Innovative Homes of The World

[glenn kangiser]

The Underground Cabin is scheduled to be one of the stops on the innovative homes tour here in May.  Lots of things to do and we had our first cob/alt building workshop here today.  

I thought this would be a good way to bring in different innovative ideas for building.  

My wife found an interesting video of the way they do it on Jonesy's side of the pond in Coober Pedy.  Have a look.  Here is a link to the site.  Jonesy originally posted some more information on this on page 2 of the Indigenous Housing discussion.

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/rm_architecture_extreme/article/0,1797,HGTV_3662_1391284,00.html

To go direct to the video click this one.

http://wms.scripps.com/hgtv/BDRE/ext/wme-s-4.wmv

[Amanda_931]

Oh, my.

We're on a list with somebody about to become

[glb]famous[/glb]

not, we hope, infamous.

[glenn kangiser]

As for our place -we're only on a small low key local tour but it looks like Coober Pedy made it around the world.  --We don't want much fame.

[glenn kangiser]

Here is another interesting way to make a structure and ideas you can use if you peruse the site.  A ferrocement water tank can be made at fairly low cost for rainwater storage.



Here is the site- check out links and gallery:

http://www.ferrocement.net/

[Amanda_931]

Would y'all kick me out of here if I duplicated the strawberry house?



Actually, despite my prejudice against concrete, ferrocement done that way sounds a lot more reasonable that some of the plastic water tanks I've been thinking of.

(prejudice: the world is going through almost 2 1/2 tons--two metric tonnes--of concrete per person per year right now.  It's become a pretty major source of greenhouse gasses.  Poly tanks aren't much better, mind you)

[John Raabe]

Are you sure that's not a soccer ball rather than a strawberry - not that it matters much at that scale.

Fantasy buildings are forever popular.

There was a gas station in Seattle made to look like a big cowboy hat and boots. Very popular in the 60's — there was quite a large group of people who rose up recently with money in their hands to save it when the property was redeveloped.

Just for fun.... here is a topic for a treehouse from the old forum

http://www.countryplans.com/bbs/messages/6811.html

[Amanda_931]

The guy who was building for me two years ago knew of (had actually done some repair on?) a treehouse way up in the air, with no permanent connections to the three or four trees it was fastened to--a loop of tractor tires or something to pad the cables to the house.  Periodically they had to tune the cables so the house stayed level.  The idea was no damage to the trees.  Don't know if it really worked that way.  The one he built for me had bolts into trees on one end, mailbox posts on the other.

The hooch is neat.

Marauding elephants would be a bummer, though.

Not many in Puerto Rico.  Good.  Web-site said that it had survived a couple of category three hurricanes, though.

I like their lamps.

[glenn kangiser]

Nice to see the old hooch tree house again-- I have a 20 foot log here that keeps begging me to stand it up like a hooch pole and make something out of it.  I keep resisting. :-/

Next project will probably be an octopus clay oven with an Native American type round house structure made out of twisted tree limbs, logs etc.  Octopus arms for seating- fire box on the bottom with an oven chamber middle and top or something similar.  Need a project for the ladies who want to come over and learn how to build with cob.

I got the idea while looking at some of the ferrocement structures in Mexico built by Flying Concrete. I like Mexico - If you are stupid enough to fall through a handrail opening it's your own tough luck.  Keeps the gene pool healthy.   Here's their site link and photo.

http://www.geocities.com/flyingconcrete/

 



Here is another home that is what I consider innovative- in Fresno, CA and was no doubt an influence to me.  I repaired their water well several years ago.  I worked for Baldasare Forestiere's nephews.

As Baldasare put it, "To make something with lots of money that is easy— But to make something out of nothing... now that is something."
http://www.undergroundgardens.com/index.html


Photo link and more info from:
http://historicfresno.org/nrhp/forest.htm

[Amanda_931]

Steve Kornher's stuff is amazing.  Some of it I think I could live in happily. (I can't say that about your basic McMansion, mind you).  Especially enchanted with the doors and windows.

And I'd love to see the Forestiere gardens.

[glenn kangiser]

A couple points -in general the ferrocement is fairly thin -reducing the amount of concrete used as opposed to normal methods.

As to the Underground Gardens, they were truly innovative - Fresno reaches 100 degrees F for long periods and is flat.  How great to drop into a hole in the ground in the old days and be cool.  He would have been one of the only ones that were.

The hardpan he dug by hand with his mule was nearly as hard as concrete.  His underground car tunnel was about 800 feet long.

[Amanda_931]

Friends going to somewhere near Fresno sometime in the not too distant future have put the Forestiere gardens on their list.

And even people who usually recommend things I hate--and vice versa--loved the Flying Concrete.

I keep hearing that ferrocement is it's own magic material, not all that much like either of the components.

Knew a guy in college who had once worked for somebody who built houses by piling up dirt, putting on the ferrocement roof, then digging out the dirt.  He was enough older than I was that it could have been the late 50's or the  early sixties.

[glenn kangiser]

I came across the town of Masule, Iran in one of my new books.   It is built on a very steep slope.  I consider the houses here innovative because the roofs of one row of houses serve as the street for another row of houses.

This could be used in any hilly area to get storage space near the house and have more yard, garden, etc.



This link is from the MSN Welcome to Iran Group site.  

http://beta.communities.msn.se/welcometoiran

[glenn kangiser]

One man Cathedral

Here is a picture story of a man in Spain determined to build his own cathedral despite lack of support and no government permission.

http://www.citynoise.org/article/732

[Amanda_931]

There is a website on this (and to no ones surprise they take donations).  All in Spanish.

http://www.aquariusesjusto.com/

[DavidLeBlanc]

Shades of Gaudi!

[glenn kangiser]

Innovative Homes tour was rescheduled for tomorrow so that is the big day for the Underground Cabin.

It is a benefit for the local Independent Cinema.  54 people have signed up for it so we'll see how many show up here.  We have spent the last 2 weeks making improvements and putting up safety rails etc.  Safety is no accident.  --Then again, I believe people should take a little responsibility for their own actions so am having all visitors sign a hold harmless agreement-- for what it's worth.

 

[Amanda_931]

(generally the paper it's written on)

But I hope you had lots of happy people who enjoyed your house.

[glenn kangiser]

Probably right, Amanda.  I got safety rails up all around and pretty well didn't worry about it.  Things went fine.  There were over 70 people finally signed up and all had a great time-- some just walked around with their mouths open and stated that they were speechless.  Everyone was pretty impressed -

I just told them it was nothing special - just shows what you can do with a chain saw, sledge hammer and a nail gun.

[glenn kangiser]

Here is a link to the site of the McGrath's who were also homeowners on the Mariposa Sixth Street Cinema Innovative Home Tour.  A few early pics of their home and their art.  A two story now with an attic and a fairly flat section with a couple squares of torchdown roofing which Scott was happy to explain the application of.  Two very talented young people.

http://www.sierratel.com/hotworks/