Dinner, with a view.
A kitchen around the edge. The center stays open for whatever happens next.
A field guide to living a little rounder
Life can be
less rectangular.
What if home were one big, light-filled room? A place to cook, climb, grow things, and put your feet up. Welcome to the pleasantly impractical dream—and the practical questions that might make it work.
A personal design exploration by Christopher Smothers.
Curiosity encouraged. Building plans not included.
△ Original design studies◌ Eight building approaches↗ Sources you can follow
The one-room experiment
A home with room
to change its mind.
The idea is a 5/8-sphere geodesic shell: triangles making a curve, with daily life sharing the space underneath. It’s an invitation to rethink the floor plan.
Room to be a mammal.
Rings, stretching, floor lounging. The idea is space to use, not space to fill.
A few leafy roommates.
Plants where the light lands. With a plan for shading, water and humidity.
A softer landing.
Cushions, a bed, a good book. And yes, a real conversation about privacy.
A tiny thought experiment
What’s your dome doing?
A shape is a starting point. What you want to do inside it changes the useful questions.
A home, every day
Start with comfort. Add triangles.
A house has to work on the dreariest Tuesday, too. Explore insulated timber or professionally designed concrete systems, then ask about the complete envelope, daylight, acoustics and privacy.
The catch: A greenhouse kit is not automatically a permitted dwelling. Ask what is included beyond the shell.
Explore insulated systemsA home for plants
Your tomatoes have different priorities.
A translucent geodesic kit can make a lovely growing space. Choose crops and ventilation for your actual climate; plants can overheat under all that glorious light.
The catch: Heating a greenhouse through winter can change the energy and cost equation dramatically.
Explore translucent shellsA little escape
Small dream. Still a real building.
A studio or occasional retreat lets you explore a smaller footprint. Start with how often you will use it, in which seasons, and whether anyone will sleep there.
The catch: “Temporary,” “off-grid” and “tiny” are not universal exemptions from local rules. Confirm the intended use first.
Take the reality checkA reading guide, not a recommendation for a particular building system. Nothing is stored.
Keep the wonder. Bring a notebook.
The bits the beautiful
render forgot to mention.
You are not a tomato.
All that glazing feels lovely in a picture. A home also needs shade, insulation and a moisture plan. A greenhouse and a living room ask different things of a shell.
A shell is not a house.
Foundations, utilities, labour, interiors, permits, site work. The little asterisk after a kit price can contain most of a building project.
Love the room.
Test a Tuesday.
Someone is cooking. Someone is on a call. Someone would like a door. Openness is a design choice with tradeoffs, not an automatic upgrade.
The imagination department
A little dome cinema.
Walk through the idea in AI-generated concept films, then peek behind the scenes at the original Blender studies. The pictures are for asking “what if?” The engineering comes later.
Explore all 15 films & the gallery ↗From sketch to questions
Every good daydream has drafts.
These are the rough 3D studies where the room began. The experiments are part of the story.
Bare translucent 5/8-sphere geodesic shell
A polished concrete floor grounds the volume
Perimeter kitchen counter and floating shelves