He quit all to build off-grid village, mountain-long Earthship Kirsten Dirksen 2023-07-16 | 15 years ago, Dan Schultz sold his 2600-square-foot home in Flint Michigan and bought 160 acres of raw land near the California-Oregon border to start a village shaped by his values. For $225,000 he bought land packed with wood for lumber, gravity-fed water, and plenty of sunlight for solar and growing. He had to clear road, build a bridge and construct homes, cabins and community spaces and huge gardens and terraced hillside for growing most of their own food.The Earthship Solarium, which stretches across the hillside nearly the length of a football field, provides year-round, produce and potatoes. Goats chickens and ducks provide milk and eggs. Schultz, who's an unabashed prepper, says there is plenty of food on the property to survive any kind of disaster scenario. He focused on milk and eggs as ideal survival foods: "You know milk and potatoes are nutritionally complete on their own, you can live forever. The Irish tripled their population with milk and potatoes, right?"Dan says it costs just $5000 per year to maintain the property. This includes taxes, propane and supplies for building more cabins. His nightly rentals, like the popular hobbit hole, treehouse, a frame, and half moon cabins, pay for any expenses.Right now there are eight people in his community, but this number fluctuates based on applications. Members don’t pay any fees to live here, they simply help with farm or community chores. — Website: sustainableecovillage.com— YT: youtube.com/@positivelydanschultz— Instagram: instagram.com/maitreyamountainvillageOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/he-quit-all-to-build-off-grid-village-mountain-long-earthship
Couples self-built home grows food indoors ($30K): Earthship meets Sailboat Kirsten Dirksen 2024-07-24 | When David Westervik left the Norwegian coastal city of Bergen to study architecture in Aarhus, Denmark, he decided to live in a small sailboat to save money and sail across the North Atlantic.David used his boat-living experience to self-build with his partner Alessia a modular home as cozy and compact as the boat. The home is also capable of growing food and staying warm during the cold winter months of Denmark's Jutland. David used plywood and scrap materials to CNC-cut the structure, which cost the couple around 200,000 DKK (Danish Krone), or around $30K.While writing his thesis on self-built architecture that can be easily moved and scaled, David came up with a modular system that can combine a scalable living space with a greenhouse that, in cold Scandinavia, serves as both an organic garden for food production and an indoor sunroom.His GroHuse modular concept is inspired in the experience building their home: a small home that can be moved if necessary and easily adapted to different life stages, produced with non-toxic materials and ready for the most demanding climates.GroHuse https://www.grohuse.dk/David & Alessia's tiny house Instagram instagram.com/det_lilledrivhusOn *faircompanies faircompanies.com/videos/couples-self-built-home-grows-food-indoors-30k-earthship-meets-sailboat
They turn clunkers into 100% solar-powered homes on wheels: No need of 🔌 Kirsten Dirksen 2024-07-14 | Brett and Kira Belan have spent the past decade transforming old vehicles into solar-powered campers. Their journey with Solarrolla began in 2015, with their first conversion project, a Volkswagen Bus: a donor vehicle chosen for its ample roof space (enough for 4 solar panels). Brett engineered a mechanism to tilt the entire wall of panels up to a 40-degree angle, optimizing the vehicle’s ability to capture solar energy. Growing up, Brett hot-rodded Camaros, Chevelles, and a 1932 Chevrolet and he sees his current work as a continuation of this. "I'm a hot-rodder. I grew up street-rodding. My dad and I built street-rods and the idea with street-rods is you taking a part from this car and a part from that car and you make exactly the car you want," explains Brett. "We're now electrical hot-rodders."With a degree in mechanical engineering, Brett worked at Ford Motor Company and taught CAD at Jaguar in England before leaving it to live off-grid with family. His first foray into solar-powered vehicles involved creating a solar golf cart and a solar postal van. His projects are diverse from adding 3kw of solar to a Safari Trek 30-foot motorhome to working with master builder SunRay Kelley to turn his wooden “gypsy wagon” into what Kelley called “a solar-power plant that goes down the road that you live in".Their most recent project is an eStar conversion featuring a 5kW solar array for musician Redfoo (of LMFAO and "Party Rock" fame). This ambitious conversion involved a month-long charging journey, with some necessary plug-ins during a freezing northern winter, from their workshop in Wisconsin to Redfoo’s home in Malibu.For their most recent project, they built an old eStar van into a solar-electric camper van for musician Redfoo. We follow their month-long journey from their workshop in Wisconsin to Redfoo's home in Malibu camping and charging with their two children where they were forced to slow down for multi-day charges and enjoy the journey.We visit Redfoo days after delivery where he was still working out the kinks on his new technology. Brett called in to remind us that: "It's not a car. It's first an off-grid power station, then it's a home and then it's a car." Redfoo hopes to use it during the next power outage to charge his home, his other electric cars, or even to provide mobile help to friends and neighbors.—Website: solarrolla.com—Solarrolla channel: youtube.com/channel/UCFxsrz7GsBj053Bl8KLMkQg—Redfoo: instagram.com/redfooOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/they-turn-clunkers-into-100-solar-powered-homes-on-wheels-no-need-of
Couldnt afford the city. They got Starter Homestead in Vermont Kirsten Dirksen 2024-07-07 | Taylor and Tatum were living in a “roach-infested box” in New York City when they found a home with 2.65 acres of land in Vermont where the $800/month mortgage would be half the price of their rent. It had been on the market for months so the price had dropped to $160,000 since “people aren’t that interested in a one-bedroom house,” explains Taylor.Originally the neighbor’s garage, it was moved onto its own lot 50 years ago and had last been used as an office. Under the motto “gifted, thrifted or free” the couple began to turn it into a home, focusing on using what they could reuse and what was already installed (cabinets, curtains and a 1980s Jenn-Air stove).With the arrival of their son, Rafael, they divided their bedroom with a heavy curtain to give him space for a bed and playroom, though this is just their starter home and they plan to one day take advantage of , but this is just a starter home. They are saving up to one day build their dream home on the land since the lot is permitted for more than one home.In their 4 years on the property, they have been learning to garden and now grow all their vegetables during the summer months, and preserve what they can for winter. They have also created a space on the land to rent to tent campers for extra income. They hope to expand the micro business to book space for arts and events. Right now, Taylor uses a makeshift platform in the field to rehearse her modern dance routines.Instagram: @fulljoyfarmYouTube: @FullJoyFlowHipCamp hipcamp.com/en-US/land/vermont-brookside-camping-full-joy-farm-pw1hdp56On *faircompanies faircompanies.com/videos/couldnt-afford-the-city-they-got-starter-homestead-in-vermont
