kengr

I was thinking more of size & Function than construction. Mostly because I was thinking in terms of what "services"/"functions" would be needed.

Regarding dome construction, I recall an article from the 60s or early 70s that noted in some places the building code only let dome homes have 2 floors because of the slanting walls. So the second floor was ridiculously high ceilinged.

I've seen some SF illustrations that had buildings that were not domes but rather sections of spheres sliced at higher latitudes (ie instead of at the equator, at the 54th parallel or higher. Some very much higher.

Sort of a "blister" design if you will.

These strike me as good for some weather conditions. The shallower the angle with which the edge of the dome meets the ground, the less wind resistance there is (or the less wave resistance :-)

Not as space efficient, but not bad if you want a *large* floor. One I saw was some sort of spaceport facility with hangar doors around the edge. Which left the inside for large support areas and a *much* smaller second floor for something else.

Sections of oblate and prolate spheroids might have their uses as well.