The only thing that concerns me here is the structural soundness, very cool project though.
It would be good to know if they got a structural engineer look it over. Because it really doesn't look like a stable structure at all.
The Hobbit House (2012)
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Re: The Hobbit House (2012)
#12The frame and rafters seem solid (as long as you don't stress it too much), but it seems inevitable that the roots of plants will pierce the plastic layer, and rain will drain though the roof.
I know it's heavy duty plastic, but the roots of small plants can crack rock.
It's hard to tell from all these 200x200px pictures, but is the plastic the first thing on the ceiling? If that's the case, you might patch it up as it gets punctured or replace whole sections of it. I'm very curious as to how the house and vegetation will evolve on the long term, because this is pretty much my dream house.
Edit: After looking at the rest of the website, it becomes clear that they know what they're doing. I'm still curious about the details.
Re: The Hobbit House (2012)
#13One of the big problems, at least in the overcrowded UK, is getting your hands on a suitable parcel of land in an area sympathetic to this sort of development.
Getting planning permission is probably more of a problem than finding somewhere that this would fit in - plenty of empty space in Wales and Scotland.
e.g. In the case of Scotland we're mostly all crowded into the rift valley of the Central Belt:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/resources/chskeystatisticsscotland...
Re: The Hobbit House (2012)
#14This looks like a very neat project. I am tremendously curious how this will hold up with time. I have recently finished building a house (as an inexperienced general contractor). A ton of things deal with how things will behave over time as opposed to how they will work right after construction has finished. I am particularly curious about the fairly loosely-packed bales of hay and the plastic used to waterproof the roof.
Re: The Hobbit House (2012)
#15One of the big problems, at least in the overcrowded UK, is getting your hands on a suitable parcel of land in an area sympathetic to this sort of development.
This is a problem in the US as well. There are numerous ecovillages way out in rural areas in counties with relatively lax regulations, places like Dancing Rabbit (http://www.dancingrabbit.org/) and Earthhaven (http://www.earthaven.org/), but there are many more communities where you can't even plant a garden. You have to maintain a perfect lawn or else.
I live in an ecovillage that is attempting this sort of building in a (small) city. It's a city that is generally friendly to our efforts, but city, county and state code still make it pretty much prohibitively expensive. We're still trying to find a way through it, at least to a happy medium.
Re: The Hobbit House (2012)
#16The only thing that concerns me here is the structural soundness, very cool project though.
It would be good to know if they got a structural engineer look it over. Because it really doesn't look like a stable structure at all .
When building a house into the side of a hill, I one should consider the durability of the hill as well as the house.
Even if it doesn't collapse under its own weight, it's not much of a hobbit house if you can't walk (or jump) on it.
[Bad things](http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/green-roof-collaps...) [can happen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zolitūde_shopping_centre_roof_c...) when green roofs aren't properly constructed.
Re: The Hobbit House (2012)
#17The only thing that concerns me here is the structural soundness, very cool project though.
I agree. From the captions on the construction pictures:
> Lift logs, prop up, nail together and continue until no longer wobbly.
That's not very reassuring.
Re: The Hobbit House (2012)
#18The only thing that concerns me here is the structural soundness, very cool project though.
The soil is heavy, much more heavy when it rains. It's an accident waiting to happen. I used to have a construction company in Norway where these grass roofs are popular, worked on several of them.
Re: The Hobbit House (2012)
#19Not that this isn't awesome, but aren't hobbit houses underground? With networks of tunnels and hillside windows and entrances? This looks like a rustic country house with a green roof. As much as I like this, I'd prefer something actually underground.
Re: The Hobbit House (2012)
#20If you're interested in this sort of thing, I'd recommend (amongst many other works):
http://www.amazon.com/Shelter-Lloyd-Kahn/dp/0936070110/
http://www.amazon.com/Shelter-II-Lloyd-Kahn/dp/0936070498/
I'm pretty sure this house was featured in one of them.