Transcription
We are in Nevada City, California, kind of right in the heart of a fire country where we installed the world's first ceramic dome. Our Earthshot is to make the best home on Earth, the most affordable home on Earth. And that actually seems impossible when you say it, but at the same time, this home is really introducing properties that can make it the best home. The kind of beauty of the geometry combined with the fire resilience and earthquake and hurricane resilience. There's no metal other than a few bolts in it, no metal, no wood, no concrete, no petrochemicals, which means there's nothing to rot, nothing to rust, nothing to corrode.
And what is this exactly? What are you using? It's a bioceramic. So literally the same material that is used in the human body for bone repair. It's actually very close to the chemical composition of bone in that it's calcium, potassium, magnesium phosphate. I mean, it's literally a bone home. Create a bone home. I mean, this is materials that have already been proven in nuclear, oil, and gas, like really critical infrastructure repair, critical industries that we're now applying, flying to home building.
How did you get to that? Because that doesn't seem obvious. Yeah, I was building a house with my brother after spending about seven or eight years kind of living on a wooden sailboat and just trying to figure out how to build a home. And we just started mixing, uh, powder and water together in a barn doing the material science research. What was our ratio? One to 2.5. We're going to do half. We're mixing up a batch to go into our interior base panels. So we have the powders and fluids right here. We're going to mix in the smaller mixer and then it's going to go into this big, uh, mixer where we have the hemp fibers. So the cement geopolymer will go over the hemp fibers. We'll drop it out and put it into the molds.
So we started looking at all the emerging zero-carbon cement materials and geopolymers. And this material was actually developed at US National Labs in like the early 2000s after like a 10-year R&D project for the nuclear industry. It's a ceramic that has a lot of fibers in it, so natural fibers like cellulose and hemp fibers, as well as like carbon fiber. The compressive strength is over 15,000 PSI, so four or five times the compressive strength of concrete. So you don't have to use as much of it. It's a ceramic in that it's technically, you know, covalent and ionic bonding, just like chemical bonding process like what nature uses to form sedimentary rock and seashells. We're basically replicating that process in a controlled factory environment.
Another reason for this material science is because it enables very rapid, kind of mass manufacturing because this material, it's almost like a flash cure. As it comes out of the mixing equipment and into the mold, it almost cures almost instantly. So one of the awesome things about bringing in this kind of new material science and 20th-century manufacturing technology where every part can be extruded or injection molded and you can get exactly the geometry that you're looking for on each component.
That looks [Applause] like you see it. It's all wow. Yeah, right. You can, you can feel it when you come in. It's like, it's 100% non-toxic materials. You have like light from all different directions, very high ceilings, so it doesn't feel like, and there's no kind of, uh, wasted. You actually think of a corner as kind of a wasted space. You walk into most houses and you look up and it's like, those corners are not being utilized. They just collect dust and cobwebs. And so this is a really interesting way to just, they feel very expansive. I mean, originally domes were always kind of reserved for like the temples, right? Because it kind of represents like the heavens. And I, I think you feel it when you walk in.
So the whole structure is made of ceramic components. So when you, when the on-site building process requires no cutting or no measuring, there should really be almost no thinking. You know, it just goes together one way with no heavy equipment on site. Every part weighs less than say 30 pounds. Essentially, you build a ceramic space frame. Goes up in half a day with two or three people. And then the exterior panels go on, and maybe the next day, the interior panels on the final day. So the whole structure, this size dome, should go up in maybe two or three days with two or three people.
So we're seeing here ceramic inside as well. Yeah, it's all raw. There's no paint, there's no petrochemicals. This is the ceramic material. And you see there's like these little fibers are basically hemp fibers inside of it. So it's a bioceramic hemp composite. So it's interesting because these panels look like they could almost be kind of Lego bricks or something because you could swap out a window or you could put in, right? Is it the way it works? Yeah, you could swap things out fairly easily. Right off the bat, people will be able to choose any window configurations they want, as many windows or opening or non-opening. Structurally, you could make the whole thing windows because you still have the ceramic frame system. We actually add color into the ceramic itself, so we don't have to use paint. And as well as the, this texture that you see here is just one, one example, right? There's a lot of different textures that people could choose from.
