[Closed] Low impact house - and it's so cool

It's a pretty old school house really.

I like it, it's not a solution to housing in the 21st century but as a nice little diversion it's cool.

I couldn't sleep in the same room as my kids though..

Lovely day outside.
Proper first day of spring!

[i]i assume you are behind the runway at Heathrow, out of town shopping centres,[/i]

And why shouldn't people fly off on holiday if they want to? Most people spend all year slaving away to earn enough to go to some exotic place. In fact, I've even heard that some mountain bikers fly to foreign countries just to ride their bikes, when they could actually just open their front doors and ride a bike.

I thought about buying some woodland and building a house as a series of rooms on stilts, going up and up through the trees so that there were a couple of living rooms level with the top of the canopy... so you could look out over the treetops and get full sunshine from all directions... The treetops would be full of squirrels and birds and stuff - cool.

You'd have to make sure the trees didn't grow up though to plunge your living room into darkness.

The treetops would be full of squirrels and birds and stuff - cool.

Molgrips - That would be pretty awesome!

EDIT - Dales_rider

[img] [/img]

Dales_rider - Member

........... building a house without planning permission.

😕 How do you know he didn't have planning permission ?

He certainly claims to have on the second house which he is working on now :

[b][i]"After being granted Planning Permission at the end of August 2009, we moved immediately onto the land and have since been working on a first dwelling. "[/i][/b]

Lol@Lifer 🙂

You naysayers about damp/rot/infestation need to go see some proper old houses - 100+ year old straw buildings, Tudor buildings, the Scottish Longhouse up the road from me and then consider if damp/rot/infestation is that big a deal if the building is detailed right.
I think that sealing buildings up like plastic bags (as we currently usually do in the UK) is far, far worse.

Totally agree with Lady Gresley, what a waste of wood and skill, cant we get away from thes sily and under engineered tree houses, what we need is shelter and warmth,not some overgriown triffid fantasy.

We are now at the begining of 2010, and things need to be more modern and adaptable for this decade.

[/b]molgrips - Member
I thought about buying some woodland and building a house as a series of rooms on stilts, going up and up through the trees so that there were a couple of living rooms level with the top of the canopy... so you could look out over the treetops and get full sunshine from all directions... The treetops would be full of squirrels and birds and stuff - cool.

You'd have to make sure the trees didn't grow up though to plunge your living room into darkness.
[b]

You hopefully wouldnt get planning permission, for such a folly, and the suirrels would eat your nuts at christmas.

And you know what else bugs me? All these people saying how good this house is and how eco friendly, are no doubt the ones who think nothing of putting a bike in a car to go for a bike ride - how is that eco friendly??

We are now at the begining of 2010, and things need to be more modern ......

Nonsense. I want to live like Fred Flintstone.

I think that sealing buildings up like plastic bags (as we currently usually do in the UK) is far, far worse.

Yeah I didn't realise that til recently. We use brute-force to drive the moisture out, but traditionaly houses were designed to breathe.

How practical are these "eco houses"? Is there enough hills to house everyone in the country. Are they really low impact? What about the wildlife that would be displaced?

[i]All these people saying how good this house is and how eco friendly, are no doubt the ones who think nothing of putting a bike in a car to go for a bike ride - how is that eco friendly??[/i]

Did you need to form that prejudice to prop up your world view, or was it just an added bonus? 😉

Lady Gresley - Member

And you know what else bugs me? All these people saying how good this house is and how eco friendly, are no doubt the ones who think nothing of putting a bike in a car to go for a bike ride - how is that eco friendly??

I think you need to change your username to "Queen Assumption"

How practical are these "eco houses"? Is there enough hills to house everyone in the country. Are they really low impact? What about the wildlife that would be displaced?

Who's forcing this upon you?

Who's forcing this upon you?

as note 'eco-houses' can be as crusty/beardy or as technological as you like.. i.e. you don't have to live like a damp crusty hobbit house if you don't want to (though think the house in the OP is great and having been in similar structures not damp or horrible).

each to is own. sure most would be preferable to crap general housing stock that is being thrown up around the county... in the UK we really do have the dullest aspirations for new houses... where an 'individual' design means that your bathroom window is in a slighly different location to your neighbours or you have a different colour roof tile... yawn

You Northerns! You're funny when you get upset

ooOOoo - Member

You Northerns! You're funny when you get upset

Another assumption, I do love STW everyone assumes they know someone, and they are always right.

