Should I build a geodesic dome home or a monolithic dome home?

You should build a monolithic dome. Geodesic domes often leak. They have complex parts which fail. Look at an egg and its great strength. The monolithic dome will serve you in all types of natural disasters. It has an insulated thermal mass so that with passive effort you can keep it at exactly the temperature you want. It will survive hurricanes, fires and earthquakes! You great great grandchildren can enjoy it! You could partly bury it or not. The design is amazing. The website is here: http://www.monolithic.com/ (I am not affiliated and really wish they would answer my email so I can build one. I suspect they don't want to work in Mexico.) I really really want to build one!

depends on where you live. the geodesic is good for temperate areas. the thermal mass of the monolithic home could help in cold or really hot temps. Check out http://archinia.com/green-initiatives/live-greener-now/129-archinias-vernacular-design-book.html - temperate is anything not in the rocky mtns or northern regions, or the desert southwest, here...

It depends. Of the two choices, if you want your dome to have better survival from termites, dry rot, fire, lightning, hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes; or if you want the most efficient thermal mass, or you want it to be quieter, or if you want a lower total cost of ownership, or you want expected life to be measured in centuries, or you want lower insurance payments ... then go with a monolithic dome home. But whatever you do, do it right or forfeit the potential. I've never built one, but I've done a lot of studying and I find the information at http://Monolithic.Org to be thorough, balanced and open, even to the point of sharing lessons from things they thought would work but didn't. One site worth starting with is... http://www.monolithic.org/homes/home/the-true-cost-of-a-dome-home

I have lots of good things to say about domes that basically debunk most of the myths such as "domes are leaky" but that would be a book not a comment.  So here is some quick food for though - would you build an igloo in Arizona? Of course not that would be ridiculous - so why do people try to build domes with standard building materials that are designed for building "box houses" - also ridiculous and of course this causes lots of issues such as leaking? This is the reason domes have a bad reputation. Builder are using the wrong materials for the job.  I just received my patent for a new dome frame design that solves many of the problems discussed in the article listed below in http://shelterpub.com.   It's unfortunate that people didn't realize sooner that to gain all the amazing benifits of the dome geometry you litterly have to stop thinking in side the box (pun intended) or you will have all the problems people have sited.  The geometry of a dome requires design and material choices that are appropriate for geometry and there are good solution to most all of the issues people have sited. If you're interested in more info you can contact me through my website which I'm in the process of updating currently http://www.stellarsynergetics.com I will add more specific info in another comment later but if you want to see my patent, it solves the completx angle cutting issues and extra scrape when building the frame. http://www.google.com/patents/US20130152486 Or just search my name Heather Hava and dome and it should come up.