This might be the coolest thing ever! A REAL hobbit house:
The owner calls this a ‘low impact woodland home’… said owner is a man in Wales, and he has a site dedicated to the construction, design, and energy-saving strategy of this home. As a continuation, or an extension, of this project, he is now working to create more low-impact homes as part of the Lammas Project.
Similarly, I recently saw a repeat episode of ‘In America’, Stephen Fry’s BBC series, in which the titular man visits an Earthship, which is kind of like the American southwestern version of the woodland home. The Earthships are fascinating in that they utilize nature to maximize comfort and minimize environmental damage. The site says that Earthships can be built anywhere (would LOVE to see one here in Brooklyn!), in any climate… so I wonder why they haven’t taken off in other locations than just the southwest, where the climate, sun, and general weather patterns seem ideally suited to such energy-efficient dwellings.
As I am approaching the possibility of buying/building my own home, I look to the hobbit-house and the Earthship for ideas… I want a home that is the ultimate in efficiency, one that causes the least amount of damage to the environment, and yet – because I am spoiled – one that provides the amenities that I have become so dependent on (I’m looking at you, laptop!). However, wouldn’t it be better – in my zeal to have a home, yet remain environmentally-conscious – if I took an existing structure and tried to modify this structure so that it would conform to these efficiency ideas as much as possible, rather than to build from scratch? Much like the cars that run on vegetable oil… is there less environmental impact in taking your old clunker from the 80s, and outfitting it with a more sustainable fuel source (such as vegetable oil), than there is in buying a brand-new Prius (which needs to be manufactured and built entirely new)?
I’m not sure if a definitive answer exists to such a complicated question… but I’ll continue researching. And, if the house we are currently considering becomes a reality, plans on the outfitting of the home for maximum sustainability will be included here on site…
