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Housing - New Build: Nice earth-house!

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    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMar 7th 2012
     
    • CommentAuthorpmagowan
    • CommentTimeMar 7th 2012
     
    I really like these kinds of builds. i have a potting shed in the garden that is completely green because of planting. It is falling down though and I intend to make it into a little hobbit house for potting up my plants in. Not quite as swish as this one though!
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      CommentAuthorjoe90
    • CommentTimeMar 7th 2012
     
    Sweeeeeeeet. I would be interested to hear how he got planning/building regs:bigsmile:
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMar 7th 2012
     
    He's in Pembrokeshire and all the planners there are a bit weird.

    Allegedly. :flowers:
    • CommentAuthorEd Davies
    • CommentTimeMar 7th 2012
     
    http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm

    Pity they're not staying. Be interesting to see what happens to it in the future.
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      CommentAuthorJSHarris
    • CommentTimeMar 7th 2012
     
    <blockquote><cite>Posted By: joe90</cite>Sweeeeeeeet. I would be interested to hear how he got planning/building regs</blockquote>

    I'll lay money he just ignored planning and BRs and went ahead anyway, as others have done in that area, as there's no way on earth the structure is BR compliant, AFAICS. The outlay was small enough that I suspect he just took the risk, secure in the knowledge that enforcement action (should it be taken) would probably take years, time in which he could enjoy living in the house.

    He built this house a while ago now, as I remember reading about it a year or two ago. It's fulfilled its purpose of putting a roof over his, and his family's, heads for a couple of years, at little capital cost, so has probably been cheaper, and certainly been less harmful to the environment, than pretty much any other housing option he could have chosen.

    Maybe more of us should just ignore the planners etc and just get on with things............
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMar 7th 2012
     
    If anyone cares to read on into the link(s) they'll find that the planning aspect of such living is dealt with quite fully...

    http://www.simondale.net/house/planning.htm

    Significantly, this kind of building no longer attracts derision, even from "conventional" builders (well, a vociferous minority still, but they soon withdraw into their pint glasses). It's the attractiveness of such dwellings that silences criticism, not least because they're evidence that someone has put what little money they have where their mouth is.

    Probably has a lot to do with the fact that when you see something like this you smile.

    As long as they don't go on about sodding crystals.
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeMar 7th 2012 edited
     
    Nearly PAHS/AGS http://greenershelter.org/index.php?pg=2 - but missed completely because the interior is insulated from the subsoil.
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMar 7th 2012 edited
     
    If you hunt around a bit down here, it does not take that long to find secret housing.
    Quite fancy doing it myself, knowing that I have a bath at home :wink:
      Man who lives in a bank.jpg
    • CommentAuthorowlman
    • CommentTimeMar 8th 2012 edited
     
    Posted By: SteamyTea..........If you hunt around a bit down here, it does not take that long to find secret housing.


    Is that the command HQ of the Free Cornish Army?- or the new order of Cornish Druids, priest hole? :wink::bigsmile:
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeMar 8th 2012
     
    If you gaze with soft focus, it's a face - the Green Man no doubt. Or perhaps the Green Girlfriend
    • CommentAuthorowlman
    • CommentTimeMar 8th 2012
     
    Don't much fancy your green girlfriend tom, still each to his own.:bigsmile: Actually, most of the stuff I see these days is soft focus.
  13.  
    So he didn't have planning permission then. Just did it then went for retrospective or did I miss something. I suppose it's worth the risk at £3k.

    BUT not everyone will build a low impact and "tasteful" structure. If everyone does what he's advocating the countryside will be littered with inappropriate shacks dressed up with some ecobull or the planning departments will be rushing around trying to take enforcement action - all very unsatisfactory.

    If we all decided to ignore the usual planning process and all go down the retrospective route then the place would turn into a monstrous carbuncle within days. Don't get me wrong, I like his place but most people wouldn't stop with such a modest abode now would they.
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMar 8th 2012
     
    Actually Windy, he makes it clear that you can really only push your luck with something of low impact. As he and others like him have been doing it for so long it rather proves the case that there aren't that many chancers around, at least not in that part of Wales.

