes

• Most modern domed homes were inspired by the work of Walter Bauersfeld, who created a dome to project constellations on the inner surface, creating a planetarium. Domes enclose the most volume with the least surface area. They are the safest and strongest buildings and they conserve heat the most, reducing energy costs.