“A family has today won a three-year battle to save their real-life ‘hobbit house’ from the bulldozers after it was built without planning permission for £12,000.
Codes
Handbuilt small homes and the building codes
“This video is about small handbuilt homes and how building codes stand in the way. For the first part of this 2-part documentary on why we need small handbuilt homes please visit: https://youtu.be/dZF6d3gUdd0
Homestead Outlaws
“When we looked around at all the things we do on a regular basis, we realize that many things are illegal in other places around the country. Living an Off Grid life in America can get you in hot water with legal authorities if you’re not careful. Here is a list of things we do that may make you an Outlaw.”
Why We Need Handbuilt Homes
I got an email from Cari Corbet-Owen saying, “I recently completed producing a 2- part series on 1) why natural building is so imperative and 2) the challenges that stand in our way aka. building codes. I have posted them on youtube so that they are freely available and readily accessible. I’d love for them … Read more
Eco-Homes: People, Place and Politics
Jenny Pickerill is a professor of environmental geography at the University of Sheffield, and I met her when she was conducting research for this book, gallivanting around the world on a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travel Fellowship. She interviewed me and we toured a variety of novel eco-homes near Crestone, Colorado, where I was living at the time. In addition to Crestone, she visited ecological enclaves in Britain, Spain, Thailand, Argentina and other locations in the United States.
Her purpose in assembling this academic study into ecological living was to focus more on the social, geographical and political issues around eco-housing, which are often ignored, in the hopes that a broader acceptance of sustainable architecture will evolve. I found her analysis enlightening and well worth the read, if a bit academic in its outlook. Each chapter of the book is devoted to a different filter, which in total provides a good understanding of the issues involved.
The first chapter focuses on the eco aspects of eco-homes, and why this is important. She observes that “eco-houses are being built to deal with the issues of waste through structural innovations by altering size, harnessing renewable technologies, retrofitting existing housing stock and changing occupants’ behavior and practices. Each approach has benefits, limitations and financial costs.” She goes on to chastise government and industry for emphasizing the technical fixes while ignoring simpler solutions.
Next, Jenny delves into the home aspect explaining how hard it is to define what home really is. Home can generally refer to country, state, city, bioregion, neighborhood, as well as a specific house. We have an emotional attachment to our homes that must be recognized in order to make eco-houses appealing to a wider audience. The emotional component is affected by aesthetics, location, style, privacy, comfort, and worth.
Need Your Help to Stop Tiny Houses from being Illegal!
I’m reposting the following announcement from Tiny House Talk. This is serious folks. Proposed HUD regulations could shut down the tiny house movement. The video is from a different source. See link below. Input from Tiny House professionals is especially welcome.
“This is a quick announcement because we need your help to stop tiny houses from becoming illegal per the fed’s new HUD proposal regarding recreational vehicles.