House design can withstand category 5 storm

As Florida experiences one powerful hurricane after another, dome and circular homes stand the test of durability, providing an effective solution to weather extreme weather.

In 2018, Hurricane Michael made history as the first Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in northeastern Florida. The storm caused widespread damage, leveling buildings and affecting nearly 50,000 structures. But in the small bayside community of Forida, Mexico City, an unusual dome-shaped house stood, largely unscathed by 160-mph winds. The house, called 'Golden Eye,' belongs to Margaret Clayton, who designed and built the structure in 2015 with her company Monolithic Domes.

A circular house built by Deltec on the coast. (Photo: Deltec).

Clayton's neighbor's house collapsed, sending a transformer flying into her house and crashing into a wall. "All the houses around me were destroyed or uninhabitable ," Clayton said. Meanwhile, Golden Eye remained intact.

In the United States, hurricanes cause more deaths and damage than any other extreme weather event. Since 1980, there have been 363 billion-dollar weather disasters, with hurricanes being the costliest, totaling more than $1.3 trillion, with an average cost of $22.8 billion per event. In 2023, hurricanes killed 6,890 people. As hurricanes become more intense due to climate change, even Category 1 hurricanes can cause severe damage, making hurricane-resistant housing increasingly important.

'Climate-resilient architecture that incorporates the right engineering solutions can help save lives in the face of extreme weather ,' said Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos, an associate professor in the University of Miami's department of civil, architectural and environmental engineering. 'We need to explore how to build structures that are resilient to climate change because we know some types are better for certain environments.'

Few builders are turning their attention to domes and circles. It's a design that American builder Deltec has focused on for the past three decades in its quest to build hurricane-resistant homes. Of the 5,500 domes and circles the company has built, only one has suffered wind damage, according to Deltec data, while the rest have survived some of the most powerful storms in history, including Irma, Michael, Katrina, Dorian and most recently Milton. Interest in the company's domes has grown in recent years, according to Deltec president Steve Linton.

The circular shape makes the house more aerodynamic. According to Linton, the circular design results in significantly less pressure build-up on the exterior of the house. This design also helps the house absorb and distribute energy better than a traditional house, regardless of wind direction.

The dome shape also has the advantage of not obstructing the wind flow around it. 'A conventional house with its box-like ledge and flat roof creates an obstacle that blocks the wind flow. When you build a round house, it receives less wind force ,' Rhode-Barbarigos explains. 'They are not affected by the strong winds that we often encounter in storms.'

Deltec also builds homes from American yellow pine, which is harder than other commonly used woods like Douglas fir. The structures are also precision engineered and factory built. Deltec has built homes in all 50 states and more than 30 countries around the world.

But Deltec isn't the only company building roundhouses. The first Monolithic Dome was built in 1976 as a potato storage shed in Idaho. Today, domes can be found all over the world, from the Arctic to the tropics. Monolithic Dome homes are built not from wood but from concrete and steel, starting with a ring beam at the base of the structure. A PVC-coated fabric membrane is attached to the ring beam and inflated to give the structure its shape. Polyfoam, known for its strength and water resistance, is coated on the inside of the membrane, while steel reinforcement is attached to the foam surface, then sprayed with multiple layers of concrete called shotcrete .