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Rod is moving to Costa Rica! He will join with the Costa
Rica International Center for Sustainability and will co-create
the Aristotle
Gathering from December 28, 2007, through January 24, 2008.
At this gathering, like-minded thinkers of sustainability will
come together during a month of events to participate in forums,
classes, workshops, dining, and entertainment. Details.
The Hobbit House is a
natural-built home that is part of a sustainable, mountainside, agricultural
system.
My
mission was to develop a sustainable, agricultural homestead on a south-facing
mountainside in order to demonstrate that tobacco farmers, textile workers, and
other unemployed families could live a rewarding life. The objectives included
construction of a home requiring a small amount of capital and development of an
agricultural system that could sustain a family living a simple lifestyle. The
Hobbit House emerged from the earth, as clay and sand were turned into pressed adobe
bricks and trunks and limbs of local trees formed the timber frame and the basis
of the cordwood wall. Almost all the materials from which the house is made came
from the Earthaven site. The house is earth-sheltered -- excavated into the side of
the mountain. A roof was erected over the earthen bank to create what is called
a vertical crawl space. Concrete and waterproofing were not needed. An old
teepee with decorative Native American paintings hangs to form the wall in front
of the earth bank. 
Another section of the wall is of bamboo backed by reflective Mylar, which
reflects heat back into the room and keeps the crawlspace cool for use as a root
cellar. Stacking functions is a common practice in permaculture design, so the
door into the vertical crawl space also serves as a book case.
The adobe blocks snake across the front of the house, enclosing windows
rounded by decorative cob work. Two stained glass windows are lead-free. They
were made by artist Jim Powell with a process he developed using scrap stained
glass, cement, bamboo, and clay.
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