    Don't think anyone's against planning per se, just the highly subjective nature of the beast that gets up people's noses.
  15.  
    Don't get me wrong Joiner, I quite like his house and if a few people built like that then fine. But most people wouldn't and thankfully only a handful chance it.
    I know of at least one factory which was built without planning permission and then they bleated on about loosing jobs if they had to do any alterations etc. Great for the factory who didn't have to do the usual noise assessments etc but not so nice for the home owners who were kept awake all night. If they had applied before building they would have be advised to change the orientation of the factory doors so that they didn't face the houses - hot night = doors open and lots of noise. And don't get me started on Tesco's!
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMar 9th 2012
     
    And the office block (or multi-storey car park?) in Leeds. Built 1m too high and ordered to be demolished!
    • CommentAuthorHenry Sears
    • CommentTimeMar 10th 2012 edited
     
    I live in Pembrokeshire, and know many of the low impact houses that have been built without PP. The people that have risked building them have changed the planning picture in Wales drastically and permanently by doing so, and fighting for retrospective permission - now there's planning legislation here that allows low impact development in the open countryside, providing you're really prepared to commit to a truly low-impact lifestyle.

    I find it interesting that you can't actually see any of the buildings I refer to unless you go way off the beaten track and get close up to them. Yet within a stone's throw of many of those buildings are aircraft-hangar sized cattle sheds with 24 hour floodlights on the tops of hills, all built legally in the open countryside (the biggest local shed belongs to a former member of the Pembs planning committee!).

    The law's an ass, but people like Simon Dale are pioneers in helping to change it for the better.
    • CommentAuthorCav8andrew
    • CommentTimeMar 10th 2012
     
    Henry, yes it's ironic isn't it. When in discussion with the planning officers about the shading of the slate roof or if the timber cladding will weather to a suitable subtle grey my eyes drift across the valley to yet another huge aircraft hanger that has just been build or across to the huge edifice to some local multi millionaire, built under the Planning Policy Statement 7, that sits at the head of the valley, master of all it surveys.
    Was it not the case that one of these earth shelters in Pembrokeshire was only discovered when some eagle eyed planning officer saw something unusual on google earth. Will be near Pembroke in April so may try I spy.
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMar 10th 2012
     
    I'm all for it, but you have to be careful with terms like "low impact" because you're then into careful, close definition of what's meant, precisely, by the term.

    An ultra-modern, in-your-face passive house is arguably low impact.

    I can see the definition running into reams. :wink:
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMar 10th 2012
     
    Even "sustainable" means different things to different people. :cry:
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMar 10th 2012
     
    As does 'diversity' now.
    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120229121125.htm

    Heard recently that Cornwall's latest historic mining attraction, as if we need a another one to remind us of our dirty industrial past, wants to charge about a tenner for a coffee and a sandwich (think it is called a panini now), great sustainable business plan for the diverse population in one of the poorest parts of Europe.
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMar 10th 2012
     
    Looking for logic again? :crazy:
    • CommentAuthorCav8andrew
    • CommentTimeMar 10th 2012
     
    ST, (think it is a panini now) ah yes the old toasted sandwich.
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMar 10th 2012
     
    Yes, a toasted ham and cheese sandwich at 1/7th of the weekly wage.
    It does make me question who the morons are, the people that sell them or the people that buy them. Though it can be both.:cool:
    • CommentAuthorCav8andrew
    • CommentTimeMar 10th 2012
     
    But surely it's worth every penny. It's a panini, lovingly prepared by an artisan baker in the rustic depths of the Umbrian countryside, gently wrapped in biodegradable cellophane. Carried overnight to the fair shores of Cornwall, where it's whacked into a George Foreman (other makes available) toasted sandwich maker. Or am I being taken in by the name.
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMar 10th 2012
     
    Twer begun by t'Eden Project. :wink:
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMar 10th 2012
     
    Oh, and the Rick Stein chain of chippies. :shocked:
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMar 10th 2012
     
    George Foreman spoke to me once, he said, "get out my way".

    I used to have a late lunch when I was lecturing at a college, nearly always the only sandwiches left were Cheese and Tomato, they were charging £2.65 (in 1999). I pointed out that as much as I like that flavour (even when the cheese was mozzarella and it had a basil leave in it), I was not going to buy it at that price and would hope that the catering manager did an analysis of the food thrown away. I was told that it was an outside contractor and it was nothing to do with them. Found it easier to walk home and make my own (usually cheap white bread, cheap cheddar and a gene rouse dollop of Branston). There is a reason that Cheddar is the worlds most popular cheese.
    • CommentAuthorCav8andrew
    • CommentTimeMar 10th 2012
     
    If I am honest I often return to Cornwall to visit Tate St.Ives, so guess I'm just another on the heritage (kind of) trail.
    • CommentAuthorCav8andrew
    • CommentTimeMar 10th 2012
     
    ST, presumably you said no and landed a swift right hook to the jaw. Before running like hell !

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