Part of the ethos of low impact is to cause as little disturbance to the environment as possible, and that includes wildlife. The houses are generally smaller so take up less space and permaculture gardening positively encourages wildlife. Compare that with a modern housing estate which is pretty much rendered sterile by acres of concrete, block paving and big look-at-how-much-money-I-earn houses.

Changes are coming, like it or not, so why not buy a ticket now and get a good seat rather than sulking and trying to ignore it, you'll just end up standing at the back, on tiptoe, trying to see what's going on.

You lead by example Dales.

Nicely put Karin. I really don't understand why people get so ferociously angry about others doing things like this.
Perhaps they think the future is Star Trek? Still waiting for their jet cars?

I think Dales rider's woman must have run away with a Southerner

I think people get angry for a number of reasons, guilt could be one of them.

In some ways though, the whole green thing has been portrayed as two polar opposites: either a straggle-haired, beardy, sandall-wearing hippy grubbing out a living or a gel-haired, sharp-suited executive drinking in expensive wine bars, whereas, in fact, there are lots of ways to reduce one's impact without turning into the former (unless you want to, of course).

A problem is that many societies measure worth by possessions, big house, big car, fancy watches, exotic holidays. Thus lower impact items and pursuits equate to a loser, an unsuccessful (and maybe even stupid) person.

Wow - unbelievable d!ckheads in here! I do hope they're trolling and attempting to be funny.

I think it is fabulous, and if all our homes (or a much greater number) were as light on the environment the world would be a nicer place. It's made of a few trees - how moronic to suggest that steel and glass might be better for the environment. Like it doesn't take any energy to make steel and glass!

If you like that kind of thing this is a great book [url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Home-Work-Handbuilt-Lloyd-Kahn/dp/0936070331/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269856586&sr=8-4 ]Home Work, Lloyd Khan[/url]

Lifer - Member

I think Dales rider's woman must have run away with a Southerner

Any way back on track the whole eco concept is a non starter.
I for one where I live would never ever get planning permission.
The cost to the environment to demolish all the housing stock and rebuild it just is too much.
So we are back to one person Living in a house of their design and splendid isolation. A mere Utopia for the many 61 million in this country.

I didn't say 'wife'

I for one where I live would never ever get planning permission.
The cost to the environment to demolish all the housing stock and rebuild it just is too much.

i) Have you tried or are you just assuming 😉

ii) No-ones suggesting knocking everything down and starting again

I had to use matching stone to extend my house, even now trying to get permission to replace a garage. The downside of living in a national park.
Another is all the tossers on mountain bikes who will invade starting friday. 😉

No one is suggesting knocking down perfectly good houses.

No one is suggesting that all houses should be like this.

You are just making all that crap up.

There is nothing to stop some of the ideas for this becoming part of mainstream thinking - partial earth sheltering, light and local materials, more freedom to design and build for yourself and so-on. This is just a more pure iteration with a very distinctive look.

Another is all the tossers on mountain bikes who will invade starting friday.

Glenp - thanks for the book tip - looks interesting.

Dales Rider - your point about destroying energy, you're sort of on the right track but not quite. You can't get rid of energy out of a system, correct, but you CAN change its form, in this case we are changing fossil fuels into heat. Too much heat.

I'm baffled by how negative some of the responses are here. But as karin points out a lot of people seem to be only capable of seeing things as one of two polar opposites, which is pretty blinkered.

Also I don't follow the very common argument that doing some things that have some environmental impact disqualifies you from promoting or discussing 'green' issues.

Karinofnine - highly recommended, unusual book. Like a big scrapbook of loads of different things - like massive barns in the US, and tiny underground dug-outs in the woods, and a house made out of glass bottles… loads of funky stuff.

Seems to be the same mentality as "do you want us all to live in caves?!!".....as if nothing useful happened or nobody was happy between cavemen and the 21st century.

It's a nice looking place, be great as a second home in the country - lots of parking for my X5 out front 🙂

Our ISO14001 group did a tour of The Green Shop last year- really impressive and using a lot of tech that would fit into 'modern' buildings...for those of you who can't handle a hobbit house 😀

mogrim - Member

It's a nice looking place, be great as a second home in the country - lots of parking for my X5 out front

in this case we are changing fossil fuels into heat. Too much heat.

The heat isn't the problem (according to the science so far) it's the CO2 that's also produced.