Success Stories
Altus Engineering Ltd. - Monolithic Wooden Dome development
City: West Kootenay Region
British Columbia Regional Science & Technology Network Council: Kootenay Association for Science and Technology
Back in the 1990s, consulting engineer Salah Eldeib wanted to find a way to build environmentally sustainable domes from discarded wood, rather than the heavy cement construction typically used at the time.
 What he came up with was a sectional, modular design using traditional two-by-four stick frame construction – a state-of-the-art monolithic dome building system, now being built by Eldeib’s company, Altus Engineering Ltd., and shipped around the world.
Originally from the West Kootenays, Altus Engineering’s CWD Group recently moved to the Lower Mainland for business development reasons. And in today’s global market for eco-friendly buildings, the company is booming with lots of potential for future growth.
The firm’s goal is to provide homes and other structures that are affordable, esthetically pleasing, energy efficient, environmentally friendly, durable and highly resistant to natural disasters.
 The domes are light, in stark contrast to heavy cement domes of similar dimensions. This has proven to be a great advantage in earthquake and hurricane prone areas, as studies have shown that light buildings fare the best. The curved shape of the dome also allows it to be energy efficient, resistant to loads, durable and low maintenance. In addition, because the design calls for small lengths of two-by-fours (less than two feet), Altus is able to not only reduce waste materials but to use local waste materials to build, thus creating an environmentally friendly way to add value to the lumber market.
This one-of-a-kind design has a competitive advantage: it allows the building system and manufacturing equipment designs to be patented. It was originally funded by the Kootenay Association for Science & Technology, which invested $100,000 through the Kootenay Product Development Fund, and by contributions from private investors.
 Altus has received several awards for achievement in R&D including the Kootenay Association for Science and Technology Innovator of the Year 2004, and British Columbia Innovator of the Year 2004. The project also involved collaboration between several B.C. institutions, including co-operative research with the University of B.C. and the National Research Council, as well as product and business development with the Kootenay Association for Science & Technology.
As the company grows so do the job opportunities for British Columbians, as Altus intends for all design, marketing and operations, as well as most manufacturing, to remain in B.C. Deals have already been signed in Nunavut, the U.K. and Mongolia. The first of 14,000 domes were shipped to Mongolia in July 2007.
For more information, please visit http://www.cwdg.ca/index.html
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