Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I think that the blue barrels have a kids playground kinda art look. Ya know the bright blue and all.

Once we build the thinshell concrete house, I intend to use some of the planter walls around the house as AP grow beds and that is gonna be artistic I think.

Then I just need to sort out a natural looking pond scape for the backyard fish pond and the rest of the grow beds will likely look like raised garden beds the way my monster bed currently looks. I'll probably do cattle panels over them too to make shade cloth or cold frame plastic easy to apply as needed. I kinda like the covered wagon look anyway.

maybe farmfountain is going for the engineered look. but i'd like to see less moving parts. when it comes to engineering i would imagine you gotta think about some design principles ... simple things should be simple and complex things should be possible (alan kay) and unless simple things are simple, complex things are impossible (rod johnson).

i say simplicity will always be pretty to look at... and creativity is not an antithesis of simplicity =]

TCL, i'd like to know what the cost estimate you've come up with to build your thin shell concrete house, it's a rather interesting project.

Thinshell concrete construction can be built at similar prices to any custom home construction of similar size and finish. (Not to be confused with a tract home where one gets to specify custom choices of tile and paint color.)

As far as an estimate on actual cost, that is difficult since it won't be possible to lock in certain prices till we actually buy the materials and costs keep going up. We are not really ready to start construction right now since our life has some other realities getting in the way for the time being but hopefully soon.

Thinshell concrete construction has some wonderful efficiency's but also requires some special planning and since they are still rare, they must all be treated as custom homes.
They are disaster resistant, and wonderfully energy efficient for heating/cooling. After all the hurricanes that hit around here in 2004, we decided we wanted to build something that would handle such with no trouble.

I almost built a monolithic dome home. I even had the air form, but medical expenses took that dream away and I had to sell the air form..

They are very quiet comfortable homes!

Bummer there Dan, and you are in Texas so the experts are near by.