Old schoolhouse sat abandoned. Couple turns it into dream home Kirsten Dirksen 2024-06-30 | The 19th-century one-room schoolhouse in Weare, New Hampshire, sat vacant for 15 years before Kreg and Danielle Jones wandered down the road, searching for a fixer-upper project to tackle with their 18-year-old son. It was zoned commercial and had been on the market for 7 years, but once the owner had it rezoned as residential, the couple bought it and quickly began planning to turn the hollowed-out former classroom into a home for themselves and their two children.Unlike some of its wooden counterparts, the brick-and-granite building was structurally sound but had been hollowed out over the years to an empty shell. The family got to work turning the main classroom space into an open-plan home, patching the tin-and-horsehair ceiling, adding insulation, improving the leaky windows, and installing a pellet stove to heat a space with 14-foot ceilings.The original school had separate stairs on both sides of the building so girls and boys could climb to the lunchroom separately": "Girls wore dresses back then.", explains Kreg. "That's what we've been told was the reason. The girls went up the really steep stairs and they didn't want the boys co-mingling at that point."The family has maintained the old reminders of the children who passed through here: graffiti carved into cladding, names etched into wall panels and even the old pulley from the school bell.inscriptionarchitects.comOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/old-schoolhouse-sat-abandoned-couple-turns-it-into-tranquil-home
Property sat 7 years unsold. She created dream underground villa Kirsten Dirksen 2024-06-23 | When Jennava Laska first visited the underground home for sale in Nashville, Tennessee it had been on the market for seven years looked like a “horror movie house” or a long-abandoned cellar. She saw potential in the home’s spoke-and-wheel design to create an underground Mediterranean villa and bought the long-neglected property.When Gene Tidwell, one of the designers of Nashville’s iconic Batman Building, built the home in 1983, he buried it at the top a hillside to avoid the Tennessee bedrock at the bottom of the driveway and to dig into the much softer slate up top.The home forms a tunnel through the hill with windows at each end to let in light and with the 2 skylights, the space feel light and airy despite being buried. Laska opened up the home by removing the walls that divided the tunnel section so now you can see straight through the home from one end to another. She wanted this main area to feel like the atrium at the center of a Roman Villa with bedrooms and living room branching off from this main space.Laska says the space remains naturally cool in summer and warm in winter though she installed a heat pump for the especially hot or cold days and a dehumidifier for the summer. Since radon gas can build up in the shale rock, she installed a radon filter with a fan that continuously filters air from below the home.undergroundvilla.com/underground-houseOn *faircompanies faircompanies.com/videos/property-sat-7-years-unsold-she-created-dream-underground-villa
6-foot-wide home in DCs driveway elbows to 10 feet: see how Kirsten Dirksen 2024-06-16 | When Nady Samnang bought a former parking spot in downtown Washington DC, he was approved to build to the lot lines for a 15-foot-wide home, but then zoning changed and he had to comply with alleyway setbacks meaning his home could only be 6 feet wide.Nady submitted 23 different plans to the city, before he found a plan inspired by his family camping trips in an RV slide with slide-outs to ask the city for approval for bump-out bay windows. They said yes, and his home now stands at 6 feet across at its narrowest (hallways) and 10 feet at its widest. The kitchen and bathroom are 8 feet across with one bay window and the living room and bedroom have 2 bay windows putting them at 10 feet across.Nady built the home with his brother Dean and says it took much longer to build because of the narrow alleys surrounding it so everything had to be done by hand. They put in solar and a heat pump so the home generates more energy than it needs.On *faircompanies faircompanies.com/videos/6-foot-wide-home-on-dcs-driveway-elbows-to-10-feet-see-howNady Samnang omnifics.comThe house for sale: dvosells.us.psrhomesearch.com/homes/1738-Glick-Court-NW/WASHINGTON/DC/20001/147659805
8 months ISOLATED in a space colony simulation: would you endure it? Kirsten Dirksen 2024-06-11 | Nestled high on the northern slopes of Mauna Loa, the world's most active volcano, the HI-SEAS habitat simulates life on the moon or Mars for crews who live here in isolation for up to 8 months testing the limits of interplanetary off-grid homesteading.Inside a 36-foot-diameter, 2-story dome, they have a full-kitchen/dining room, a living room/ workout space, 2 composting toilets, one urinal, one shower and 6 slivers of bedrooms, plus an engineering bay.The solar panels and water tanks are monitored by sensor from inside to be sure nothing is over-used. If anything goes wrong with the equipment, the crew can contact "Mission Control" for help, but they need to make all fixes on their own.Director Kato Claeys has been on multiple missions and feels life at the "hab" is second best to a trip to Mars. She gave us a full tour of their round home and we took a "moon walk" through lava fields looking for local lava tubes.hi-seas.orgOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/living-in-a-mars-colony-simulation-as-if-straight-out-of-interstellar
