This article is co-written by our guest blogger Joshua S. Hill, from My Writing Voice and Avi Abrams, Dark Roasted Blend. We continue the "ecologically clean living" theme, started in the previous post "Alternative Energy Mega Projects". Today we address projects on a much smaller scale - like designing a house
"A Low Impact Woodland Home" by Simon Dale
Now I had originally intended to take you on a tour through all the wonderful ecologically-clean houses that exist in our wonderful world, but it turns out that as a group, those who tend towards these houses apparently disdain the creation of a decent website, and even further hate actual content. So I am grateful for Simon Dale, the man behind "A Low Impact Woodland Home", who's provided me with great photos, and has a fantastic website.
Simon, with his wife, father in law and two young children spent 4 months building what they have termed a low impact woodland home, which is now their family home. An estimated 1000-1500 man hours and £3000 were put in to what is, in my opinion, a dream home.
Simon, who is more than willing to tote the fact that he is in no way an architect or certified builder, believes that a house of this scale is within the reach of any able-bodied person.
The house, which was built with a maximum regard for the environment around it, is dug soundly into the hill around it. The idea of earth sheltering for housing is not a new idea either, and is more than just a "nifty hippie" way to help the environment; it also helps your bank account. When built into the ground, such a house will retain heat in the winter, and be very cool in the summer.
The dirt from the diggings into the hill provided the basis for the foundations and retaining walls, and a mud and turf, when combined with a plastic sheet, makes for the perfect roof.
Wood from the surrounding woodland provides not only heat but also wood for the frame of the house.
Seeing the houses like these gives me hope that - given the right amount of money - I’ll soon be living in my very own ecologically friendly home. Just as long as I have my computer, a light for my reading, and the internet, I should be happy.
Other nature-friendly designs around the world
An interesting Asian take on eco-friendly house design is the "Tree House" (though neighbors call it "Crazy House") - owned by the daughter of the ex-president of Vietnam:
"Spirit Sphere" Tree-Houses, Vancouver Island Rainforest
This is an absolutely marvelous idea: a bare minimum of living space, surrounded by the grand majesty of the forest - a 9 foot sphere with a comfortable bed, kitchen and most modern amenities, including high-speed internet connection. "Living like Ewoks" turns out to be quite popular among many refugees from urban stress and corporate culture, who purchase these pre-manufactured homes from Tom Chudleigh, the owner of "Free Spirit Spheres". The small company lists their address in Qualicum, Vancouver island, but then they add that they recently moved somewhere into the forest... "new location is out of cell phone range. The trees are better though."
Well, it seems that URLs are filtered away on DRB. So, CTRL-C CTRL-V: ,,Long live ages old, never repaired student dorms…
Actually the problem is more complex. There are quite many dorms located in old buildings that have a `cultural heritage’ status and as such may not be modified without authorisation of responsible institutions.
In principle a good regulation, as it prevents ruining rests of old architecture, but sometimes it really backfires - in this case the dorm cannot be modified to provide in-room hot water.
Renovation costs are also pretty high - it’s really controversial sometimes, as the materials used must match the style and finish of the original fittings.Sure again - it’s a god idea, but what if there’s no money for special paint orexotic type of plaster? Shall the building fall into ruin just because nobody’s ready to pay for reverting it to the truly original state, or maybe it’s good to use something cheaper, but preserving the state if not the style? ''
the green car sticking out of the parking is in bordeaux, parking victor hugo, it's an old jaguar , next time i go there i can take a picture from inside if you want :p
Put me out of my misery: what do you mean by 'squidpunk'? Is it just an inside joke, or am I witnessing the coinage of a new literary genre term? It doesn't produce many search engine hits...
In the comments on http://faceofthemoon.blogspot.com/2007/10/squidly-dots.html I've been given the suggestion: 'I'm pretty sure it has to do with underwater cities, magic, and squids with top hats and perhaps monocles of some sort.'
imagine if we grew one of those to human size... holy crap! it will destroy us all! these would be like indestructible. radiation, freezing, burning, we couldn't stop it! it would be the ultimate killing machine!
"imagine if we grew one of those to human size... holy crap! it will destroy us all! these would be like indestructible. radiation, freezing, burning, we couldn't stop it! it would be the ultimate killing machine!"
Well, I'm sure if they got that big a spear would do nicely....
er...
You try the spear. If it doesn't work, I'll be back here with the rocket launcher! :-D
Sorry to disappoint all those that think growing a human size one of these would be great and indestructable... If you did manage by some mystery of science to create one any larger than they are now it would probably die, restrictions in cell size, body size and organ size due to water loss, diffusion and active uptake means that surface area to volume ratios must be kept in a certain range or the poor little thing would just die :-( but if you do manage to get a big one going... dont keep it a secret! lol!
makes you think.. and believe the earth will go on even after we are extinct. i think they maybe ETs aka extra terrestrials. maybe we all decend from other worldly beings. would love to get a animal psychic in on this one.
The song itself is completely worthless. Apparently "experimental" means it's supposed to be deserving of respect even if it's garbage. But the video is absolutely gorgeous. A very nice find!
the structures in the last photo look like observation towers, either for a prison or a factory. maybe they have been left to decay at the factory where they were made?
More likely to be cement or lime kilns, that looks like a chalk pit face behind. They are charged from the top with chalk and coal, the cement or lime is drawn off the bottom. The slope in the foreground could be for trucks to tip chalk into crushers.
The 'forest cinema' photo is of an abandoned outdoor theater, part of Moscow's All-Russia Exhibition Centre - see map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=moscow&t=k&hl=en&ie=UTF8&om=0&ll=55.831306,37.617322&spn=0.002118,0.004699&z=18&iwloc=addr
Did anyone else notice that in the control panel picture, there are a couple of lighted buttons still on? That building cannot have been powered? right?
Not only is the instrument panel powered on, the oscilloscope on top of it is also powered on, and there is a faint line to be seen on its screen, so it's actually measuring something as well. It seems this equipment is still in use.
the country isnt as wealthy as the us(but they also aren't in debt as much either) so they are probably using it as an antenna to this day, other wise the complex would probably have been tore down and recycled for the metal
I was not aware of the Russian equivalent. Thank you.
The concept is excellent.. blast the mind of the guidance electronics in an incoming ICBM with an extremely high microwave field. HAARP is convienently situated geographically to do so with incoming missles from North Korea. I'd think the Soviets had positioned their devices with launches from the continental U.S. in mind.
The problem is focusing the antennas to yield the necessary energy levels [flux densities'] at the target. Our physics is just not up to it, and that is why the beautiful parabolas sit rusting. Megawatts effectively transmitted but then spread out as the energy travels to the target yields little more than a nuiance to the missles, as the rad hardening technologies have improved since these projects were begun.
The facilities though would still be a great gift, and highly functional, to a [poor] radio astronomer.
Makes me want to take up my juggling sticks again.
I found out through a last-minute invite that you can get pretty good at a skill if you practice it intensively for a couple of weeks. (While walking is good.)
That image of the Indian "electrician" is not uncommon here where I live in Venezuela. Every now and then you get to know these guys' abrupt end-of-lives via the local newspapers.
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3 Comments:
Last one's probably fake - that's a London Eye gondola...
I love the Woodland home! Very inspiring...
the first one looks a bit like the home of Bilbo Baggins ^^
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