Intentional Eco-Village Communities: Are Geodomes A Sustainable Answer to Homelessness?

Placeholder image for Foundation for Intentional Community website.
Moumita Chakraborty
  • September 29, 2017
  • Sustainability
Family standing outside a geodome eco-village community.

Note: We acknowledge that homelessness is a complex sociopolitical and community issue, and aim to be respectful of all the various causes and experiences of homelessness. We also believe that community-based solutions are some of the best options because they tend to be more inclusive of local circumstances, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. We welcome different perspectives that add to respectful, constructive discussion.

With homelessness at an all-time high, the voice of empowered U.S. taxpayers has the potential of favorably impacting the homeless crisis. In the spirit of a place, not just a space, portable Geodome Eco-village Communities summon us to help put an end to the stigma and shame associated with homelessness and poverty by providing common-sense solutions that work… a win-win for many economically stressed communities.

With portable geodome shelters that can be easily deployed, constructed and later relocated as needed, enlisting public support for U.S. tax-payer funded vacant city lots and unused federal lands is paramount. Imagine building an entire Geodome Eco-village Community in just days, putting an end to forced living in suboptimal conditions on public streets!

“Geodesic Domes are the Future Now” — ‘Extant’ TV series: https://youtu.be/EOPZMyEYi5I

Why Geodome Eco-Villages

Rapidly deployable portable geodome eco-shelters offer hope for displaced persons to recreate themselves by removing them from the squalor of living in city streets and public spaces! At the heart of this movement to find solutions, lies a respect for the ecology of the homeless community as being of potential value to society.

Portable Geodome Eco-Village Communities further the cause of empowering the homeless, in providing opportunities to create guild communities that produce agricultural products, textiles or other important products, where our displaced persons will have a place, not just a space to begin a new life by contributing their unique gifts and talents. Living in a thriving community can spark a spirit of contributionism that becomes an asset within the collective framework of society.

Most people do not choose homelessness… it just happens because they lose a job or because of systemic inequalities that fail many. The difficult downward cycle begins once a person has lost a job, because finding employment without a home is a stigma that society judges harshly. The loss of a job and a home, without recourse to adequate public supports, often perpetuates the loss of self-esteem and leads to other serious physical, emotional and mental health issues that have long-term economic and social consequences.

16′ Relief dome for a displaced family after Hurricane Katrina

“Domes are the strongest, lightest and most efficient means of enclosing space yet known to man.” — R. Buckminster Fuller

Geodesic shelters have been built all around the world in different climates and temperatures because of their inherent ability to withstand the forces of nature, such as high winds, temperatures and earthquakes. ‘Bucky’ Fuller discovered that if a spherical structure was created from triangles, it would have unparalleled strength.

The sphere uses the ‘doing more with less’ principle in that it encloses the largest volume of interior space with the least amount of surface area thus saving on materials and cost. Fuller reintroduced the idea that when the sphere’s diameter is doubled it will quadruple its square footage and produce eight times the volume. So why aren’t we building more geodesic dome houses?

More on U.S. Tax-Payer Funded Vacant City Lots & Unused Federal Lands

The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty believes that it is imperative that access to vacant city lots and unused federal lands be preserved to productively re-purpose them for adequate shelters. This critical need can be accomplished while preserving the federal government’s ability to promptly dispose of additional surplus property in an efficient, effective manner.

To this end, TITLE V of the Mckinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act will help the government attain the goal of ending homelessness, outlined in Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to End Homelessness. The Law Center offers many solutions and their documented success stories demonstrate what can be accomplished when the federal government eliminated waste, and allowed local communities to convert something unused into something useful.

Acknowledging the importance of empowering the homeless to help themselves is a humanitarian solution. In the United States, Utah has reportedly reduced chronic homelessness by 91 percent over a ten-year period beginning in 2005, and the state now serves as the country’s poster child for ending homelessness.

Expanding on the synergetic principles originated by R. Buckminster Fuller. Pioneering sustainable living, personal and cultural transformation, and peaceful social evolution since 1980, Pacific Domes has been working on perfecting the function and beauty of their portable geodesic domes for more than 35 years in Ashland, Oregon. This means, environmentally aware and sustainable.

Browsing Pacific Domes gallery of geodesic shelters for purchase or for rent is your first step towards exploring the benefits and versatility of geo-engineered eco-living domes as the strongest, portable structure known to man.

For additional information on Pacific Domes portable Geodome Building Systems, visit: Pacificdomes.com

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