Tiny Texas Houses pioneer digs personal lake & crafts village around it Kirsten Dirksen 2024-06-02 | When we first met Tiny Texas Houses' founder Brad Kittel 10 years ago he had built dozens of tiny homes from the remains of abandoned houses on his 43-acre town of Salvage, Texas. In the past decade, he has moved on to sculpt the earth around his hamlet, creating 20-foot-deep lagoons, bayous, moats and a Walden pond in Texas." — Watch the video of our first visit to Brad back in 2014: youtu.be/iWGa7qyGO8M?si=zXxscA0ieUedAVzLHe now has “5 miles of coastline” for kayaking and swimming, but these extensive waterways are also Kittel’s solution to growing food on the dry clay of his property. He has created a complex system of canals connected by pipe that moves water across the property. Kittel’s system doesn’t just irrigate his food forest, but given his location on the site of a former foundry, the plants, like cattails, also clean and filter the water. His property now hosts a diversity of animal life, like beavers, turtles, herons and loons.All that digging has put Kittel in “the best shape of my life” at age 68. He invites others to join him in Salvage, either as overnight guests or longer term residents by purchasing one of his homes with a long-term land lease.“Long ago when I began my adventure in earth sculpting none of this existed. I turned this all into a wonderland, for food, for life… a miraculous world out of the imagination and trash.”tinytexashouses.comOur first story with Brad: youtube.com/watch?v=iWGa7qyGO8MOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/oldtimer-digs-homestead-to-create-waterworld-meets-tiny-village
Tiny lot, grand comfort: Skinny home + 2 yards as designers live-work oasis Kirsten Dirksen 2024-05-26 | Landscape designer Molly Sedlacek was looking for an inspiring place to live and work in LA when she stumbled upon a narrow cork-clad home built on the former parking lot of the house next door. She fell for it. Despite the small infill lot, the natural home feels big and soothing inside and has two yards.The house came to life when designer Michael Tessler bought a sliver of land - technically the neighbor’s front yard - next to a huge cork oak tree in LA’s Highland Park neighborhood. He and architect Daveed Kapoor was inspired to create a house like a tree: a tall, skinny home clad in cork bark.The home is only 12 feet wide, but thanks to a tri-fold glass door, the interior blends with the outside. So when landscape designer Molly Sedlacek found it for sale, she saw it as an ideal canvas for growing gardens. The home is just 860 ft.², but it has an underground office, which is perfect for Molly’s live-work needs.Nature also seems to flow inside with materials that are all sourced from the LA environment. Terrazzo countertops in the kitchen, bathrooms, and garage are made with sediment from the Los Angeles River. Beams, flooring and outdoor furniture use wood from Angel City Lumber, a company that saves fallen trees in the neighborhood. All the walls are paint-free, natural clay and lime plasters and even wet areas use tadelakt, the ancient Moroccan waterproofing technique.The homes sit at a corner with a busy street so Sedlacek landscaped that side with boulders as a sound barrier, which are popular seating for the local bus stop. Her home is sparsely decorated with natural colors and only one piece of art since she sees the natural finishes as its own type of art. Her most prized objects are her collection of trees that are now growing on the side patio, many of which she has brought along with her from house to house over the years. “These are my objects,” she says of the trees, though she admits her narrow home keeps her inside stuff at a minimum. “I think we fit into where we’re put. And I fit into this tiny box.”ORCA Design (Molly Sedlacek): orcaliving.comResponsive Homes (Michael Tessler): responsivehomes.comDaveed Kapoor: utopiad.orgAngel City Lumber: angelcitylumber.comFuture Systems (Corey Ruppert): thefuturesystems.comOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/cork-clad-skinny-home-learns-from-massive-cork-oak-by-its-side
Family got unbuildable lot. They raised rustic-modern masterpiece. Kirsten Dirksen 2024-05-19 | John Lautner’s rustic-modern cabin, tucked away in the San Jacinto mountains outside LA, is a classic example of organic architecture. In 1957, the Pearlman family used an unbuildable lot at Idyllwild to raise a bold dwelling that erases the line between inside and outside.On the panoramic view side of the home, rough, unmilled logs act as structural support, but accompanied only by floor-to-ceiling glass, they become camouflaged with the surrounding oaks, cedars and pines. Lautner (a disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright) went on to become world-renowned, but the Pearlman Cabin in the resort town of Idyllwild, was his first round house (even before his iconic Chemosphere (1960) or Zimmerman Residence (1968). Nancy Pearlman, who was 10 when the home was built, remembers it was her mother who wanted the round house to go with the round table as a centerpiece. “It just seems so natural to me to have one big beautiful room,” explains Nancy, who says they’ve slept 25 on the floor, “It’s very rustic, but it’s very practical”.Nancy’s uncle built the home while living in a tent. He only needed help with a few elements, like installing the massive windows and dynamiting some of the boulders to lay a foundation.— For more information and to schedule a visit: pearlmancabin.com— Pearlman Mountain Cabin on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearlman_Mountain_Cabin— More about the Pearlman Cabin: wallpaper.com/architecture/residential/pearlman-cabin-john-lautner-usa— John Lautner (disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright): laconservancy.org/learn/architect-biographies/john-lautner— Chemosphere: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChemosphereOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/masterful-round-family-cabin-brings-socal-mountain-forest-inside
Turns stone barn into minimal hideaway with stealth furniture-rooms Kirsten Dirksen 2024-05-12 | Africa Lao had spent her career designing homes from an office in Barcelona, so when she moved to the country to get closer to nature, she was inspired to transform a crumbling 18th century stone hayloft into a small, minimal dream home. Located in the middle of protected forest, the location was an urban refugee's dream, and she was unperturbed by the requirement to only restore what already existed here, which meant remaining within the original 602 (645 sq. Ft.) footprint.The original barn had two rooms of 30 square meters each so, leaving this unchanged, she dedicated one room for daytime and the other for nighttime. To create a bathroom and closet without affecting the original layout Africa added a simple half wall of oak wood that houses both a bathroom and walk-in closet, and also serves as a headboard for the bed. Since this intervention was on the coldest (north) wall it also helps to insulate the home.Far from any electric grid, the home relies solely on solar panels, a pellet stove to run a radiant floor heating system and a small wood-burning stove. Water comes from a well so the home is completely independent.While the 18th century stone walls were still intact, the roof had collapsed so Africa restored it to its original state with terra-cotta tiles and chestnut beams crafted from debarked tree trunks. To restore missing stones from the home's walls, Africa used rock from local rivers as they would have done 400 years ago. The few new elements in the home - the kitchen cabinets and the bathroom wall and floors- were crafted from the same aged oak wood boards. The shower walls and floor are natural limestone and the sink is stone. The original arch on the building's south side was left intact for a window-door that now provides the majority of the home's daylight. The north side of the home has only two tiny windows perforating the nearly one-meter stone walls so despite below freezing temperatures in the winter, the home stays warm with just heat from the pellet stove.Africa Lao: instagram.com/africalao_interiordesignerOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/turns-stone-barn-into-simple-home-with-reveal-furniture-rooms
