When Buckminster Fuller was building geodesic domes in the 60’s and 70’s, he said they were like wooden spaceships. Bucky predicted it would be 50-100 years before the material science would catch up to his new geometry. Right on cue, in 2004, the general theory and compositions of a new ceramic material science was announced to the world. We're combining the materials and geometry that maximize efficiency. We believe bioceramic domes will replace wood boxes as the 'bread and butter' of 21st century home building.

“My brother and I started building a home for our family. We did the work ourselves, on a shoestring budget, with reclaimed materials and lumber we milled on the land. Then we started questioning — with all of our technology — WHY are we still building with sticks and nails? How does nature build protective shells? Why does it feel so good to step outside the boxes we live in? We started engineering a new kind of home.

Our founding team has decades of experience in human-centered design, CNC mold making, and green ceramic manufacturing. Some of the top architects and material scientists in the world have joined our advisory.

We’re building the next great American home. We need more than new technologies to protect the planet, we need to create a new paradigm of living in community in harmony with the land."

~ Morgan Bierschenk Geoship Co-Founder and CEO

Disclaimer: All images of the bioceramic domes are computer-generated. The product is still in development.

Geoship Raises The Bar*

All-Ceramic Composites 

Bioceramic domes bypass all conventional building materials. The framing, insulation, and panels are 100% bioceramic composite materials. We entrain the ceramic with air to make insulation. We combine the ceramic with basalt and hemp fiber to form the panels and framing.

Affordable

We estimate go-to-market turnkey prices to be $45K to $230K (depending on size). This price estimate includes everything: delivery, permitting, installation, mechanical systems, interior finishings, appliances, and even electrochromic glass for privacy and passive solar heating/cooling. Bioceramic domes are a mass production technology that enables the leap onto a new affordability curve. 

Resilient

Ceramic composites are fireproof to 2,300F. They provide no food for mold or insects. The dome structure distributes stresses and strains perfectly, making it the most earthquake proof and hurricane proof structure known to man. Bioceramic domes are engineered to last for over 500 years. There is nothing to rot, rust, or deteriorate. They can be repaired and resurfaced with the same ceramic material.

Zero-Carbon

The precast ceramic panels could actually sequester more CO2 than was released in their production. The raw minerals can be harvested from seawater desalination plants, sewage treatment plants, and other non-toxic waste stream sources. Old bioceramic panels can be recycled into new bioceramic panels, or pulverized and used as fertilizer. 

Nature Technology

The chemical composition of Geoship bioceramic is similar to bone and shells. The same material is now revolutionizing the orthopedic industry as a fast-cure bioactive bone cement. Ancient civilizations used similar ceramic materials to build sacred temple complexes like the great pyramids of Giza. 

Health Optimizing

Bioceramic domes mimic the natural light, water, and electromagnetic environment. The design uses earthing floors, natural spectrum light, and vortex water to restore the conditions that humans evolved with on Earth. The high dielectric ceramics and fractal geometry function like a stone circle or a pyramid. Bioceramics reflect >80% of radiant heat and emit high far-infrared light. Professional athletes are now using bioceramic powders in clothing because the far-infrared light catalyzes the body's natural healing process.

*The statements above represent our goals and what we believe to be true. Bioceramic domes are in development. 

Geoship is launching a cooperative program with City Repair Project, Zappos, and Buckminster Fuller Institute to transcend homelessness across the USA.

Unaffordable

Average Americans can no longer afford a home in 74% of the housing markets. According to a 2016 McKinsey report, California alone needs 3.5 million housing units by 2025 (more than three times the current pace) to regain any semblance of affordability. The theoretical cost is outlandish ($1.6 trillion).

Unsustainable and Unsafe

Building construction and operation accounts for 40% of global CO2 emissions. Construction projects generate up to 40% of the landfill waste in the US. In 2017, the US was impacted by 16 separate disaster events, totaling over $300b in damage. After a record breaking year for extreme weather events, resiliency is becoming the new sustainability.  The October 2017 California fires damaged or destroyed over 15,000 homes and took 44 lives. A month earlier Hurricane Harvey in Florida damaged or destroyed over 200,000 homes and took 88 lives. (source of disaster statistics - climate.gov)

Unhealthy

Nearly half of all Americans suffer from at least one chronic disease. The Toxic Substances Control Act was enacted by the EPA in 1976, but it's updated so rarely that experts refer to it as "The 40 Year Old Virgin". Is this rise in chronic disease related to the buildings we live in — the potentially toxic chemicals, mold growth, poor ventilation, artificial light, electromagnetic radiation, contaminated water, and disconnection from the Earth?

Disconnected

The former US Surgeon General has declared loneliness (weak social connections) as the fastest-growing public health crisis, roughly the same impact as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Is the way we design our homes and communities contributing to loneliness? Zoning that's limited to detached single family housing is practically gospel in America, but officials across the nation are starting to make seemingly heretical moves. In June 2019 the Oregon legislature passed a law that essentially bans single family zoning in most of the state. California lawmakers have drafted a similar bill.

