Naturally built homes in their winter from Sweden to Romania

Sweden

It took Daniel two months work to build his tiny natural home in Northern Sweden with a few friends in 2008. Taking inspiration from Saami (native Scandinavians) torvkata (turf hut) and yurts, Daniel cut a 3m x 3m hole into a sunny hillside 1.5m deep. Building intuitively the house grew quickly. The home, which cost nearly nothing to build, stays warm in the winter, cool in the summer and still provides a magical home for one of Daniel's friends.

Please watch Daniel's wonderful videos of his life and home.

USA

This is Mary Steigerwald’s straw bale vault at Edge Habitat Sanctuary in the heart of Sangre de Cristos, NM, USA. It was built in the autumn (fall) of 2007 when friends gathered to build the "headquarters" for Edge Habitat. With knowledge of basic straw bale building techniques and an understanding of arches they set to work on the tiny 12ft x 12ft bedroom.

Wales

Part of the inspiration for Simon's home was his neighbour Tony Wrench who had pioneered the reciprocal roof Simon used in the design of his home. Simon also took inspiration from Lloyd Kahn's book 'Shelter' and now Simon's own home features in Lloyd's newest book.

Straw bale homes are ideal for cold climates. A three-string straw bale laid flat has an R-Value of 33. For a very thorough discussion of straw bale building we recommend The Natural Building Companion.

Russia

This is a choom in the frozen marshlands of the Yamal Peninsula in northwest Siberia, Russia. The choom, home to the nomadic Nenet, uses reindeer hides wrapped around wooden poles. During periods of migration chooms are moved every other day. Choom sites are chosen based on pasture and ground quality with a water source nearby. After checking the vegetation on a choom site the Brigadier pushes his reindeer driving stick, called a khorei, into the ground where he wants the centre of the choom to be.

Reindeer skin has a remarkable capacity to absorb and retain heat. The hides are arranged in two layers. The outer layer faces hair outward with the inner layer facing the hair inwards. A wood stove sits in the middle of the choom, which generates enough heat to keep everybody comfortable.

The Nenet reindeer breeders live with the daylight going to bed early, and get up early at about 5am. During the night the stove isn’t used, but you are still warm sleeping under a yaguskhka made of reindeer skin. In the morning, it is fresh and cool inside the choom.

Finland

This is Heidi's cottage, 'Elaman Puu', which means Tree of Life. It's built with a variety of natural building techniques with a rubble trench, earthbag stem walls dressed in stone, birch bark damp-proof membrane beneath the straw bales on the northern walls with cob and cordwood to the south and a reciprocal roof on a roundwood frame. All of the materials were harvested locally.

An earthbag stem wall was then built around the timbers of the roundhouse with a layer of birch bark acting as a waterproof membrane between the earthbags and the straw bale, cob and cordwood walls. Heidi then dressed the earthbag stem wall with stones to act as protection from rain splashing against the house.

The roof of 'Elaman Puu' is made from a ring of roundwood timbers interlocking and supporting one another. This self supporting roof is called a reciprocal roof. The design leaves a circular hole in the roof that forms a skylight bringing light directly into the heart of Heidi's natural home.

Romania

This is one of the cob homes built by architect and natural builder Ileana Mavrodin of Casa Verde in Banat, Romania. Cob is a mixture of sand, clay and straw like adobe but not formed into bricks. Cob is not a suitable design for cold climates like those found in northern Canada and Scandinavia but for southern climates with infrequent snow fall it can be suitable.

Watch the recent interview with Ileana (in Romanian) via the video button above where you can see her beautiful cob home.