Full village living off land & craft like modern Amish: 350 families & growing Kirsten Dirksen 2024-05-05 | In the heart of Texas, 1200 members of the Homestead Heritage community have spent the past 5 decades working the land for their food, energy, water and livelihoods, both for their own health as well as that of the land. On about 500 acres of community-owned land, about 350 families are planting crops like wheat that they then grind for flour in their water-powered grist mill and then bake into bread that they sell at their restaurant. They grow the basics, but also crops like sorghum ("a sweetener of the south that was locally available before the sugar trade") that they turn into syrup with their horse-powered press and sell as sorghum pecan ice cream at their cafe.The members of this agrarian- and craft-based intentional Christian community aim to be as self-sufficient as possible in as many ways as possible. They have dozens of hand looms for weaving their own clothing (jackets included). There's a blacksmith, leather workers, basket weavers, and furniture makers.There are a lot of people that feel the shaking, there are a lot of people that recognize that things aren't going to be able to go the way that they have and that changes are coming, explains Greg Godsey who co-owns the Heritage Coffee Shop and Heritage Architecture: "You might hear the term prepper, and a lot of times that is stockpiling lots of things, stockpiling food or ammo. That's not really our approach. The idea of stockpiling and the nature of it is not sustainable. That's what the stockpile is that it's going to have an end and we're trying to think about it from an approach of, how can we recognize that their are changes coming, things are failing, things are not going to always go as they have and can we be doing something to prepare for that that has a look ahead in a positive way that can maybe teach people to sustain themselves or bring people together."— Homestead Heritage: homesteadheritage.com— Heritage Architecture: houzz.com/professionals/architects-and-building-designers/heritage-architecture-pfvwus-pf~1384642694* Farm footage and community life footage courtesy of Ben Owen: circlebphoto.comOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/ecovillage-settlers-living-off-land-craft-like-modern-amish
In LA, 50s garage becomes ideal backyard home with precise built-ins Kirsten Dirksen 2024-04-28 | Writer/director Wash Westmoreland wanted to turn his rundown garage behind his LA home into a home/studio that could fulfill many roles: rental apartment, writing cottage and full-size screening room. Architect John Colter left the facade of the garage intact to disguise it from the street, but once you step inside, the space expands Tardis-like into a light-filled multifunctional home.— 3:12: check the "summer solstice" windows, which operate like the Paleolithic monument of Stonehenge, perfectly aligning with the sun's movements during the solstice.Initially Westmoreland wanted a space to write, as well as for overnight guests and to rent it when he was out of town filming. "The thought was it was sort of a creative space that could also be a guest house that could also be where a friend could come and live, so that in the end is what happened," explains Westmoreland. For Wash’s friend Christhian Barron, also a writer/director, the backyard home is an ideal creative home. “Every night I can watch a movie like being in a movie theater. And for someone who loves film in the capital of filmmaking it's sort of a dream come true really.” For Colter, it was an opportunity to play. “We wanted to create a plywood house,” he explains of the decision to use floor-to-ceiling plywood. This proves an easy surface for cut-outs like circular rolling windows that line up for the summer solstice. Colter even designed plywood furniture so there was no need for Christhian to buy anything, nor to decorate. “The wood is the art,” says Christhian.To block the view of a new apartment complex next-door, they didn’t put in any windows on that side, except for hidden clerestory and a skylight. Though the garden side of the ADU is covered with floor-to-ceiling windows to keep the space integrated with the lush greenery.Director/screenwriter Wash Westmoreland: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wash_Westmorelandcolterandco.comfilmindependent.org/people/cristhian-barronOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/turns-unused-garage-into-precise-backyard-home-with-screening-room
His Velomobile RV is a bicycle-camper to live (bed, kitchen, WC included) Kirsten Dirksen 2024-04-21 | Micro-shelter super-designer Paul Elkins (his bike campers have inspired a movement in Germany: Fahrradwohnwagen) has created a pedal RV that converts from bike to bedroom to kitchen to bathroom to lounge in a space little larger than his own body, and using the cheapest of materials.— To watch Paul Elkins-inspired German meet-up of bike trailers and Velomobile RVs derived from Paul's DIY designs in his place near Seattle: 2:52 The Supreme Court is now deciding whether cities can make public "camping" illegal, but what if the homeless had a bike that doubled as a home: a kind of zero-cost vanlife? Paul Elkins has spent several decades creating micro shelter designs that anyone, especially those without homes, can build with free or very affordable materials, and his latest ultra-cheap design is a recumbent bike that can be converted into a bedroom/kitchen/bathroom in minutes. It isn't a permanent solution, but his nomad pedal camper can be made out of old bicycles and discarded campaign signs and is as small and stealth as a covered bicycle.Elkins used leftover bicycle parts and fluted plastic (which he often recycles from campaign signs) to create a bicycle camper that doesn't tow the camper, but instead brings it inside the bicycle for a hyper-efficient ride. The final bike/camper weighs less than 100 pounds, including kitchen supplies and a sleeping bag. The home converts using plywood panels that can be reconfigured to expose the pedals/handlebars or covered up for sleeping, lounging, or cooking. The shower/bathroom is created using a shower curtain that snaps to the wing door to create a private area for showering (with a solar shower) that can also be used as a sheltered guest room.Paul’s sketchbooks on human-powered vehicles: https://elkinsdiy.com/product/sketch-...To buy Paul’s plans: https://elkinsdiy.com/product-categor...Paul Elkins' videos: youtube.com/@paulwelkinsdiyGerman camper meetup (Fahrradwohnwagen) credit: youtube.com/@ALEXTEK.On *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/boeing-fired-pros-like-him-his-diy-micro-rvs-proof-what-company-missed
