Natural homes built by inspirational people and their words of
advice...
"The hope of the world made new, is
the hundredth man who is grimly bent
on making those dreams come
true", Edgar Allan Poe
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When Simon made a website
about their
straw
bale home to share pictures with friends and family, it
wasn't long before someone blogged about it and soon the
world's media were intrigued by the beautiful house. Now Simon and
family have moved from their iconic hobbit house to live at
Lammas EcoVillage in
Pembrokeshire,
Wales. Part of the inspiration for Simon's home was
his neighbour
Tony Wrench (below) who had pioneered the
reciprocal roof Simon has used in the design of his home. |
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Simon talks about natural building:
click the video button above
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Simon says, "All around the world people
are now, and have been for most of history, building their own homes
and they’ve been doing it, not entirely on their own but with help
from their community." Simon took 2 months to build his home and added the greenhouse to
the exterior the following spring. The home was built with stone,
clay and trees all from the land around his home with reclaimed
windows and wiring and plumbing. All together the home only cost
around $6,000 ($9,000). |
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Jon runs
Pun Pun
an organic farm, seed-saving operation, and sustainable
living and learning centre.
At Pun Pun they use ancient
natural building techniques with readily available, local, natural
materials with little embodied energy and salvaged materials to
make homes, a practical and affordable alternative to resource
intensive conventional building.
Jon says,
"I want to be
equal to animals. The bird makes a nest in one or two days; the
rat digs a hole in one night, but clever humans like us spend 30
years to have a house... that's wrong."
and,
"Before I thought
that stupid people like me … cannot have a house… because
people who are cleverer than me and get a job need to work
for 30 years to have a house. But for me, who cannot
finish university, how can I have a house. It's hopeless
for people who have low education like me. But when I
start to do earthen buildings, it's so easy! I spent two
hours per day… and in 3 months I have a house. A friend
who was the most clever in the class he has a house too
but he has to be in debt for 30 years, so compared to him
I have 29 years and 10 months of free time. I feel life is
so easy." |
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Jon's TED talk "Life is easy": click the video button above
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SunRay
Kelley has created a magical place where he practices
what he calls evolutionary architecture where you make
plans, but if a better idea comes along you change your
plans.
The natural buildings on SunRay's homestead have
names like
Sky House and The Yogurt, a cross between a yoga studio
and a yurt. You can take a tour of the homestead with SunRay
in the video above and watch more inspirational natural
building videos from the collection right.
"The natural world is to me known as the magic
kingdom... It's a magical place. There's a lot of magic going on
in this world that most people don't even know is happening.
That's certainly where all my inspiration comes from."
"All building was natural building a hundred years ago. So it's
not that far back. In order to go forward we have to go
backward... We want to return to a cooperation with nature" |
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Sunray talks about his work: click the video button above
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Tony Wrench
built his cordwood roundhouse in the winter of 1997/8 tucked
away in the Welsh countryside you can literally walk within
a few meters of it and not see it. Tony couldn't get planning permission for the home
and by 2004 he was on the verge of demolishing it when the public
overwhelmingly stood side by side to support his planning
application. Tony managed to keep the home until he was
able to re-apply under Pembrokeshire's new Low Impact Policy.
He says, "The nice thing about
houses like this is the actual building materials come from
nature and go back to nature so you can build something like
this hardly making a mark on the landscape."
By 2008 Tony had permission to keep his home
and now it is the flagship home for the Welsh government's
guidelines for development of settlements in the open countryside
called 'One Planet Developments' where Tony's home appears on the
cover of the
Technical Advice Note 6
(PDF 6Mb),
otherwise known as TAN6. |
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Take a tour around the roundhouse
with Tony: click the video button above
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People like
Tony and his supporters have helped to make other low-impact
settlements possible like
Lammas ecoVillage
where among others
Simon Dale now lives, not a stones throw from another famous
roundhouse. Tony shares his roundhouse building experience in
his book (right) 'Building a Low Impact Roundhouse'. |
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