Must see video of natural homes in Australia made with a wide range of natural materials. Even if some are too large for your tastes, look for design details.
“Self sustainable housing is the future! Join us on this preview of some amazing homes constructed with natural resources and environmentally friendly materials. Permaculture and sustainable living is the way to a free and natural life.”
Excellent.
Great to see accessible design being used. A much under appreciated concept. Many natural builders are building their eventual retirement home. It only makes sense to plan ahead for a time when they may not be as physically mobile.
I also love all the special detials, such as:
The trees used as posts throughout many of the structures in the video.
The repeated use of custom cabinetry throughout the video.
The curved railing @ 9:20
The custom built door latch @ 20:50.
The humorous, yet still practical whimsy of the tractor seat stool @ 28:20. I can imagine small children playing on it. I can also imagine grandparents sitting on it hugging grandchildren in their lap. Can a home possibly get any better than that?
It’s those kinds of details that make a home special. When hiring someone to build your home, those details are outrageously expensive, because each one is unique, and cannot be mass produced in a factory for easy installation.
However, a DIY builder can add as many of those individualized touches as he/she wishes. Most of them are very inexpensive in materials, but wealthy in labor and artistry. They allow the DIY builder to invest themselves in the space.
I think natural builders are much more inclined to include creative, artistic and unusual design details. Production builder homes are primarily churned out for maximum profit. They would say “there isn’t time” to add these creative details. And so it goes. That’s why most houses are soulless boxes.
Oh… I think most production builders are more than happy to spend the time on those customized things. FOR A PRICE.
That’s what the dreaded “Change Order” is all about. Charge the client an exorbitant rate for any slight deviation from the cookie cutter bland generic house.
Most builders love those Changer Orders. They are written on million dollar paper aren’t they? They are what puts the brand new Cadillac in the builder’s driveway.
Even though I typed this comment as though we disagree, I suspect that we really agree. The general current system of commercialized construction works. I.E. Legalized Larceny, Rampant Rip-offs, Flagrant Finger-pointing, Contractualized Clusterf@#%$, Massive Mortgages, Intrusive Insurers, and Political Profiteering… just to over-alliterate the point.)
Oh yeah, we agree. I was thinking of a rare situation where a homeowner wanted an artistic wrought iron handrail on their stairs. They probably had a picture or general idea of what they wanted, but they had a hard time finding someone to build it the way they wanted because it was so complex. It took forever — over a year or so to find the workers and start building the railing. The original design had lots of curved pieces. What they ended up getting was much different — just a few curves.
Owen
Interesting but I just don’t see a 180 or 200 meter square house as begin environmentally conscious. The amount of materials to build most of these houses is massive. To each his own but I am much simpler in my thinking and needs.
Like I said, look for design details. One can train themselves to look closely at houses that they don’t like in order to find inspiring ideas.
Owen
Yeah, like building smaller.