Eco-friendly housing, Frodo-and-Sam style

(Credit: Simon Dale)

When I first saw the pictures of this house on Make Magazine's blog, I thought they were straight off the sets of one of the Lord of the Rings movies. Seriously, doesn't it look like the kind of place where you could open the door and expect to see see Elijah Wood and Dominic Monaghan inside sporting prosthetic foot fur? But, no, it's actually a "low-impact woodland home" in Wales that was built at a total cost of 3,000 pounds (a little under $6,000) and 1,000-1,500 man-hours over a period of four months. The end result is not just environmentally friendly, but also lovely to look at.

(Credit: Simon Dale)

The creator of the house, who built it with his father-in-law and the help of visiting friends, was dug into a hillside and is heated by wood burning. Natural light comes in through a skylight, and additional power comes from solar panels; water is brought in from a nearby spring. More specs on this creative housing solution are available on the builder's Web site. He now lives there with his wife and two small children.

Looks like a nice and cozy place for enjoying all six meals of the day.

[klbac]

eco-friendly house

Great looking home. Wouldn't mind having a place like this one myself!

[leliathomas]

Cute, but probably not all that safe.

This looks beautiful, especially some of the inside photographs, but let's be realistic for a moment. Imagine a tornado hitting this or a flood or a tree falling on it. We won't even discuss termites or other harmful insects. It's fun--it'd be great as some oddball holiday home--but in reality there is a reason we use some of the building materials that we do and have some of the design requirements as we have them. I know it's built into the side of a hill, but I'd like to see it withstand some testing for safety before I thought it was really awesome.

[sdforsythe]

Sturdy Home

You would be surprised actually. Homes made of straw/cob and mud are actually incredibly strong and weather resistant. In fact, there are still houses of these types standing in Europe from Shakespearian times! <br /><br />Also, houses built into the side of a hill, with a round or dome-like shape, covered by earth and contoured into the hill would be much more likely to be standing after a tornado than a box house of 2x4 sticks out in the open.

[legallygreen]

deltec homes

not quite as unique, though still circular - these company was on ABC News when the storms hit, they survived - This crazy looking round houses actually use a lot less energy - I think the website is www.deltechomes.com

[jcrvlh]

Do not fear alternative methods of building

We need more of this sort of building to be at one with our environment. We have gone on a blind trend of using concrete in our buildings just like we did for using oil in our transportation. This building is not only structurally sound, it is efficient, it feels good to be inside, and it is actually better for your health then concrete to live in. We can have load bearing straw bale walls, we can use hemp &#38; lime, we can use rammed earth walls that are proven to stand at least 5000 years. Straw bales are very good insulation, and there are no insects or pests interested in it. It is a matter of changing peoples narrow minds and ultimately the building industry. The builders need to learn the methods, the investors need to realize that these methods are actually cheaper, more profitable, environmentally correct, and ultimately more desirable. A conventional looking house can be built using these methods. There are multi story buildings using load bearing straw bale walls. It is a steep curve, but not for our standard of living, comfort, or security, we have gone too far into the concrete trend, shame it is not going to finish like the oil is soon, then we would be more radical about it.

[razzman1986]

I Love This Eco-friendly House

This is such a beautiful house and it would be great if more of our society would care about the environment.