Oldtimer builds rustic ecovillage in USs southernmost point Kirsten Dirksen 2024-04-14 | About 40 years ago, William bought 1.25 acres for $6000 on the Big Island of Hawaii and began growing his own food and building his own shelters. He was inspired to leave his native Wisconsin for a place where it would be easier to live off the land.Today he lives with only solar power (with an array built from recycled panels), without a car (he uses an electric trike or carpools), without a job (except for rent from his self-built shelters) and he grows much of his own food, including coconuts, mangos, citrus, macadamia nuts, pumpkins and a huge vegetable garden.He has built a dozen structures on his property, using recycled materials and spending next to nothing to build by hand. His wooden main house is half greenhouse with windows of an ocean view that he built for $500 to $1000. Most of his shelters are topped with green roofs, including a 2-story stone yurt with a lush green roof, an underground music studio lined with local rock and topped with vegetation, a bamboo quonset hut, and two green-roofed converted truck homes."Nature does a pretty good job," explains William. "These living roofs... you know, I wanted everything like that, 'cause it makes everything invisible, and blended with it."The impetus to begin this project, which he had hoped to turn into an eco-village and invite others to join him, was inspired by the book "Survival in the 21st Century" by Viktoras Kulvinskas (1976) and thinkers like Buckminster Fuller (William has a geodesic dome sweat lodge.On *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/oldtimer-builds-rustic-ecovillage-in-us-southern-most-point
LA med student turns small van into ideal dorm on wheels, $14K total Kirsten Dirksen 2024-04-07 | Ethan Liebross didn't want to take out more loans for medical school so he decided to convert a 2015 Ford Transit into an off-grid home to live in for his four years of school. With some help from his dad on the off grid system, Ethan worked 9-to-5 for two months to create a vehicle with the details of a modern home: butcher block countertops, custom-cut memory foam mattress, a gas range and a stainless steel sink with a pressure washer.UCLA medical school sits in the pricey Westwood neighborhood of LA so most of Ethan’s classmates are paying $1800 a month rent for a studio. Ethan appreciates not having to take out more loans, but he also hopes that living this way will help make him a more compassionate doctor.youtube.com/@ethanliebrossJustin Montgomery's converted 2018 Ford Transit @mathematicalpowerTeresa (& Pedro)'s converted 2003 Ford E-450 Ambulance Instagram @cuvanos_On *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/med-student-turns-small-van-into-ideal-dorm-on-wheels-14k-total
Biokabin: our modular eco-home to snap & build in backyard, Nature Kirsten Dirksen 2024-03-31 | People have asked us over the years, "if you were to build a simple home, what would it look like?" So we decided to build one. Enter Biokabin, a modular eco-home made of wood.At first we didn't know everything about it, but we were sure that house needed to belong to the place, to be healthy and to age well. But the real challenge was: could we build it ourselves without fancy tools, and to create a design that could work for other people as well?Over the past couple years, with the help of architect and carpenter friends, we designed and built a modular home that can be as small as 100 square feet (one module) to as large as you'd like by simply adding modules. The components are cut in a factory and can be assembled with just a few people, and a wrench and a ladder (no need for a crane).Living in small apartments and seeing very compact dwellings we also realized that it's not the layout, but the 3D-space that matters, so we wanted to design something high to allow for two-story setups. Style and quality were important, so we used our collective experience of Scandinavian, Mediterranean, and California design.Soon we will be building the first three-module Biokabin Living as an ADU in our California backyard, but we would love to see it in other parts of California or Southern Europe (as a start). We can only produce ten the first year because we want to be able to focus on each one. — Take a look: biokabin.com— Press release: docs.google.com/document/d/17TQWvjt9p_Zsmq_WitziROqAf2VUOW0AmGeHj4ufE14/edit?usp=sharing— Models: biokabin.com/modelsOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/biokabin-our-modular-eco-home-to-snap-build-in-backyard-nature
At 22, buys & customizes lofted home in Pocket Neighborhood on a budget Kirsten Dirksen 2024-03-24 | Christian Curry was the first of his friends to buy a home. At just 22, he bought a 600-square-foot starter home within biking distance of downtown Tempe (Arizona). His is one of 13 “humble homes” that make up Tempe Micro Estates, developed to help address the lack of affordable housing in this college town.Priced at $170,000 to $210,000 apiece, the single-family homes share a central courtyard, but are owned by their residents who lease the land (with renewable 99 year leases) through a community land trust (CLT), the Newtown Community Development Corporation. Owners can build equity, but when they choose to sell they have to sell back to Newtown to ensure that the prices remain affordable.Curry appreciates how his small space makes experimentation more affordable; he has installed recycled quartz countertops and smart light switches and blinds. With his private side yard he laid down a turf lawn and vines to cover the back wall.The homes are “very, very efficient”, explains Curry, who says his winter electric bills are about $25 and in the summer, despite consistent 110 degree weather, it is about $65. Architect Matthew Salenger, of coLAB studio, used passive solar and natural daylighting to help achieve such efficiency.Each home has just four modest windows, including a glass front door, which are placed to capture maximum light, but shaded by overhangs to avoid summer heat gain. The homes’ roofs capture rainwater which is used for watering the communal fruit trees, and future community gardens, and the graywater from the communal laundry is also used for irrigation.Curry expects to own here for at least 5 years before reselling to the CLT and taking his homeowner experience on to other projects. “Because it's small it gave me the opportunity to do a lot of the stuff that I dreamt about like making it a smart home. To test some stuff out here so when I do purchase a big boy home I can kind of use some of what I learned here.”coLAB studio colabstudio.com180 Degrees Design + Build 180degreesinc.comOn *faircompanies faircompanies.com/videos/at-22-buys-customizes-lofted-home-in-pocket-neighborhood-on-a-budget
