DAVIS, Calif. — The trill of panpipes from a yurt wafted across the mulch hillocks of the Domes, a 1970s experiment in communal housing in which students live in igloolike fiberglass domes and snuggle up in snow-white interiors of plastic foam.

Although plenty of campuses offer specialized housing — often reserved for vegans, teetotalers, athletes and other like-minded souls — it is probably safe to say that there is no place quite like the Domes, an early venture into sustainable living at the University of California, Davis. The complex of 14 tiny domes (elevation: 52 feet, population: 28-plus) is officially named Baggins End, after the Tolkien characters.

Handcrafted signs by “Domies” enjoin visitors to take their time and “make a new friend” while meandering through the Domes’ gardens. There, amid fruit trees, scampering chickens and rows of spinach, they can marvel at a gazebo made from bicycle wheels, a metal Triassic flying reptile in a tree and a multicolored apiary that sums up the Domes’ philosophy: “Just bee.”

Clarke Love, a junior civil engineering major and one of many green-thumbed Domies, relaxes by making prickly pear jam from scratch and “life force smoothies” from fresh collard greens, dandelions, figs, mint and whatever else is in season on the Domes’ four acres. Her gardens rely on recycled water from the Dirty Laundry Lounge, the Domes’ outdoor laundromat.