There's nothing quite like a good dome home, but what about a home situated underneath a dome? That's what Ingrid and Benjamin Hjertefølger built for themselves on Norway's Sandhornøya island, a cob house in a kind of anti-snow globe. Constructed by Solardome Industries in about three weeks, the bubble kept the bad weather at bay while the Hjertefølgers hand-built their home from sand, clay, and straw. Taking inspiration from Sweden's Naturhus, which was made by the late eco-architect Bengt Warnes, they settled on the design for a number of reasons, chief of which is that living in a greenhouse allows them to grow produce in the arctic year-round.
The Hjertefølger's "little sustainable bubble" has five bedrooms and two bathrooms, as well as a basement built from lightweight bricks of extruded clay. The dome is about 50 feet in diameter, and is made up of 360 glass panels. For heat, the house has a log-burning stove, as well as a system of buried ventilation pipes leading down to the beach that bring fresh air in, and because of the temperature of the earth, manage a kind of cool in the summer, warm in the winter type deal.
"Every time the weather is bad I know why we did this," Ingrid told Inhabitat, allowing that "it is fascinating to see the rain flow in a large curve around us." Eventually, the Hjertefølgers plan on filling the area with even more hand-built cottages to accommodate yoga retreats and summer camps.
· Gorgeous Solar Geodesic Dome Crowns Cob House in the Arctic Circle [Inhabitat]
· All architectural craziness coverage [Curbed National]
· All dome home coverage [Curbed National]