Houses of styrofoam from International Dome House Inc. are known in Japan for more than 15 years. However, well-deserved attention of the general public this newest construction material gained after the April 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes. Among few structures that survived a magnitude 7.0 mainshock were 480 houses of dome village at Aso Farm Land resort. The resort with luxuriant open-air hot springs is located on a sommian volcano, in Kyushu.
According to International Dome House Inc., Styrofoam is “the newest building block in contemporary homes, ‘the fourth-generation building material’ after wood, iron, and concrete.”
The expanded polystyrene material includes active oxygen that leads to the prevention of aging and better health of the home and its residents. In addition, thick polystyrene walls also provide perfect thermal insulation. Versatile modular design with the use of prefabricated pieces allows building larger or smaller houses, restaurants, and saunas. In addition, these structures are durable, weather resistant, earthquake resilient and extremely simple and fast to construct.
House kits start at less than $30,000. International Dome House Inc.
Designers claim that the service life of styrofoam houses may exceed 300 years.
More about earthquake resilient styrofoam houses in the video …