Professor-turned-farmers Circular Home perches over ideal live-work homestead Kirsten Dirksen 2024-03-17 | Mitch Marks bought agricultural land on The Big Island of Hawaii in 1990 and years later when he was retiring from teaching he decided to give farming a go. Initially, he had planned to build his retirement home, but recognizing that only 10% of the food here is grown on the island, he began to farm what had been a coffee plantation a century ago. Claiming he was blessed with very fertile soil by the Goddess of the Volcano, Pele, today he farms mangos, cacao, avocado and enough Kona coffee to supply a local coffee shop when their own crop was ruined by infestation.For his own home, he knew he wanted to be integrated with the land, so he asked architect Craig Steely to design him a home where he could “live” in his atrium. Steely surrounded that atrium with a perfectly round home with full-height glass windows to let in the color of the vegetation, the sounds of the farm and an occasional visit from a chicken.Steely worried that a round home would be unmoored so he lofted a wedge above it as a geometric office. Like a D-fin from an old surfboard, this gives the home its name and a sense of direction.Completing the circle (home), triangle (fin) and square (atrium), a rectangular lap pool juts off the home from above.Architect Craig Steely: craigsteely.comSteely’s Lava Flow Home that inspired Mitch Marks to want to “live in an atrium”: craigsteely.com/project/lavaflow-1-robert-trickey-houseOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/articles/professor-turned-farmers-circular-home-perches-over-remote-homestead
Builds Quonset bunkers for a living. Lives in Dome Home in the woods Kirsten Dirksen 2024-03-10 | David builds underground Quonset huts, so when he saw a rundown Monolithic Dome for sale, he bought it and began rebuilding it into a custom home for himself. Built from steel-reinforced concrete with polyurethane foam insulation, the framework is disaster-proof and highly insulated (R-80). Built to be entirely off-grid, with solar panels, batteries, and a propane washer/dryer, it is very affordable to heat during the wet and cold of the Pacific Northwest winter and stays cool even during summertime heat waves.— Check David's work building Quonset bunkers: youtu.be/AJgVIEC84zg?si=LUv_iht3tC5VnXF7While the exterior was zombie-proof, the interior was mostly a blank canvas with a cement floor and a large open space. David designed a curving serpent wall to frame a round bedroom. Using 24-foot-long beams—the maximum length from a local mill—he set the room’s size and the exposed-wood bedroom ceiling and the floor of the office above it.As an experienced carpenter, David works on his home at night and on weekends, so it’s a long-term build that he can tailor as he lives in it and finds new needs.vikingshelters.comyoutube.com/@VikingSheltersinstagram.com/viking_shelterstwitter.com/VikingSheltersBuilding Bunker Villa on a budget using Quonset Hut structure:youtu.be/AJgVIEC84zgOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/builds-quonset-bunkers-for-a-living-lives-in-dome-home-in-the-woods
Young couple self-builds hempcrete home with innovative compost toilet Kirsten Dirksen 2024-03-03 | When Nil and Olivia found an affordable plot in picturesque Garrotxa, Catalonia, they quickly bought it and began to build themselves a home to fit the property.With no building experience and wanting something light on the land, they installed screw piles and an insulated prefab panel for a foundation and subfloor. For the walls they mixed hemp, lime and water to create a hempcrete mortar. With the help of family and friends, they finished building and drying the walls in three months.Hempcrete serves as a good insulator, so even though temperatures often drop below freezing during winters here in the foothills of the Pyrenees, the couple doesn’t need any heating system. The home takes advantage of the sun's heat by being oriented toward the south for maximum solar gain during the day and the concrete floors trap that heat to be released throughout the evening. If there is ever a particularly cold night or days without sun, the couple installed a wood-burning stove to bring up the indoor temperature by a few degrees, but not much is needed, even in those circumstances.Given the chronic drought in the region, Olivia and Nil installed a worm composting toilet. Other than the urine-separating element, it looks like a standard toilet, and only needs to be emptied of finished compost every two years.An avid cyclist, for Nil this area is a dream come true. Olivia relishes the space for a huge vegetable garden, including a greenhouse that the couple erected from a kit.Nil Camarasa's YT: youtube.com/@nilcamarasacapillaOn *faircompanes: faircompanies.com/videos/young-couple-self-builds-dream-natural-home-learning-by-doing
He stacked 64 containers in high-end solar skyscraper of 18 condos Kirsten Dirksen 2024-02-25 | He had already stacked containers two and three stories, but with his Ida apartment complex, Brian Stark went 85 feet high with 64 containers (on top of two floors of concrete culverts) to create North America's tallest container building. The 64-shipping-container tower packs features to avoid doomsday phenomena and could equally inspire preparedness experts and enthusiasts of "arcologies" (self-contained cities-within-a-building). For example, Ida reclaims the sidewalk and creates extra shade by using solar; it also gathers all Monsoon rains collected through the building to maintain native plants, storing the rest on a vertical container installed on one side.All the containers have been well-used, and dents are visible: Stark likes it this way. "Why we like using containers is they exist in our world already, so this building is 300 tonnes, 600,000 tonnes of steel that we didn't have to build." There are 18 condos, both one- and two-story, and all are made from high cubes so have expansive ceilings.All the water that falls on the building is collected into one vertical container that acts as a cistern for irrigating the rooftop and surrounding landscaping and for washing the building. Solar panels cover the sidewalk in front, which helps to power the building, but also provides much-needed shade for a desert city.The IDA sits in the Roosevelt Row arts district, and within a few blocks, Stark has two other container projects. We also visited the Churchill, a complex of 10 locally owned restaurants, bars and shops inside 20 containers. A few blocks away, we stopped at The Oscar, which has 9 apartments and 2 offices from 24 containers.Local Studio: localstudioaz.comArcology: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArcologyOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/us-tallest-container-tower-is-self-sustaining-18-home-oasis
