Kate Collins
Guest Contributor
A nonprofit with deep Carbondale roots is advancing the green economy one tiny dome home at a time. Using their hearts, hands, brains and brawn in equal measure, In Our Hands has invented an inexpensive, replicable and low-carbon-impact process in which cellular concrete is poured into a form to create an 18-foot-diameter circular dwelling. The timing for the introduction of this technology is ideal as numerous communities in the West struggle with both the availability and affordability of housing.
How it works
These compact dwellings can be built within about a week and the result is an energy-efficient and very livable home of 454 square feet, impervious to extreme weather events like hurricanes, tornadoes and even fire. They’re also pest- and mold-proof. The domes have a functional life of a century or more and can be built on- or off-grid. The retail project cost, which varies somewhat by geography and local labor and materials prices, is around $125 per square foot for the structure, plumbing, electrical wiring, appliances and modest finishes. Nonprofit projects typically come in at a lower cost thanks to grants, sweat equity and partnerships.
Cellular concrete has been used as a construction material for 50 years or so, primarily in Europe, India and Indonesia. Composed of portland cement, water and a surfactant — or soap — it’s extremely durable yet lightweight, just 30 to 35 pounds per cubic foot, or roughly 20% of the weight of regular concrete. During the building process, the mixture is poured into a form at a rate of up to 30 cubic yards per hour by a lightweight and easily transportable cellular concrete generator. The material takes about two days to set.
Addressing a need
In Our Hands sees several applications for their domes. Among other uses, they can serve as a starter home for a generation of people who struggle to attain homeownership due to their modest incomes coupled with out-of-reach housing prices. Or they can become an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) to increase housing inventory in developed areas. Because of its comparative affordability, In Our Hands also sees its application as shelter for unhomed populations, a redevelopment anchor for distressed urban areas and as housing for Indigenous communities on reservations.
In Colorado, as Governor Polis leads nascent efforts toward “saving people money on housing and increasing supply” as one of six of the state’s 150th anniversary goals in the Roadmap to a Future Colorado 2026 document, the path forward sounds clear enough. However, local, regional and even statewide planning and zoning protocols have a ways to go.
Carbondale
Tiny home developments in Carbondale are hard to pencil out due to the scarcity and expense of available vacant land. Mayor Ben Bohmfalk says those factors have pointed the town toward the construction of more dense multi-family housing in recent years.
Jared Barnes, planning director for the Town of Carbondale, has been watching legislation and the governor’s initiatives over the past couple years. It’s a catch-up time for Carbondale and other mountain communities and many rely on their membership organization, the Colorado Municipal League, to help shepherd them through state policy as it evolves.
“In our 2022 comprehensive plan we talked about looking at the existing codes and making them more adaptable to tiny homes as a good thing to do,” says Jared. “We haven’t had a chance to dive into that conversation with the larger community yet.” He says Carbondale has been proactive in pursuing more ADUs and the state’s proposed legislation doesn’t create any new opportunities as of yet, or introduce any that the town isn’t already pursuing.
Elsewhere
Grand Junction just announced incentives to homeowners to build 300- to 900-square-foot ADUs to ease the creation of affordable housing options. The city will take off $9,500 in building fees and provide up to $15,000 in total capped incentives when the homeowner both lives onsite and offers the ADU as a long-term rental for at least five years. The deal applies to both attached and freestanding ADUs and may hold some opportunity for dome home construction.
Meanwhile in New Mexico, In Our Hands received full statewide approval from the Construction Industries Division for its model and they’re pursuing similar comprehensive approvals from other states. Much of the team’s current work is focused on legitimizing the market for the domes to be widely accepted as code-compliant residential homes.
The Turner Foundation took notice of In Our Hands and its work in South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and the team was subsequently recruited to build four domes for employee housing on Vermejo Ranch, a Ted Turner Reserve near Raton, New Mexico. The vast property is dedicated to repatriation of bison, among other conservation initiatives, and it’s where In Our Hands worked most recently to continue to refine their process and product.
