
The Hobbit House (2012) - Tomte
http://www.beingsomewhere.net/hobbit.htm
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darsham
The 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.

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jqm
Very cool. It looks so easy from the article but I doubt it actually is. (I
notice this was the authors second attempt). Side note... the father-in-law in
the picture actually looks like a Hobbit in the picture. Coincidence?

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saalweachter
Dress for the job you want.

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nakedrobot2
This is one of the most over-shared web pages I know. What on earth is it
doing here on HN?

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kcbanner
The only thing that concerns me here is the structural soundness, very cool
project though.

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Kronopath
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.

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emidln
On the other hand, while structural soundness was much worse in the past than
it might be today, this method has served humanity fairly well for a very long
time.

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pessimizer
If 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-Lloyd-Kahn/dp/0936070110/)

[http://www.amazon.com/Shelter-II-Lloyd-
Kahn/dp/0936070498/](http://www.amazon.com/Shelter-II-Lloyd-
Kahn/dp/0936070498/)

I'm pretty sure this house was featured in one of them.

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koliber
This 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.

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sejje
This has been on the internet, at least, for a few years.

Those are the original project photos--I've not seen any updated ones.

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jff
I seem to remember reading about people living in a hobbit-house type thing (I
think it may have been this one) leaving after a few years. I don't remember
if the house had become unsound or if the local government finally caught wind
of their "nail it together until it stops wobbling" building technique and
condemned the place.

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Qantourisc
Love these kinds of houses, however getting a construction permit is hard.
First there is the "is it structurally ok ?", but cob houses can be build
correctly. And second is getting the "looks" approved, all houses have to look
the same and all that :(

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drcube
Not 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.

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izzydata
Sounds more like dwarfs. Pretty confident Bilbo's house did not have any other
homes connected to it. It was built into the side of a hill as a standalone
home.

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drcube
I meant that the several rooms of a single home were connected by tunnels, not
that multiple homes were connected together.

This is always how I've imagined my dream house to be. Energy efficient,
immersed in nature, easy to hide if necessary.

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_mulder_
One 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.

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dbingham
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/](http://www.dancingrabbit.org/)) and
Earthhaven ([http://www.earthaven.org/](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.

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fusionefredda
Simply amazing!

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tootie
Does it, um have a toilet? Or electricity?

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jarito
Read the article. It has a composting toilet, uses skylights for daylight
illumination and has solar panels for electrical needs. Doesn't seem to use it
for refrigeration though, which seems limiting.

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welly
I live in a similar-ish situation where I live on a narrowboat in London. I
have a solar panel for electrical needs and I run the boat engine once every
few days during the winter. For refrigeration, I've got a 12v fridge but many
people I know use gas fridges. Fridges use up an amazing amount of power. But
the fridge is really the only thing I run off electricity - occasionally
charge up my laptop and charge my phone off the 12v supply. But yes, my boat
batteries are pretty much there only for the fridge.