Mark Lakeman, a national leader in the development of sustainable public places tells a story about the Roman Grid: "Our gridded street pattern, a result of the grid laid out by the US Congress in the Land Ordinance of 1785, was developed by the Roman army as a means to control a conquered territory. This imposed pattern has suppressed our natural impulse to gather with our community."

We design and mass-produce life-enhancing homes. Our solution uniquely addresses multiple crises; affordable housing, homelessness, climate change, chronic disease, and loneliness. Geoship addresses all the shortfalls of housing with zero-carbon bioceramic composites. 

Bioceramic Architecture

We produce bioceramic panels rapidly with high quality and low cost. The structures are designed to deliver on ALL of the top 17 sustainable home trends of 2018, while also being fireproof, 100% non-toxic, potentially carbon-negative, assembled on site in a matter of days, optimized for health, and able to last for over 500 years. 

Bioceramic Materials

Bioceramic (An Inorganic Polymer) enables never-before-possible applications across the built environment. This new family of materials are highly crystalline, flash cure at room-temperature, and form strong molecular bonds with metal, wood, and concrete. Unlike Portland cement, bioceramic composites could last for 1000’s of years and potentially sequester more CO2 than was emitted in their production. The raw minerals can be reclaimed from seawater desalination plants, wastewater treatment plants, and many other non-toxic waste stream sources (source of all material stats). Bioceramic panels can be recycled into new bioceramic panels or used as an awesome fertilizer.

Regenerative Communities

Today, developers build neighborhoods, and sell homes to buyers who can pay the highest price. Geoship turns the tables and puts the customer in charge. We provide tools for customers to network into communities and democratize the design build process. Imagine designing a geodesic village with your friends, then building it together and throwing one of the best parties ever. This is the future of regenerative community architecture.

We're starting with three different sized domes that all connect to one another. Geoship will evolve beyond domes into a wide variety of beautiful and efficient geometric forms.

Even the $24T global construction market will be disrupted. Seven of the top ten fastest-growing industries in the US are related to construction. Yet construction companies traditionally invest less than 1% of revenue in new technologies — lower than every other major industry. Geoship is poised to reshape construction with a new material science, new production technologies, and a never-before-possible combination of affordability, sustainability, and wellness.

First we're launching in creative cities and towns where Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) construction is surging. In 2017 CA state legislators passed a law that made ADUs legal in all California cities. Two years later building permits for ADUs in Los Angeles county comprised a whopping one fifth of permits issued for all homes. These backyard cottages are a game-changer for homeowners and an important piece of the affordable housing solution. The most popular rental OF ALL TIME on Airbnb is a tiny geodesic dome in the woods.

The experience of staying in a Geoship ADU is the first step toward living with your friends and family in community. Key messages from the 2013 U.N. report indicate to us the urgent need for hyper-local, self-reliant villages to prepare for the additional 2 billion people who will be joining our planet by 2050. The global residential construction market is growing at an annual rate of 10.3% and is expected to exceed $7.3T by 2024. Our market is Cultural Creatives (a very fast growing customer segment that is currently around 37% of Americans) who live in suburban or rural areas (about 72% of Americans). Cultural creatives around the world are looking for new ways of living in community in harmony with nature.

The global green building materials market is growing at an annual rate of 11.7% and is expected to exceed $432B by 2024. Geoship is first targeting the US west coast, which our research indicates is 4.3% of the global market. The green building industry has a critical need for resilient and low carbon materials. Bioceramic composites deliver for a wide variety of applications from fireproofing, to roof replacement, insulation, 4x8 boards, structural beams, concrete resurfacing, 3D printing, and advanced hydroponic systems. 

Corporate Sponsorship - Homes For The Domeless

In early 2019 Zappos invested in Geoship, as a community partner, to demonstrate a scalable business model for transcending homelessness. In November 2019 Clark County (Las Vegas) made a Request For Proposals for solutions to the homeless crisis. We submitted our proposal to Clark County for multi-year grant funding. 

Our strategy combines Geoship regenerative architecture, with City Repair's transitional village building template, and Zappos new work paradigm. We build transitional villages that embody powerful urban design principles — to strengthen the original agreements humans formed in the villages where we first came together — cooperation, community, and creativity.

Our approach is unlike any other in that growth is fueled by revenue, rather than by donations, which makes it highly scalable. To learn more about our Homes For The Domeless program, read this summary, which links to the full proposal we made to Clark County.

Press Coverage and Enthusiastic Customers

Our first press mention was in Fast Company in August 2019. We had 8,900 new website visitors and 2,100 sign ups for an impressive 24% signup conversion rate and a $320M projected sales funnel — in our first month!  This projected sales funnel is based on an average estimated turnkey price of $153,000 multiplied by 2,100 signups. These signups were to "Begin the Journey". They are not reservations and were non-deposit.

Prototypes and Paid Reservations

Developing a new technology and a new market takes time. We built our first full size engineering prototype in 2015. It’s what the auto industry would call a “development mule” to test various aspects of the product. Rather than sacrificing our social purpose upon the altar of Venture Capital, we bootstrapped. In 2016/2017 we developed the material science and our proprietary manufacturing equipment. We completed most of the CAD work for the 16’ dome in 2018, and prototyped several different mold designs. We have $2.5M in reservations with deposits. We are not planning to open reservations again until we start pilot production.

