Small Japanese Company Creates Polystyrene Dome Houses

[Lodestar]

Link to Video
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/techtrends/20150914.html

A small company in Japan has come up with a surprising use for polystyrene foam, a packing material that most people throw away after buying a new product. The material is being used in the construction of homes, replacing more traditional materials like concrete or wood.
A builder claims a home in a dome is the shape of things to come in building construction. Not the shape so much. What is unusual here is the material.
"We developed this material ourselves," the builder said. "The structural frame is made out of polystyrene foam."
The company behind this technology has just 30 employees. It's based in Kaga City, central Japan. The material can be molded into almost any shape. But that's just one feature that appeals to the company president.
"It doesn't rot like wood, or rust and turn ragged like steel," said Katsuyuki Kitagawa, president of Japan Dome House. "My desire to use this material became stronger by the day."
But there was a problem. Regular polystyrene foam is no match for concrete or steel when it comes to holding up a roof. If the company wanted official permission to use this material, it had to work out a way to make it stronger.

cont'd
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/techtrends/20150914.html

[Trajan]

1. Another interim option ...

First create a framework out of strong material - That can withstand typical stresses and designed to interface side to side and top to bottom ... and fill it with the polystyrene, using the framework as a skeleton - the strength component ...

If the framework is light enough, you still get the benefits of lightweight polystyrene as a building material.

[Android3.14]

2. Nice format

I appreciate the link at the top and the bottom.
Thanks.

[kristopher]

3. Foam houses have been around for almost 50 years.

Google /foam houses/.

Last time I saw any real coverage of the matter was in the late 70s when I saw a traditional style house built from large (8'x40'?) sheets in a shopping center parking lot in less than a day. They put a big rig truck on top of it to demonstrate the strength; ran into it with a back hoe and patched the damage in about 30 minutes; then filled it with furniture and crumpled newspaper, lit it and stood outside the door leaning against a wall while it burned without damaging the foam. Everything inside (including the wood wall paneling) was destroyed by the time they extinguished the fire, but when they pulled the remaining flakes of paneling off the wall the foam was pristine.
It was also supposed to be far, far less expensive than a stick built traditional home.

I never could figure out why it didn't fly except perhaps the disruption it would cause the economy. A significant part of our labor force is employed in the home building sector. Preventing it from entering the market would be as easy as refusing to modify building codes.

[hunter]

4. Here's link to company:

http://www.i-domehouse.com

Now I'm feeling inspired to build a little foam house myself.