The Main Thing Is To Keep The Main Thing The Main Thing!

January 2007

by David B. South

David B. South,
President of the Monolithic Dome Institute

For most of my life, bringing the benefits of concrete thin shells to the world has been my main thing.

Here at Monolithic we use our own unique terms to quickly identify the thin shells we design: Monolithic Domes are insulated structures, while Monolithic EcoShells are uninsulated ones. The term Airform describles the system we use to form the shape of our thin shells, and that system has proved to be both simple and beneficial.

In a ballgame, you must keep your eye on the ball. In other words, you must keep the main thing the main thing! Distractions can make you lose the ball and the game.

During the past year, I got distracted. I decided to see if using a hard frame -- instead of an Airform -- would make the construction of a concrete dome faster and simpler.

That experiment cost me a huge amount of time and energy, but it led me to this twofold conclusion: I had taken my eye off the ball; The Airform is the best method for constructing what I think of as magical thin shell domes.

I think of the thin shell dome as magical because of its problem-solving ability. For example:

A thin shell utilizes a fraction of the material that it would take to build a conventional structure of the same size.
The dome is nature's strongest shape. It's a hollow rock. The only thing stronger than a hollow rock is a solid rock. We build hollow rocks.
The main material for building these concrete rocks is rocks, and they are the most abundant building material on this planet. Our earth is made of rock. So, to make a hollow rock for whatever use we have in mind, all we have to do is rearrange some of this rock. The absolute abundance of rock eliminates any possibility of making this building material extinct.
A thin shell's curve accounts for a huge part of its magic. It's extremely easy to create a curve. You simply inflate a bubble -- or in Monolithic's case, an Airform. If you want a difficult task, try making a bubble that's square, triangular or any shape other than round. True, you can inflate attached bubbles and create unique shapes, but the bubble itself will be curved. That curve is what adds to its strength. And the strongest curve is a compound curve or one that curves in both directions. Consequently, a round shape is stronger than a cylinder or a column.

So at the start of this new year, let us reaffirm that we here at Monolithic will keep our main thing the main thing. We will continue to bring the benefits of concrete thin shells, namely the Monolithic Dome and the Monolithic EcoShell to the world's societies. And we will do this by continuing to promote the use of the Airform as the primary method for forming these structures.

Note: The quotation, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing" is attributed to Stephen R. Covey.

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