Aligning values
Consistent with the green economy’s precepts for mutual benefit, the four founders consider their patented process an “open source” construction technology and seek to share it broadly for maximum benefit. The idea is to teach the technology widely so communities can own the equipment and the process, obtain the materials locally and scale up. Local ownership minimizes travel and material freight, which keeps the carbon footprint low.
To succeed, an operation needs fairly minimal equipment, estimated at around $400,000 in today’s costs. A heavy-duty pickup truck, the nifty cellular concrete mixer, some standard home construction tools and a half-dozen crew members for concrete pouring, plumbing, carpentry and finish work are required.
Chris P. Ellis, aka “Crispy,” is a founding partner of In Our Hands. He’s a mogul skiing competition judge, physicist, professor and journeyman electrician — not necessarily in that order. He descends from the Lakota and has a driving interest in helping his tribe and equipping Native-run businesses.
In Our Hands saw the life-and-death need for an alternative to the prevailing energy-inefficient modular housing on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, with its wintertime lows of 40 degrees below zero. They thought a lot about simply delivering a product that would keep people warm and sheltered with dignity and they spent considerable time building domes for Oglala Lakota tribal members, which provided valuable research and a proof of concept.
“A huge component of what we’re trying to do is to teach autonomy and the benefit of owning the business that constructs sustainable structures,” says Crispy. “It’s a step up from generational trauma and decades of dysfunctional systems on a reservation.” The path was also smoother to build the dome homes on a reservation with more nimble planning and zoning approvals, due to their independent governance as a sovereign nation.
Local origins
Crispy, with an enduring passion for education and training, reinitiated the solar program at Colorado Mountain College (CMC) in 2009. He has a dome construction curriculum in development for four educational institutions and one nonprofit, including CMC, Colorado Mesa University Technology, Oglala Lakota College, University of New Mexico – Taos and Veterans Off Grid.
In Our Hands cofounder and executive director, Aaron Resnick, attended Carbondale’s Colorado Rocky Mountain School and began his higher learning at CMC. From there he went to Massachusetts’ Amherst College to earn degrees in biochemistry, biophysics and planetary science. Along the way, Aaron learned carpentry and blacksmithing. He’s also a paramedic — a training that informs his humanistic approach to work.
“We live in a country where there’s been a lot of wealth creation. The ladder has gotten taller, but we forgot to put on the bottom three rungs,” says Aaron. “I thought, how can we make a livable unit — forget about the square footage — where you can be comfortable and proud? Where you can afford it if you work at McDonald’s? Or, if you fall on very hard times, you can still make your mortgage payments? That’s security.”
Part of Aaron’s thought process was to create a solution in which the monthly mortgage payment would be less than a typical monthly rent payment. With renewable energy incorporated into the dome construction, like photovoltaic solar panels for electricity and lighting, utilities could also be low-cost.
Founding partner Candace Resnick is an interior designer, self-taught finish carpenter and mother to Aaron. She honed her skills building homes in Minnesota, Oregon, Alaska and finally Carbondale, where she still resides. Her mettle and self-reliance are the result of both nature and nurture. “My dad was an engineer, so I just grew up learning building skills.” As for the domes, Candace says matter-of-factly, “It used to take me seven days to build a kitchen. Now I can do it in two.”
Jason Mackie, cofounder and president of In Our Hands, was a classmate of Aaron’s at Amherst who earned degrees in environmental science and geology, graduating with high honors. Passionate about planetary science, sustainable development, social justice, economics and all things living, his personal mission is to find innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing systemic problems. He’s also a great hand at carpentry, construction and photography.
The future
Where to next for In Our Hands? In addition to continuing to pour domes and, hopefully, create sustainable dome communities in Colorado, New Mexico, South Dakota and the West, the ultimate goal is to empower communities across the country and around the world.
By one definition, the green economy provides prosperity for all within the ecological limits of the planet. In Our Hands checks that box and adds some ingredients to the recipe for success: a drive to evolve the current housing norm with ingenuity, inclusivity, education and collaboration. Theirs is a process to which they bring compassion, skills, intellect and strength. It’s a good day’s work.
Photos by Kate Collins