And they all come together. Is this a sort of structural point that you see there? They are. Yeah, every point is a structural point. It's kind of like every point is the center of a sphere, right? Yeah. And so, yeah, all, all points are just as strong as the others. And you can have the whole thing be windows, or you can have windows in any of these triangles. This is the beautiful thing. I feel like with the geodesic dome too, is that you feel really connected to the outside. Like you're outside, yet you're, this is like the strongest structure in the known universe, you know? It's like very safe, yet very connected to that. Because this structure is also good for hurricanes. So it's also for high wind, right? Yeah, we're designing for like 300 mph wind loads, like the highest winds that have ever been recorded on Earth. Because you just, a dome is naturally aerodynamic. And we're using some very, very high strength composite materials. I mean, Buckminster Fuller really defined the geodesic dome in the '50s. And it is the lightest, strongest, most efficient means of enclosing space that's ever been discovered. And it's kind of interesting, Buckminster Fuller, he kind of joked that the domes that they built in the '70s and '80s were kind of like wooden spaceships, you know, the right geometry, but the wrong materials. And he predicted it would be 50 to 100 years until the material science would really evolve to catch up to the new geometry.
Does it make sense affordability-wise? You will never be able to build a box that costs less than this at scale because you have about 30 to 50% less materials to enclose the same amount of space and higher energy efficiency. When you cut the surface area in half, it means you have basically twice the kind of effective R value of the space. We're designing it to be able to get the home so that it's computerized. So the windows tint and untint automatically, the vents open and close automatically. And then the light that comes through the windows hits like a thermal mass. What like an organism on Earth would do with conditions like humidity of the sand. And yeah, how we get to the best home on Earth and the most affordable home on Earth is by going high technology that is actually replicating nature in a sense. So bringing kind of ancient technology together with very future technology to, yeah, to really be kind of alive or connected to the natural world.
One of the key things that we're going for is that buying a house can be more like buying a car. And that you select your options and design and you're 100% guaranteed the price is what you have signed up for. And to actually be able to get the home so that you select your options. What we're doing here is another construction situation here is product design. My background is in design, in product design, okay? And that's also, I think, really what we're doing here. We're designing a product. Like you can have a little studio, backyard studio, or a tiny home, but you can also create family homes or communal living or villages. And yeah, product basically means like it's a home that you buy and that you design online where you choose your window layout. Like think about, okay, how do I want to live? How imagine how you want to live and design like your future home. And because homes can look so many ways, these are basically preparations for our next, uh, prototype, which will be a 30-foot diameter dome. And it's funny because it doesn't feel like a dome here. It suddenly feels just like interesting geometries. Yeah, it creates a kind of an interesting balance between traditional housing and like really this new kind of relation to geometry. So we're just imagining like a bit bigger home to give people also an impression like how does it work. We live in domes. So this full family home, we think it's going to be around like $150,000. Wow. And this is like an awesome, like family home, you know, and quality of space that we're creating. And that's of course also non-toxic, hurricane proof, all mold proof, all these kind of things. And that's really like the technology that we're developing. Imagine how can you optimize your home for the actual place where you live. A lot of these home construction startups today, it's like the end product is still the same as everything else. It's a grid of roads and a bunch of boxes in a grid system. And it's like, how do we build villages that are more integrated to the natural world? We feel like that's kind of an an opportunity with the whole thing. Is that we want to really change the community building model. Like today, we're still basically building communities like we were, uh, 70 years ago, where it's like developers and banks get together, buy land, build houses, and sell them to people. And we want to change that model where it's like the community comes together first online, participates in the design of their village, and then can actually potentially participate in the construction of it.
