Low impact house – and it's so cool

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.

Maybe they're just flocking to be near the tossers that are already there.

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 😀

http://www.greenshopgroup.co.uk/documents/articles/greenshop_interpretation_board.pdf

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
Loving it as long as you dont buy anything in my nice Dales village, there is only enough room for my V8 Land Rover

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.

Ok, I stand corrected re heat, but you get my point that the fossil deposits are being transformed into something undesirable.

The worlds changing, it always has. One day it will be no more. Just enjoy your brief spell on it.

End of thread 🙂

One day it will be no more

I'd rather it was 4 billion years' time tho rather than 2050 🙂

Just enjoy your brief spell on it.

As long as you don't go building anything that I personally don't like the look or idea of…

MrSalmon – Member
I'm baffled by how negative some of the responses are here.

I'm baffled that there are any at all! One hippyish dude (assumption) and his father in law build a hobbit house. Then they start building another. What's the big deal?!

It looks amazing and saves valuable resources. I honestly can't see the problem. Nowhere does he suggest that EVERYONE MUST LIVE LIKE THIS, YOU FASCIST OPPRESSORS AND RAPISTS OF MOTHER EARTH.

Back (a bit) to the house in question: are modern houses really that unhealthy? There seems to be a lot of assuming on the website, and I note that (according to the plans) the hobbit house is basically wrapped in a plastic bag, too…

Whoever said they didn't fancy sharing a room with their kids, +1: there's a real whiff of Viz's Modern Parents here!

molgrips – Member

One day it will be no more

I'd rather it was 4 billion years' time tho rather than 2050
Matters not a jot I probably wont be here for either dates.

user-removed – Member

YOU FASCIST OPPRESSORS AND RAPISTS OF MOTHER EARTH.
I resemble that remark

Its quite astonishing how rapidly all of these modern conceits and conventions have come into being. Up until quite recent history a house built from wood and other locally available materials was the absolute norm. As was making do with a modest amount of space. Within a mere few generations we now believe that anything other than factory built and standardised boxes with a standardised way of using our own space is plain weird and must be demonised.

The ethos and construction of that house has a lot more in common with the English country cottage than the suburban semi – and that's part of the charm of it.

Matters not a jot I probably wont be here for either dates.

Well I hope to be here in 2050 and I really hope my kids are. So go easy on Mother Earth for them alright? 🙂

Fair play to him, but I'm afraid I'm with Lady G on this one. Sod living in that place; I bet it's bastard cold in winter, and damp. And can you imagine the amount of bugs and creepy crawlies?? Slugs? Eeuuw!

No, sorry, I'm a sybarite. I like the comforts and luxuries technological evolution has brought us. I like having electricity, and gas central heating. I like it, when I have a poo, that I push a button and it all gets magically whisked away for someone else to deal with.

I respect someone for giving something they believe in a go, but as for the eco side of things, I'd doubt they're more than 10% less environmentally destructive than most other people, when you weigh it all up. For all their home farming etc, they are still basically reliant on the same systems as everyone else; food has to be produced and transported, drugs developed, transport fuelled, etc. It's a nice gesture, and we could all do with being greener, but it is little more than a gesture.

Tatty dump. I bet it right pongs, too.

(Ooh! 100th post!)

Whilst personally I can't stand this kind of sub-Hundertwasser builidng, I don't have any real problem with people building them. My original concern, which I think is still valid is his understanding of moisture control within a building and where he's placed his "plastic sheeting" in relation to the straw bales. Although as he sees these as short term buildings then I don't think he really cares.
There's lots of "old" technology out there which is becoming increasingly useful as the limitations of modern construction systems become apparent.

Thing is, you don't go into a 14thC timber framed wattle and daub'd pub and think "euch – so damp and smelly in here". Or I certainly don't. I think it feels wonderfully "real", and I love the smell of the fire and the funk of the five hundred year old beams. Give me that any day over scrubbed and chemical-ed and charmless modern buildings with horrible air quality.

And why do people think that low impact and sustainable means being cold and having no electricity?

