Oct 21 2007
Hobbits in Wales
I’m getting ready to do a bunch of news writing and recruiting video production for the students and faculty in WSU’s landscape architecture program. The faculty, especially, are all pretty a much a bunch of greenies. So I went stumbling to see what I could see and to what LEED-like activity might be going in other parts of the world. I found this hobbit-like habitation in Wales:
You are looking at pictures of our family home in Wales. It was built by myself and my father in law with help from passers by and visiting friends. 4 months after starting we were moved in and cosy. I estimate 1000-1500 man hours and £3000 put in to this point. Not really so much in house buying terms (roughly £60/sq m excluding labour).
What is going on in Wales that passersby stop to help you build your house? The last time a passerby stopped to help was when I was moving in a subletter for my old place in San Francisco. He helped mightily, hefted heavy boxes, the whole nine yards. And also gummied the back door so that the next day, when no one was around, he could slide on in and steal the subber’s laptop.
I can only guess that this “low-impact woodland home” is likely situated in a shire with a low crime rate, so my cynicism does not apply. As it’s dug into the side of a hill (and uses the displaced earth in the elegant, oh so English garden landscaping), it’s got to be snug in the winter and cool in the summer. The designer (I assume), Simon Dale (tho’ the entire site is, perhaps intentionally, rather anonymous), writes further:
The house was built with maximum regard for the environment and by reciprocation gives us a unique opportunity to live close to nature. Being your own (have a go) architect is a lot of fun and allows you to create and enjoy something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass produced box designed for maximum profit and convenience of the construction industry. Building from natural materials does away with producers profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings.
“Being your own architect” is daunting, but this site has plans, opportunities for involvement, and lots of DIY manifestos about sustainability, permaculture, and green building. And you can’t beat this interior, clearly the work of some smart and talented folks.
