Hobbit House Farmstead - Natural Building - Sustainable Farming

The adobe bricks, which form the front of the house, were made with a hand press called a cinva ram. Cordwood construction was considered the most appropriate building method for the side walls of the house, which have an irregular shape because they rise up the slope. A cob mixture with clay, sand, and straw was mixed to use with the 16-inch, firewood-size logs. Wine bottles placed in strategic places shine in the morning sun.

A take-off from the cordwood wall was used on the floor: one-inch thick wooden "tile" was cut from the logs and placed in a cob mixture above an insulative mix of clay and sawdust and a vapor barrier. The doors and windows came from a demolished university building, except for the round Hobbit House door. The round door is a round piece of metal covered with styrofoam adorned with paper mache and painted with an image of the earth, looking down onto the Indian Ocean. The round door frame was made with adobe bricks -- a machete was used to shave the keystone to the appropriate shape. A liner of cement was plastered on the curve to protect it from wear and tear from entering and leaving the house.

Since the house is only 400 square feet, built-in benches flow underneath the solar-collecting, south-facing windows. A large stainless steel counter saved from the junk yard wraps two sides of the kitchen area. Gravity-fed spring water is on tap, along with hot water heated by the sun and located in a skylight above the kitchen. A massive rock and clay woodstove provides cooking as well as heat for the house in the winter. During the summer, an outdoor kitchen with its own woodstove is used to keep the heat and humidity out of the house. To further reduce the humidity level in the house, the bath and shower are located in the earth-sheltered greenhouse.

Both the greenhouse and the house have massive posts and beams supporting living roofs, where fresh garden produce can be picked for dinner and eggs collected from Indian runner ducks can provide breakfast. Using a rubber material called EPDM, flat roofs are easy to waterproof, especially if you don't have penetrations, such as skylights, or outside corners.

The site is off the electrical grid -- it is powered by 200 watts of photovoltaic panels, an ample amount of electricity since 15 watts of LED lights fully illuminate the interior. The super-efficient SunDanzer refrigerator by Electrolux takes only 150 watt/hours per day. One hour of sun a day provides for my basic needs.

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