Fancy your own Hobbit Home?
Fri, Aug 10, 2007
By Emma Morton
Dug into a hillside in a secluded part of Wales, Hobbit homes, or rather low impact woodland homes, are springing up all over the place thanks to the Lammas Project. This project is the first of its kind and aims to demonstrate the viability of low impact living as a settlement model. The development of an eco-village is set to take place in 2008 in Pembrokeshire, as this is one of the only counties in the UK (apart from Milton Keynes) to have a planning policy for low impact Development.
Although these homes look like they part of a set for a new Spielberg film, they’re actually highly self sufficient and economical. Who wouldn’t want to live in a soil mound?
Construction wise they are easy and simple to put up, all you need is a spot of land, £3000 and a few hands to help. Living wise they seem the ideal solution to a number of current issues, from community engagement and increased family life, to being soft on the environment and cutting CO2 emissions. They are built mainly from reclaimed and natural materials, and yet have all the comforts of a ‘modern’ home. For example, they have a fridge cooled from air coming underground through the foundations, water from a local spring (powered by gravity), solar panels for lighting and music, along with other nifty energy saving ideas.
Brilliant! Lets all get one. Well, it’s not that easy. You’d think that these homes are the answer the government has been looking for; affordable, easy to construct, low impact and community enhancing. But the current project is having problems getting planning permission from Pembrokeshire County Council – shame they’re not asking for a 200 mile long gas pipeline!
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3 Trackbacks For This Post
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The Herb Girl » the hobbit homes of Wales Says:
August 10th, 2007 at 6:23 pm[...] more here [...]
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Alonline » Hobbit homes in Pembrokeshire Says:
August 11th, 2007 at 2:11 am[...] I blogged these hobbit style homes before, and I rather liked them all that time ago. It’s good to see that a local council in Wales is now encouraging a development of an eco-village next year, through it’s judicious use of planning policy. If only more councils were as aware of the low environmental impact of such homes, and the benefit to the area that could be made by encouraging such ecologically friendly house design, then maybe more such homes would be built. [...]
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Lost in Technology » Blog Links Says:
August 12th, 2007 at 4:38 pm[...] Hobbit homes are popping up in England - I wonder if this is how Lord of the Rings started? [...]
August 10th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
More details! Sources!
August 10th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
the original Welsh “hobbit” home is here:
http://www.simondale.net/house/
the Lammas Project: http://www.lammas.org.uk/
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:12 pm
I have just purchased this year a 1/3 acre of land in County Durham, it is on the outskirts of a historic village and is near the Nth yorkshire county border. I intend to build an eco friendly hobbit style house on this land as the land has a slight gradient to it. There is a natural spring nearby and a pub too. Outstanding. I would love to design a home that has 3 bedrooms, a goodsized bathroom, an open sitting/kitchen area. An Aga cooker was in my mind so I could heat the water in the back boiler for hot water and heating. I would want an open fire and if possible a garage/workshop at the end of the building. I would love to dig deep enough so I could have the building split into 2 levels, 1st & ground floor.
I have so many ideas in my head but I need to get started, I also thought of having a heat pump dug into the soil to generate some heating, again I would like to get started, are there any architects who specialise in this area or even those who don’t know but would like to have some kind of input with the design and construction. I have a very limited budget,I am a carpenter/builder so I intend to build the whole thing on my own so as to save money. I do have some savings but very limited, heres hoping I get a response from cyberspace.