Letter Of Intent - First Regenerative Village

We have a letter of intent from a community in Nevada City, CA. The community has 150 acres of land that’s entitled for up to 60 bioceramic homes. The goal of the project is to demonstrate living in harmony with a fire ecology in a 500-year ceramic village. Fireproof bioceramic domes could be the new go-to housing for rural California.

Our proprietary technology finally enables mass production of affordable regenerative homes.  We transform raw minerals and hemp fiber mats into finished structures. Our panels are packed into a shipping container and easily assembled on-site by Geoship certified contractors or owner-builders. By sourcing raw minerals, precasting all-ceramic panels, and constructing finished homes, our approach reduces the costs and inefficiencies that have plagued the home building industry. In addition to building homes, we supply ceramic materials for a wide variety of applications across the built environment. 

Architecture Business Model

Geoship provides software tools so customers can network into communities and democratize the design build process. This approach fills our sales pipeline with highly motivated and inspired customer communities (potentially many years in advance). Customer engagement begins with a learning journey. It continues into a dome and village configurator to hone the vision and generate shareable media. The buying process begins with a refundable reservation deposit, followed by two down payments for design then production, and final payment upon shipping. Site work, installations, and finishings are additional revenue sources.

The direct material cost of a medium geodesic is approx $9,870 (less with scale). We estimate the direct labor to be approx $6,561 (less with automation). We’re targeting a base price of $99k to $129k, yielding a very high gross margin of over 81%. Delivery, installation, interior finishing and mechanical systems are additional costs. We plan to build an entire product ecosystem around the ceramic domes.

How are these very high margins possible? Because our technology bypasses all of the existing product and material supply chains. Roofing, tar paper, trusses, insulation, lumber, steel, concrete, adhesives, particle board, drywall, paint, siding, and vapor barrier products are all replaced with bioceramic composites.

Materials Business Model

Geoship is partnering with values-aligned organizations to develop new material applications for the building industry. Initially we source raw minerals from the commodities market and outsource the blending and bagging. We plan to sell bags and containers of ceramic materials directly to commercial customers and through retail stores like Home Depot. Geoship will continue vertically integrating into green mining, waste stream reclamation, and ceramic recycling — a cradle to cradle operation.

First Mover Advantage

Geoship is the first mover with bioceramic architecture technology. The company establishes itself as a purpose-driven thought leader and catalyzes the evolution of the homebuilding industry. But Geoship is not absolutely the first mover, there is one small company - ACI Precast - that has been building code-approved ceramic precast structures for over 5 years. ACI's technology is the new material science but based on older steelcrete technology invented by Tony Ruiz over 35 years ago. Geoship partner Joe Lacy pioneered the steelcrete technology with Tony and recently inherited the IP.

Proprietary Technology

Geoship has strong intellectual property. The company anticipates filing hundreds of patents in the next few years. Proprietary technology includes ceramic material compositions and methods of preparation, mold and tooling technologies, green ceramic manufacturing equipment, and product design features.

Strong Brand and Partnerships

Geoship’s thought leadership, revolutionary product, vision, values, and cooperative model all add up to a powerful brand for the 21st century. 

Cooperative Model

When Geoship transitions fully into a Multi-Stakeholder Cooperative, ownership benefits will be distributed to people and planet stakeholders (while protecting investor interests), and a purpose-driven trust will be established. We would like to call this a Profit-For-All Cooperative model, which 1) addresses the externalities of resource extraction 2) serves as a strategic advantage in sales 3) creates a barrier to entry for competitors 4) is a fundamental way we operate integrally with our purpose. 

Geoship enters the market as a visionary community building brand. We partner with corporations and cities to transcend homelessness — generating awareness for our evolutionary technology and business model. Geoship serves ecologically and spiritually focused customers who envision a world that works for 100% of humanity. Our ultimate market is affordable regenerative homes in next generation communities around the world.

Our team has deep experience in green ceramic manufacturing, human-centered product design, CNC mold making, architecture, social entrepreneurship and more. We are dedicated to a revolution in affordable regenerative village architecture—to reconnect human communities and the natural world.

Geoship has NOT YET delivered any product to customers. By coming on board now, you help us make everything possible. We’ve bootstrapped the company for the past five years to minimize your risk. With a major technology corporation on board, multiple panel prototypes, a projected sales pipeline, and a world-class team, we’re now looking to crowdfund from a group of purpose-aligned investors. 

With your help, we can finish product development, begin pilot production, and reach profitability in 6-12 months.

Geoship is addressing the crises of affordable housing, homelessness, and climate change. Once we’re in pilot production, growth funding could come from government grants, low interest corporate loans, construction loans, and other incentives. Invest while you can, on the ground floor of a high growth technology company. Together we can build this powerful economic engine for the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. 

Disclaimer: All images above of the bioceramic domes are computer-generated. The product is still in development.