questions about shape

Hello guys, First I'd like to introduce myself as this is my first post. My name is Brendan, I live in Tampa, FL and I am 19. Studio design has always intrigued me and I've long wanted to build my own studio. I also want to thank the creators and cotibutors of this site, on such a great job. This site has a ton of great information and I have litterally spent HOURS of the past few days reading posts and the refernce ares. Now, to my question... I had been thinking up some interesting design ideas within a circle area and happened to find these 'dome homes' here in Florida. here's the link. I was wondering if some of the other forum members could look over this and share some thoughts on whether it could be a god start for a studio and build a custom inner floor plan. they are QUITE affordable and strong against hurricanes(important here in florida). The one thing that seems off is the insulation, the shell is mainly steel reinforced concrete, but the insulation is expanded bead polystyrene insulation, I am not familiar with this and it seems like it may be the spray expansion foam?? Anyways I can't wait to hear your responses and maybe even see some cool studio designs within a circular area. I amleaning towards the 34' or 40' diameter. BTW: I will update my profile with my location, as i said i'm in tampa,fl

Hey Blue, welcome to the forum! This thread is probably more fitting in the Design forum rather than the Construction forum -- perhaps one of the moderators can move it over there for you. Anyway, use the "Search" feature for the word "dome" and you'll find several threads that reference dome designs. This particular one indicates it's a bad idea from an acoustics perspective. --Keith :mrgreen:

Keith thanks for the referenceand the welcome, I'll remember to search next time. In the thread you linked John Sayers says this: "Edi - a dome is a series of parallel walls all focusing on the one point - the center of the room You may have to break it up with additional panels." I don't think I comprehend how they are parallell walls also, the outer structure is all that would be dome shaped, the interior would be just like a regular house or other structure (studio in this case) which I would make the walls non parallel. however I can only make the first leaf (interior walls) non-parallell then it would go through the sprong and to the outer (dome shaped) walls. Also these 'dome-homes' are Geodesic and all the structures are many triangular segments, not a molded concrete half sphere.

Non-"domic" inner walls would solve the acoustic problems OK; just be aware that the outer shape would cause differing space between inner mass and outer mass, so isolation would be dependent on the narrowest distance between inner and outer shells... Steve

isolation would be dependent on the narrowest distance between inner and outer shells

that makes sense, and kind of what I was banking on. also as I mentioned earlier since the domes are 'geodesic' and made from triangular panels, I believe that could work towards my advantage in some cases. such as the walls would be slope, and sidewalls would not be parallel to each other. the dome mentioned in the thread keith linked is a bomb shelter that was actually rounded i believe. Thanks for the guidance guys. can anyone help me with some possible deisgns within the circle? I'll attach some pics for dimension...

here's the heights. the first ceiling is a 2x10 the second is a 2x8

here's pics for downstairs and upstairs. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/blue642/downstairs.jpgdownstairs.... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/blue642/upstairs.jpg upstairs...