What PEOPLE are building around the world, INTERESTING HOMES.
Art of living in a Dordogne tiny mud home with living roof
In a small forest in France’s Dordogne, self-taught carpenter Menthé built his home with a living roof and mud walls, In a small forest in France’s Dordogne, self-taught carpenter Menthé built his home with a living roof and mud walls, plus hand-carved wood from the surrounding forest shaped according to ideas from 16th century French architect Philibert de l’Orme. The result is a charming and very cozy home that fits perfectly into the woodland.
For more on Menthé’s community (and hand-crafted bathroom, jacuzzi tub, etc) watch “French carpenters craft whimsical off-grid tiny house hamlet”: http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/…
Menthé’s blog: http://menthedesbois.blogspot.fr/
Original story: http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/…
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Tiny huts to enjoy the basics in Swedish spartan rural lodge
For more than 400 years, charcoaling had been traditional industry in the area surrounding Skinnskatteberg, Sweden. Locals burnt charcoal for the iron industry and lived in rustic huts to stay close to the “coaling” process.
To bring back this local tradition (which had died out in the middle of the 20th century), in 1996 the local municipality built 12 charcoal huts from mud and grass: each with 2 slim beds and a fire-burning stove.
Today, Andreas Ahlse, owner of the Kolarbyn eco-lodge, rents out the 12 huts to guests who want to experience a back-to-basics lifestyle. Here you learn to chop your own wood, start a fire with fire steel, collect drinking water and bathe in the lake. “I think people are getting more and more interested in the old history and want to come out here and test how it was.”
There’s no electricity or running water. The huts have just beds and a fireplace and candles. There’s a composting toilet, though you’re encouraged to pee in the woods as long as you avoid the blueberries. There’s no bath house or shower, but there is a large lake with a floating sauna.
Original story: http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/…
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Building modular cabins & glamping pods in Wales
http://www.woodmizer.co.uk
http://modulog.co.uk/
Using a Wood-Mizer LT40 mobile sawmill to cut their own timber, John and Leigh Price from Bullith Welles, Wales are building custom wooden cabins for use as a ‘glamping pod’ or garden office. (Glamping = Glamorous Camping)
Each moduLog is made in modular form which allows you to design your own moduLog by adding as many or as few modules as you wish.
ModuLog is very green in its approach as we use home grown timber and locally sourced materials in its construction.
If you want a unique, luxury, eco-friendly, handmade, bespoke pod for glamping, summer house or garden office then the moduLog is it.
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Magical Hobbit-Like Eco Cave House
This week we visit Underhill, and incredible hobbit-home like, eco-cave house built into a hillside. The off-the-grid house is cleverly constructed to resemble a cave. With no electricity in the house, the stone, wood and rustic features truly make you feel like you’re stepping back in time.
For more information on this house visit our website:
http://www.livingbiginatinyhouse.com/…
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The Earth House Domes of Solscape
This week we take a tour of the tiny earth houses of Solscape. These beautiful natural buildings are each less than 10 square meters, and sit overlooking the ocean, amongst the beautiful hills of Raglan, New Zealand.
The Earth Domes were built using a technique called earth-bag construction, where sturdy sacks are filled with material such as rock, sand and clay and then compacted down. The buildings each have a ferrocement roof and are finished off with a lime plaster.
Together, these domes cost less than NZ$10,000.00 to build. A remarkably low-cost, but stunningly beautiful build.
Although they are currently used as accommodation at Solscape Eco Retreat, it’s easy to see how easily these could be turned into spectacular, permanent tiny and ultra affordable earth houses with mezzanine sleeping loft, kitchen, bathroom and lounge areas.
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Building your own Hawaii minimal house for a vacation’s cost
Kristie Wolfe spent $5000 to build herself a tiny home on wheels in her hometown of Pocatello, Idaho. It started off as a yearlong experiment in simple living, but she liked it so much she decided to keep living small, not only in Idaho, but she began looking for land to build a tiny vacation home.
She bought a plot of land in Hawaii sight-unseen for $8000. A year later she bought a plane ticket, packed her bags full of tools and with the help of her mother, began to build a bamboo “treehouse” that to fit the surrounding jungle (though rather than using trees for support, she built it on stilts). After two months of building every day “from dawn to dusk” and an $11,000 investment, she had a second home.
For Wolfe, the fact that it’s small- 15’ by 15’ or 225 square feet- is an asset. “My original house was 97 square feet so that was really tiny so this feels huge… I think small homes are beautiful because it fits with my lifestyle. I think having a lot of stuff mentally weighs you down even in ways that you don’t realize.”
Building her own home meant that Kristie was able to design everything custom: from a toilet-sink to save water (she’s not only off-grid, but she relies on rainwater capture for water) to an indoor/outdoor shower with cork-bark tiling. Whether she ever moves here permanently or simply moves on to building yet another home, she now knows she can build her own shelter.
Filming credit: Ivan Nanney at Travel Movements
Kristie’s blog: http://tinyhouseontheprairie.net/
Original story: http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/…
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