Seen a bed Morgan here. We're on the land that Geodeship owns. And it's about 100 acres. But really, the most important thing is like, we wanted to make sure that we're living in domes or in round structures while we're kind of talking about this new paradigm of living outside the box. This is my little home. It's got the basics. It's definitely feels like we're in nature. I don't have to go camping because I'm camping all the time. So it's already a neighborhood here. Yeah. What's up above? You're down below. Yeah, I mean, that's an experiment too, right? Yeah. There's so many ways to imagine this land slowly growing. Yeah. So far, we're just living here with the birds and the bears and the foxes and the coyotes. That's great. Squirrels and the deer. And SAA, SAA. This was actually our first machine, that electrical equipment that we plugged into the power of the land in the first year. That's really been awesome in the winter. Yeah. So you plug, it's an electric fauna. Oh, and there's something back there. Oh, that's you. Is that tent back there? That's my, that's my house. Yeah. So this is like, it's like my living room starting here. That's right. It's total, total magic to be living here. Yeah. Yeah. I have two tents on, on right now because it's like, one, I has a bunch of guests this summer, so they can come and stay over. So they're very, it's very nomadic. I mean, you could, or or just put, like, you could put one up when needed. Yeah. And this, this, this one here is actually an old one that, uh, ripped, so I repaired it. But it's great for summer. And what are these tents called? A bell tent. Bell tent. Yeah. So, yeah, that's my home. Wow. And there's my kitchen. So you raised it instead of just putting a tent on the ground? Yeah. This is my little, like, flying saucer platform. These platforms we built from wood of the land. So we asked the guy with the mobile mill to come over and cut the planks and the beams. Yeah. I just made, built this with a hammer and a saw, you know. And you have it up because of rodents, because of moisture. It's really, I used to live in this tent on this spot. And it's awesome to live so close to nature, but it really helps prevents just slightly less interaction with insects and other animals. Also water, you know, you know, it rains so hard here. At some point, it was like, like a foot of water here. So, yeah. I see your natural air conditioning there. Yeah, that's why it's like, sure, during the day it's hot in the tent, but, yeah, this is, this is it, you know. And it's so awesome to live so minimal. I really appreciate it here. And then this pond, I saw like two others last week. And there's always different kind of bird families coming through on their, on their migration routes. I'm actually reinstalling the stove. Whatever you can see, it's not super cleaned up inside. It's like, oh, yeah, it's pretty nice space. It is nice. It's nice. It's nice being up like this. It's like, I look out of the little screen thing and there's some mornings where you see some bears walking by and things like that, you know. So it's really nice to be on the platform and just look at them. Yeah. And because I was sleeping in that tent for a while this summer, and then I was like, at some night, and my parents are actually over staying here, and I was like hearing this bear breathe and trying to scare the bear away without waking my parents. And it's like, the bears actually are not spoiled here like in national parks. So they don't want to hang out with people. Uh, I've been here like for three and a half years. Three and a half years in the tent. Yeah. Yeah. You don't need much. Now, little, yeah, stove. It's super nurturing. I like to see how we can find a good balance between natural and and using technology materials and trying to avoid plastics, for example. Mattresses are these big pieces of foam. I have buckwheat hulls as a mattress, which is epic to sleep on. And with just air flowing through your bedroom all the time, making up with birds. And in the spring, you have like hundreds of frogs in the pond. And just in the later in the summer, we have the crickets. I see. So you are aware of what's out there. Yeah, you're aware of the moon, of the animals, of the seasons. This is actually the old ultimate bedroom in winter and summer. Like, sure, what I miss most is like a kitchen in the winter time where I can invite friends to come and have dinner.
What are your best practices to avoid having a a bear over? I never had issues with the bears. They come over and they, they smell things a little bit, but I've never actually had issues. This is like an old truck box. That's a great bear box. Truck box, like in the back of a pickup box. Ah. And your stove is just an old camper stove? Yeah. I try to just source most of my stuff just secondhand. So this, what guy in the area had on top of a piece of furniture. I found that down the road. No, that's great. That's nice to have a kitchen table here, right? It's such an awesome climate here. When it rains, it pours like insane. But so many days in the winter is actually beautiful as well. The moment you start living in a house, you disconnect from all that, all that kind of stuff. If you're more in it, then it's way less of a barrier, you know? Because it's just where you're at. It's not like, oh, now I don't want to go outside. No, I'm outside already. People are so afraid to give up things that they think are so important. They're ingrained, culturally ingrained to us. And of what's important, you know, a lot of these things are shaped by advertisements and that you need things and that you need them now. Same with seasons and things like that. Everything, everything takes time, you know. A shower. Yeah, that's my shower. I always like to build things where I'm not necessarily trying to control everything. It's like finding a bunch of stuff, dealing with what you have, and being creative with it is really fascinating, I think.
And has this inspired the Geodeship at all, this kind of living by living on the land? That helped to, for me, it's like living in the way that we want to, how we want to use Geodeship, you know? It's like how we're designing it and why we're designing it is to be able to make this possible for people. Yeah. And that's the thing, natural homes are exclusive. Like when I see straw bale or like hempcrete homes, it's like beautiful, but also totally insane of how much money it costs and how much time and effort it goes into these projects. It's like so much manual labor to build these natural. They're incredible and beautiful, but take so much time. So that's what we're trying to do is like putting all the qualities of a natural building into a product. Bringing new technology for the natural building industry to be able to scale. So it's like you get some place making and permaculture brought into how we build villages. And that really just being like a new model for how communities are built in the future.