"prost" wrote in message
news

[image: http://www.solardome.co.uk/images/29.jpg]
this £7000 from www.solardome.co.uk/28

[image: http://www.solardome.co.uk/images/ra...4b_range1.jpg]

US: http://www.pacificdomes.com/

These generally do not need planning permission.

I think they look impressive.


They don't meet earthquake standards or earth subsidence/movement
concerns in most places, as a result they aren't that popular with builders
or insurers. It's another fad in building design that when it first
came in everyone thought it was real cool, then when they started
spending money on putting the things up, a few years later on they
realized they wern't that great.

The strength of the dome is entirely dependent on the rigidity of
the base. For a large dome you need a large concrete slab, which
is either going to crack, or to prevent it from cracking you have
to put in expansion joints so that the cracking occurs on a controlled
boundary. In an earthquake the expansion faults or cracks in concrete can
serve as hinges and as soon as the base flexes, the dome will collapse.

Also, for large domes it's really difficult to replace glass panels
unless you scaffold from the inside, which of course defeats the
purpose of having a large area without supporting posts in it.

Ted