Talkemada

Sense at last 😀

Mind I'm going to give it a go.
So I go get a chainsaw, find a bit of hilly land to buy where no one is overlooking it. Dig a hole into the hill, chop down 30 or so small trees.
Build a frame, buy a load of straw bales from an intensive farm and stack em around the frame.
Approach the petrol chemical industry for some of their plastic to wrap it all in and finish of with some mud, glass windows [spome on else bought them so its green] and a door [from a skip] that originaly was part of a rain forest.
Nobody saw me do it and its fairly well buried so I'll apply for retrospective planning permission, best bit is I'm signing on and claiming benefits so you lot will pay for it. 😀

You can do 'low impact and sustainable' without it looking like a hermit's hovel.

They build lots of reasonable eco-friendly wooden houses in Scandinavia. They mostly look quite good.

Eco-friendly doesn't have to look crap. A bit of thought applied to the design, and you could have something very nice.

Dales rider is just….like…sooooooo 20th century 😉

Nice house there Talkemada 😀
Now that I could live in 😀

'I think I've got it. The clue's in the name – Dales_rider – are you James Martin?

I can see that house going down well on a housing estate in Rochdale – I assume that it'd be ok if you had a couple of acres and a lot of trees to screen it? there's a recent German tech/sustainable house that has been lived in by a real family for the last year and they've already said that the ability for all their neighbours to watch them doin everything rather put them off the design.
I quite like this:

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'm quite interested to see that no-one has denied doing this ❓

I'm quite interested to see that no-one has denied doing this

I think they were ignoring it.

But since you ask…
Truth is, I do both. mostly I ride locally, because it's there, but it's also great to explore further afield.

As I said before – no everyone can't live like the hobbit guy, but it does show people that they can do small things to lesson their impact.

Not sure why you hate this guy so much. Did he build his house on your land?

Talkemada

Eco-friendly doesn't have to look crap.

Of course not.

Why then, have you posted a picture of some horrific glass monstrosity, which looks total crap in a natural environment ❓

😕

I'd rather live in a concrete tower block in Croydon, than in a glorified mud-hut, personally.

The above pic is just an example of an alternative eco-house. Not my cup of tea personally, but a darn sight better than Stig of the Dump's gaff.

My point was, that you can build eco-friendly sustainable houses, that aren't shacks built from scrap. That bloke's done a good job, although I'd question the £3000 figure he reckons it cost (mechanical diggers cost hundreds per day to hire -what about the diesel pollution??).

There a millions of people worldwide, who live in shacks made from whatever they have to hand. Many are probably better than this one.

I bet his family suffer from tummy troubles a fair bit. Have you seen the state of his jumper?

I'd rather live in a concrete tower block in Croydon, than in a glorified mud-hut, personally.

Well you've obviously never lived in a concrete tower block in Croydon then.

Us mud-hut dwellers might be poor………….but at least we're happy 8)

The 3000gbp figure assumes someone gives you the land, most of the materials, and free labour.

The Scandinavian house is more up my street, so to speak.

OK, not eco friendly, but if I had to live in the woods this is what I'd want:

http://studiowellspring.blogspot.com/2008/03/stal-tre-hus-steel-tree-house.html

I'd prefer Talkemada's eco-solution for housing. Much better than Robo-house above and Frodo's attempt at destroying the countryside.

ooOOoo – Member

Dales rider is just….like…sooooooo 20th century

Correct and you are obviously 21st century.

glenp – Member

'I think I've got it. The clue's in the name – Dales_rider – are you James Martin?

James Martin, banned from my house. Mind every cyclist would hear me coming especialy when I kick down my V8 automatic to pass them.

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'm quite interested to see that no-one has denied doing this

Why? It's straight from the school of thought that says that if you live in a house with electric lights you're some sort of hypocrite if you have any environmental concerns. It's just daft, and the only person saying that environmental awareness == living in a mud hut wearing rabbit furs is you.

Frodo's attempt at destroying the countryside…

v.

A concrete plant's attempt at destroying the countryside…

Talkemada, I'm sorry but that house is not eco-friendly, like most Scandanavian houses it is energy greedy. Few of their houses are triple glazed and with that amount of glass winter energy loss will be enormous whilst a low winter sun provides almost no heating (even if they cut down the trees on the south side). No signs of any energy production.

Sweden is using more energy whilst other European countires are satbilising or even reducing consumption of fossil fuels. Take a look at ooOOoo's project if you want to know how to build a house that uses very little energy.

My 30s house now includes most of the features in ooOOoos project. This year's gas bill is under £200 and it's the last I'll be paying as I'm currently replacing it with a wood burner. The solar panels produce more electricity than we use except for the four winter months when we draw 50-120kWh/month from the grid.