Family builds their own private ecovillage with free materials Kirsten Dirksen 2024-02-18 | Cameron and Janeen Schiff built their dream home out of trash and salvage, but it took 16 years to put it together by hand. Steel beams from a dismantled Lockheed factory frame the main structure; old surfboards from Patagonia are insulation; dozens of pieces of marble form a countertop; and broken concrete has become stairs and pathways.The family of four began living in a trailer on the land until they had at a small room ready for a bunkbed and the kids. Each additional room was built as an individual unit so slowly a compound of rooms began to grow. Next came an office for Janine who worked from home in sales. And finally the main room, a near polygon, was finished with 10 foot ceilings, an open kitchen/living room, and a lofted bedroom.After two wells went dry the family begin living off rainwater. All the rooftops collect rain which is then pumped up the mountain into holding tanks. Cameron laid tubing all the way up to mountainside so that there would be sufficient drop and pressure to power fire sprinklers.Their daughter dubbed them "Pioneers of the Modern Era" and Cameron laid cable to electrify their home, but they use a very basic composting toilet. Their double barrel system takes about two years to fill up (one side) after which they switch to the other barrel and let the full one sit for two and a half years to remove any pathogens. Cameron built a solar-powered hot tub out of an industrial mixing bowl and holding tanks across the property for rainwater one of which became a skate park. There is plenty of water for their indoor and outdoor showers and outdoor bathtub, as well as to water their fruit orchard.Cameron Schiff (furniture, building): janeencam@gmail.comOn *faircompanies faircompanies.com/videos/family-builds-their-own-private-ecovillage-with-free-materials
Living car-free in the Arizona desert: inside Culdesac Tempe (full walkthru) Kirsten Dirksen 2024-02-11 | Just outside sprawling Phoenix, a car-free neighborhood built from scratch has gone up, the first one of its kind in the US. Modeled after walkable villages of yesteryear, Culdesac Tempe sits next to a light rail stop and has its own grocery store, restaurant, coffee shop, used clothing store, gym, and plenty of gathering spaces.The 17-acre community will eventually have 1000 residents, but no parking except for guests (the city of Tempe waived mandated parking minimums) though there is plenty of bike parking and free annual light rail passes for all residents.Culdesac resembles a Mediterranean white village, but it also is aiming at “desert urbanism” to provide relief from the local heat. There are no cement sidewalks (using instead pavers and decomposed granite), white paint to reflect the sun and native plants to help create a microclimate. Culdesac’s Erin Boyd explained that temperatures on their walkways have been measured at 90F (32C) on days when the pavement outside Culdesac is 120F (48C).While currently units here are only for rent, Boyd explained that Culdesac’s expansion plans include options for residents to buy as well.culdesac.comDesign opticosdesign.comMissing Middle Housing missingmiddlehousing.comSew Used Thrift Store instagram.com/sewused_Planted Alchemist Foundation (Yoseph El*) in partner with Nama.instagram.com/plantedalchemistplantstandinstagram.com/namayogashopKimberly Carson. instagram.com/kimsue_kimsueyoutube.com/@UCJEN2rvjEbscIcFgTnMYQ_gKinkan Gifts. instagram.com/kinkangiftsOn *faircompanies. faircompanies.com/videos/building-a-village-designed-for-people-not-cars-near-phoenix
Turns empty lot into Pocket Neighborhood of 4 shotgun houses Kirsten Dirksen 2024-02-04 | Just outside the historic downtown of Waco, Texas (Dr. Pepper was founded here in 1885), you normally find small bungalows drowned by large lots, but Cameron Bell has squeezed four narrow houses onto his quarter acre, creating a pocket neighborhood of unique homes (shotgun house and dogtrot house included).It all started when Cameron Bell was visiting his parents in his hometown of Waco, Texas, when he saw a boarded-up shotgun house being prepped for demolition, so he contacted the owner, who offered it to him if he could find a place to move it. Bell found a sliver of a lot (just 48 feet wide) where the home was rebuilt (on the show Fixer Upper) with a lofted second bedroom accessible by retractable stairs on a counterweight system.A couple years later, he bought the lot next door, and using the city's new Small Lot Ordinance, which shrunk the minimum lot size, he began to build 3 new homes. All of the new homes are small, with the dogtrot house the narrowest at about 12-feet-wide. The dogtrot design, like the shotgun, has rooms lined up in a row, but this one consists of two living areas divided by a covered porch. Not wanting the homes to appear too uniform, he staggered them on the lot and created unique builds for each one. As an homage to the city's historic downtown, Bell created a two-story brick building that resembles the old storefronts with housing above a shop. To create a home more suited for families, he designed a wider structure with a large living space and two tiny bedrooms divided by an atrium. The bedrooms are so narrow that when he saw them constructed, he was worried they wouldn’t fit a bed (it just fits).instagram.com/7southwacoMore on the concept of "pocket neighborhood": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_neighborhoodOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/turns-empty-lot-into-pocket-neighborhood-of-4-shotgun-houses
