WOMAN Builds Breathtaking SUSTAINABLE DOME HOMES
Lisa Star was coming to a point in her life that she had to create a way to be sustainable. She was living at the coast at the time so she was seeking an area that wasn't far from the coast where her children were living so that she could purchase some land. She wasn't living in Joshua Tree at the time, but because of the traveling it was close enough to the coast. At the time the price was right. She looked into building with earth. It aligned so seamlessly with the property, the earth on site was the perfect makeup for building domes. She didn't even have to add clay or sand. She took this as a sign that she was headed in the right direction, which led her to create what she would eventually call Bonita Domes.
Bonita Domes is more than just the home that she set out to build, it now includes several dome shaped structures which all serve various functions and allow to host multiple people on site at a time. The ‘village area’ provides guests the opportunity to experience what off grid living is like, and see for themselves just what can be achieved with earth bag construction.
The shower house was the first dome that they built on the property. “My vision was to build a shower house where we can actually have a hot tub in so we could soak while we were building.” While the hot tub is still under construction, the shower house is now operational and hooked up to septic. The great thing about building the smaller shower house as the first building on the property is that it was able to act a lot like a prototype before getting into the biggest projects on the site. While Lisa had already taken courses at CalEarth and knew what needed to be done, by starting small she was able to figure out the kinks with her own project and slowly scale up.
“When we first came to the site, I was living in a trailer. I sold my trailer and decided to move into this shower house at the time. “(The) tub area was my bed... shower area was my closet and I had a desk area here and I lived here for one year.” It was living in this small structure that allowed to think on a very practical level about everything she would need in the full sized structure that would become her house. The ‘sleep pods’ acted as other practice structures before building her house. “My whole vision around that is to create an experience that is still childlike and just a sleep area. Being outside is your room and the ceiling is your sky and the sleep pods give you a place to sleep.”
The site also has an outdoor kitchen, complete with sink and icebox refrigerator. It has a roof overhead to shelter from the blistering desert sun. Beside it is the Kiva fire pit. There’s earthen seating around it which doubles as shelter from the wind for the sunken fireplace in the middle.
After all of these smaller dome projects, Lisa was finally ready to tackle the main dome home, which has been permitted and coded. It is one thousand square feet and includes all the amenities you’d find in a typical house. Since it was permitted and coded in 2007, it’s been grandfathered into the older regulations, so a building like this built now would look a little different to accommodate the new rules regarding engineering.
The house is slpit up into two living spaces with a hallway connecting them to the kitchen in the middle. It’s connected to the grid, with conventional water and plumbing that goes to septic. While it works well for her, if Lisa could go back she would’ve implemented an adjustable system which would allow her to turn a value and redirect greywater to water plants on site.
Like any offgrid project, it’s always a work in progress. The sun can be intense in the desert, so for shade Lisa has set up a trellis with a grapevine growing up the side. Eventually, this vine will provide shade for the courtyard area. The newest dome, the studio, is just days away from being capped and then finished. While building your own home is an involved process, Lisa finds it very fulfilling, and doing so has allowed her to pursue her passions.
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