Dome cottages. Like classic British sports cars, French poodles and ice fishing — only those who are already enamoured know the appeal.

But there is no denying that our collective interest is always peaked when we come across such globular dwellings. What is it about round edges that are so attractive? 

Is it merely because common structures are built with right angles — an attraction to the unique? Perhaps it’s an instilled love of all things rounded: the Earth, the sun, the human form. A circle seems more organic, more in-tune with the natural surroundings — where a square or rectangle separates itself from the round trees, round rocks, curvy shorelines.And there is always the question of who — who goes through all the extra work, deals with naysayers, ignores the coffee-shop whisperers, so that they may live within a circular home? The modern-day father of the Geodesic dome, Buckminster Fuller, touted circular structures as being energy- and space-efficient, and strong in their construction. But certainly time has shown that those who strive to build these retro-mod creations have deeper purposes in mind. Few would take on the incredible amount of labour required to build a dome just save a couple bucks in heating expenses per year. Just look to the “Magical Dome,” profiled in the feature “Dome, Sweet Dome." US conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War built this hobbit-like structure as a spiritual refuge. I don’t know many stick-frame cottages that have such a unique reason for being. These folks chose a dome — perhaps instinctively — as the shape that would offer them the most restfulness and piece of mind.

Living within a dome may not be practical, cheaper nor beneficial in any real, tangible way. It’s a choice you choose because that’s how you want to live — that’s the statement you want to make. To discover who has actually built these unique cottages. Of course, not everyone can have, will build or wants a dome over their, um, dome. But one subject that is of interest to virtually all cottagers is alternative energy. In fact, alternative energy is a subject that is of interest to a great number of people these days, hand-in-hand with the environmentalism craze that has made such things like the hybrid car popular. We of the cottage community area allowed to snicker — solar, micro-hydro and wind energy have been staples in our vocabulary before they were even dubbed “alternative.” But it’s good to see it catching on. In this issue we delve into your options for powering your cottage — wind, sun, water and discuss the pros and cons of the original “alternative,” a generator. What will you need to turn the lights on, when you’re off-grid?

Wells, BC, is a unique spot. It seems this former resource town has been revitalized — but not in the sense that so many other towns like it have. It hasn’t experienced huge growth, not found an alternative resource that it is capitalizing on. No — this town has revitalized itself, for itself. Drawn in no doubt by affordable real estate, the “suburbs” of Wells are now a thriving arts community; a town of cottagers if you will. We visit Wells in this issue, and find out what makes these people tick in “A Rainbow at the end of the Gold." The tie that binds these three seemingly unrelated stories together, however, is that they all represent the ingenuity that is inherent in the cottage-owner’s mind. A willingness to try something new, to break out of the mold. And as this issue shows, there are many ways a cottager can do that.

Written by David Webb.