Do you like the Shire? I do, and while the hobbits are gone to
Isengard, I'll be taking their house ----- for inspiration!
Okay, first I need to explain, what IS a hobbit house? Well,
it's a small dwelling (underground) for people with short stature
(aka hobbits) and they look beautiful. They look like this:
Okay so, why am I going out of the way to build this or
something like it? Am I wanting to LARP? The answer to that is
no.... BUT hear me out.
I need a cold place to store my garden crops and my house just
won't do. It's overground, it's warm, and the humidity conditions
isn't just right. The solution to this is to create something
called a root cellar.
But why a hobbit house? Glad you asked!
So, as it turns out I found this place that sells sand bags
for 30 cents a piece when I buy 1000 of them. The delivery cost is
included. That's a great deal I think. So why sand bags? Because
sand bags are used in war to create barriers, buildings, and
emergency shelter. You can get hit by an RPG in that thing and the
only thing that could kill you is the shockwave.
I'm not building a hobbit "house" for war though but I do need
that perfect temperature year-round. So let's get this straight,
I'll get 1000 sand bags for $300, and if they are positioned in a
circle, flattened down, barbed wire holds everything in place and
acts as a protector of sorts between the bags, then in the end I
get this nice dome house that is about 100 square feet. This means
I don't need a permit to build this which is a great bonus!
The dome itself is structurally sound and if you plaster it
with cement and maybe a layer of adobe stucco or something both
inside and out and you have a very, very strong little hut. There
wouldn't be windows, just a door because it needs to be a storage
shed for potatoes and stuff lol. Then I would add about 2ft of soil
which would make it below the frost point and that means it won't
feel summer heat effects as much.
At the end of it all, the little root cellar will look oddly
similar to a hobbit house.
I'm not the inventor of this, actually these are pretty common
and they are called Earthbag homes except they are usually built
much bigger because, 100sqft isn't big enough for anyone to live
in. The ideal house is likely dwellings like these because if you
look up what people have made, you can create amazing houses for
cheap and you don't have to deal so much with heating or cooling
because the temperature is regulated all year long.
So why aren't we all living in earthbag homes? That's a good
question, but perhaps part of it is a stigma we have as a society
about living underground and perhaps another part is that people
don't even know these exist. You can live underground, get the sun
using dome shaped sun roof, you can technically keep going
downwards or have a very tall house but underground or a very big
house that spans almost your entire property and it would cost very
little. You can walk on top of hour house because it's hidden away
except for some pipes for ventilation, heating exhaust and dome
lights. But ultimately I think this could very well be a plausible
future for how we solve our energy problems since 50% of the energy
spent is on heating and cooling the house (usually). Plus, you get
a nice yard on top of your house! These things are also strong
enough to protect you against tornadoes, bombs, hurricanes,
etc...
Would I ever have a house like this? I don't see why not, but
I already have a house though, it's something to consider if
electricity skyrockets in price and becomes unafordable. Solar
isn't really environmentally friendly like people say it is,
neither is hydro or windmills. The only source we have that has no
negative impact on the environment is nuclear but only if it
doesn't encounter a meltdown lol. Electric cars are the worst and
have a higher carbon footprint than petrol (gasoline).
Imagine if you could live underground in your dwelling and
overground you would have your garden and solar panels. The
majority of your food for the year would be paid for, you would pay
$0 on electricity and you would have a lot more property without
having more property. The cost of building these are really
inexpensive so for example, a shed about the same size of this
hobbit house made of wood, some metal parts, cement blocks to keep
it off the ground etc... at Home Depot it says it would cost $900 +
tax. The hobbit shed? $300 in sand, $100 budget on cement and other
misc things I may need so $400. The cost is reduced when you make
it bigger but sheds cost higher per sqft the bigger you want
it.
Through a rough calculation of building a hobbit dwelling, it
would cost about $12,250 for a 3500sqft house just for the sand
bags and cement stuff. If you want tiles in your house, that's
extra but unnecessary. If you want windows, that's extra. If you
want ventilation and electricity, that's extra. Let's assume that
by the end of it you spend 4x that much, it would cost close to
$50,000 for a 3500sqft house. A normal house that size is almost
called a manor which is huge. The average american house is about
2300sqft and costs about $120/sqft. That's $276,000! You're
comparing $50,000 (3,500sqft) to $276,000 (2300sqft) and the hobbit
house is still bigger for much cheaper!
I'm telling you guys, this is how you solve housing poverty
and our electricity problem. There are other benefits such as this
being better for the environment if you will, and people could use
their property (top of it anyway) to grow gardens or just a place
to hang out. The future is underground not in skyscrapers. What do
you guys think?
(Doesn't quite work for houses that are prone to flood zones
but maybe a solution could be made for them)