Real Hobbit Houses

This family home in Wales was built with maximum regard for the environment and by reciprocation gives the owners  a unique opportunity to live close to nature. Being your own architect is a lot of fun and allows you to create and enjoy something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass produced box designed for maximum profit and convenience of the construction industry. Building from natural materials does away with producers profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings. For more information: simondale.net

all images are of the simondale home

Features of the home include:

• Dug into hillside for low visual impact and shelter
• Stone and mud from diggings used for retaining walls, foundations etc.
• Frame of oak thinnings (spare wood) from surrounding woodland
• Reciprocal roof rafters are structurally and aesthetically fantastic and very easy to do
• Straw bales in floor, walls and roof for super-insulation and easy building
• Plastic sheet and mud/turf roof for low impact and ease
• Lime plaster on walls is breathable and low energy to manufacture (compared to cement)
• Reclaimed (scrap) wood for floors and fittings
• Anything you could possibly want is in a rubbish pile somewhere (windows, burner, plumbing, wiring…)
• Woodburner for heating - renewable and locally plentiful
• Flue goes through big stone/plaster lump to retain and slowly release heat
• Fridge is cooled by air coming underground through foundations
• Skylight in roof lets in natural feeling light
• Solar panels for lighting, music and computing
• Water by gravity from nearby spring
• Compost toilet
• Roof water collects in pond for garden etc.

Main tools used: chainsaw, hammer and 1 inch chisel, little else really. Oh and by the way I am not a builder or carpenter, my experience is only having a go at one similar house 2yrs before and a bit of mucking around inbetween. This kind of building is accessible to anyone. My main relevant skills were being able bodied, having self belief and perseverance and a mate or two to give a lift now and again.

You can go to Wales and work and learn to build similar natural homes : lammas.org.uk/

The overview of the project is to create low-impact architecture uses a combination of recycled and natural materials. The project is essentially a self-build affair. The first phase will see the construction of five detached dwellings and one terrace of four dwellings. There will be a combination of building styles including straw bale, earth sheltered, timber frame and cob. The houses will feature the latest environmental technologies and design techniques. The dwellings will blend into the landscape. Indeed they will be largely made from elements of the landscape (for example turf roofs, cob walls, timber cladding).

Related Website:
Woodhouse Wood is 80 acres of ancient native woodland. It is predominantly oak but alder, ash, birch and willow are also found. The understory is hazel, holly and rowan and the ground cover a mix of bramble, bracken, bilberry, ferns and moss. In May many acres are a carpet of bluebells. Clear felled for its timber some 100 years ago, it was allowed to regrow. It is now a thick entanglement of thin trees, it is a haven for woodland wildlife.

“We are people who have known the woodland and believe it to be a good place”

We have begun to manage the woodland in a way that will enable future generations to sustainably harvest quality wood. At the moment we are slowly thinning the woods. Our buildings use wiggly green oak poles but we also have a small saw mill, a kiln for drying the sawn boards and workshop machinery for sawing, planing and finishing these planks.

Woodhouse Wood is open to the public for walks all year round. The map in our Welcome Hut can help you plan your route. There are good tracks throughout the woods but they are steep in places. There are parking areas at the entrance to the wood, outside the reception/workshop and by the clearing at the top of the woods. Unless otherwise invited please park at the entrance carpark, by the Welcome Hut, and walk.

At the top of the wood is a clearing ringed by strange twisted trees, which add a little magic to the space. Here we have built two beautiful roundhouses that almost seem to have grown there. They are made from bent oak poles, wooden pegs, nails and clever carpentry. The roofs are turf and fern and, with a concealed plastic membrane keeping out the rain, they provide considerable shelter for the various events held at Woodhouse Wood. These facilities are available for hire and are a unique and inspiring setting for many occasions.

Woodhouse Wood Community Co-op and is a voluntary, non-profit making group. Some of us are a loose association of craftsmen and artists celebrating the beauty of wood and its myriad uses. Mostly we are just people who have known the woodland and believe it to be a good place.You can contact us with any enquires or, or you can just come for a look around.

Getting here is simple. Take the A477 (Tenby road) for 3 miles west of St. Clears, turn left for New Mill opposite the Old Mill Transport Cafe. Go over the small stone bridge and turn immediately right into the woodland!