News Archive
Is this the house of tomorrow?
Released on 24/09/2007
After seven years of painstaking research and development, construction-manager-turned-entrepreneur Chris Brown has unveiled DomeShells, a system for building affordable and sustainable homes that can withstand earthquakes and the effects of climate change.
Developed with structural engineers at Sydney’s Queensland University of Technology (QUT), and certified compliant with Australia’s building code, DomeShells was unveiled at the Australian Housing Industry Association (HIA) Home and Building Show in Brisbane last month.
Mr. Brown said the public’s reaction to the prototype was positive.
“We have 30 to 40 projects likely to commence within the next 12 to 18 months,” he said in an extensive interview with iCON, to appear in the Q4 issue next month. “Some of these projects are for multiple units such as motels, resorts and small housing developments, as well as many homes, cabins and all sorts of other applications.”
The houses are built by inflating a membrane to the shape of a dome and spraying two layers glass-fibre reinforced concrete (GRC) with a layer of polyurethane foam in between. Multiple domes are used to achieve the desired number of bedrooms and overall floor space.
The process is designed to be fast. Mr. Brown says a 150m2, 3-bedroom home would take about 1800 man hours from set out on a cleared site to three linked shells including slab, doors, windows, skylights and painting to Australian Building Codes.
The DomeShells business model relies on a licensed builders. There are provisional patent applications out on the technology, formulations and methods. The company will begin its first licensee builder training course in February 2008, in which DomeShells will train, certify and provide licenses to builders in Australia. For countries outside Australia Mr. Brown says the company will transfer all intellectual property to a master licensee.
He said he is now in the market for commercial partnerships. “It would be ideal for us to partner with an appropriate organisation that will substantially contribute to our commercialisation both in Australia and internationally.”
Mr. Brown believes his company is leading a trend toward new building systems that address the needs of climate change. He says an 8m-diameter DomeShell has been lab tested to 260kph wind speeds and 0.5g seismic loads.
“I believe we are entering a time of unprecedented climate change, irrespective of what may be causing it: droughts, floods, hurricanes and cyclones. Seismic events continue to devastate populated areas. The benefits of achieving high structural loadings with high energy ratings were apparent from the beginning.”
It has been a long road for Chris Brown, including personal and financial hardship. Whether demand for DomeShells is sufficient for the company’s growth, and whether it takes off beyond small niche markets remains to be seen, but he is optimistic. He predicts DomeShell communities all over the world, using new technology to achieve complete self-sufficiency.
“It has now been seven years and if I’d known it would take so long I may not have embarked on the project.
“DomeShells has received wide international interest for years but I have held back ‘coming out’ until I was confident we had achieved the performance specification goals we set and the protection of intellectual property. We have now attained those goals, endured the delays and commenced the commercialisation process.”