Uber driver saves money to build genius Expandable Container Home Kirsten Dirksen 2024-01-28 | Ten years ago Kamal Kadhar began dreaming about a home that could be easily transported around the world and could unfold upon delivery in just an hour with fridge, beds, sinks included, ready for overnights. Using 8 years worth of earnings as an Uber driver, Kamal built a container-sized home (7.5 feet by 24 feet) that can be pulled the back of a 4x4 and comes with 5-foot leg jacks so no forklift or crane is needed.He began building his first prototype outside in a field outside the southern Indian city of Tiruchirappalli. Not wanting to add complications for those wishing to deploy their home in remote locations, Kadhar relied on mechanical winches for unfolding the home (though electric gearboxes can be added) and avoided any type of hydraulics or machinery that can't be easily fixed by an amateur.In fact, Kadhar says his entire home can be built from the frame (that he can provide) by amateur building enthusiasts just as he was a decade ago. He grew up tinkering with metal in his father's scrap metal shop, but had little experience until he began watching Youtube videos and apprenticing with local builders in London where he lives and drives his Uber vehicle 12 hour days. He says he's gotten encouragement for his expandable home, which he calls Octopouse (inspired by his love of octopi), from his passengers. He's driven 35,000 passengers from 135 countries and even gotten advice from architects along the way.The Octopouse is furnished with a full kitchen, that pivots into position within seconds, and comes fully plumbed and electrified. There's also a Murphy bed in one wall, plus a toilet and shower (the bathroom doesn't unfold). Kadhar hopes to offer frames for sale for around $50,000 with the price to drop with economies of scale.Instagram: instagram.com/octopouse_ltdEmail info@octopouse.comOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/frugal-uber-driver-saves-to-build-genius-expandable-container-home
Solo girl terraforms lava field with off-grid oasis & rugged tiny home 🏝️ Kirsten Dirksen 2024-01-21 | 15 years ago, Jade Chen left New York City to settle on a remote lava field far from any store or utility. She bought 1/6 of an acre on top of a neighborhood that had been buried in the 1990 eruption. Jade was one of the first to return to the area but slowly others joined, and now despite being far from the grid, there are dozens of homes here, capturing the sun and rain. Her property came with an unfinished home and she has slowly turned it into 3 units which she uses for nightly rentals and yoga classes.Some of Jade's renters have gone on to buy properties and are now her neighbors (she now manages 10 homes in the area).Some of her Jade's tenants have bought their own lots and built their own floating homes. Treehouse builder Will Beilharz lofted his Phoenix and Ohana houses several feet above the lava so in the event of another eruption, they can be scooped up and carried off on tractor-trailers.Our family spent the night in the Phoenix house, and its adjacent escape pod, which are equipped with a tin wash-basin sink, a camp stove, and showers that drain right onto the lava. Outside, a 5000-gallon tank holds rainwater captured from the roofs. With the sparse vegetation and no power lines in site, the views across the lava feel endless. It’s a landscape that Jade explains is not understood by everyone, but for her, it’s one of the most beautiful places on earth.Will Beilharz (Artistree): artistreehome.com/teamPhoenix House: airbnb.com/rooms/18551788Ohana House: airbnb.com/rooms/22196849Lava Temple: airbnb.com/rooms/633307On *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/left-ny-to-build-tiny-off-grid-compound-atop-active-volcano
House was gloomy. Now its dream modern home that friends crash in Kirsten Dirksen 2024-01-14 | The home with "the circus tent roof" sat on the market for 6 years before Isabella and Diogo visited its dark maze of tiny rooms. Seeing potential in its modernist history, they bought it and began to uncover its more playful past.Architects Pablo and Alberto Twose began to study the home's geometry and discovered beneath the slanting walls a triangular pattern that formed variations of hexagons and octagons. Using these shapes as a guide, they took down walls and doors to abolish the confusing labyrinth of rooms in favor of bright open spaces that flow together like a child's puzzle. The Twoses called it Casa Tangram in reference to the Chinese dissection puzzle of the same name. By playing with the tangram tiles, the architects created a light-filled space without doors that resembles "a forest with clearings that invite us to stop, play, rest".Playful elements run throughout the home, like a centrally-placed hammock as a sofa, a stealth pantry camouflaged behind cladding and a toilet room concealed behind artful tiles. For the work-from-home couple and their young daughter, it's a wonderland they rarely need to leave.Two Bo two-bo.com/portfolio/casa-tangramtangram en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TangramOn *faircompanies faircompanies.com/videos/modern-mediterranean-home-rearranges-space-like-tangram-puzzle
Building Bunker Villa on a budget using Quonset Hut structure Kirsten Dirksen 2024-01-07 | Fifteen years ago David had friends building underground shelters, but he didn’t understand the attraction, until an ice storm took out his power and left him without electricity for a couple weeks. After building his own “concrete box” underground which doubled as both disaster bunker and guest house, he realized there was a faster and cheaper way to go underground. Instead of spending a year and $100,000 to place rebar and concrete forms, he began to bury Quonset huts for clients as a quick and more affordable solution to erect subterranean shelters.— Check David's Stealth Dome Home in the Pacific Northwest: youtu.be/fRRwNa9tpU8After digging into a hillside or into the ground, the Quonset hut itself goes up in a couple days on top of a cement foundation (the corrugated metal structure was originally developed by the US Navy during WWII as a quick, lightweight housing that could be assembled with unskilled labor). Then a layer of spray foam is applied, followed by a layer of shotcrete (sprayed concrete). Instead of rebar, David uses Helix Steel or “micro rebar” to reinforce the concrete. Time can vary by the size and location of a project, but David estimates the entire process takes about a month.We visited the underground Quonset shelter (somewhere near Portland) that he built for a client in 2010. It has 3 bedrooms, a full bathroom, a kitchen with dishwasher and cast iron stove, plus a well with access from inside and a loft filled with several years worth of dry food.vikingshelters.comyoutube.com/@VikingSheltersinstagram.com/viking_shelterstwitter.com/VikingSheltersOn *faircompanies faircompanies.com/videos/building-bunker-villa-on-a-budget-using-quonset-hut-structure
Enchanted Castle hides underground water-maze in San Francisco Kirsten Dirksen 2024-01-01 | Within San Francisco city limits, there's a Norman-style castle with a 4-story turret that few residents have heard of. Built in 1870 by a 21-year-old English immigrant who wanted to start a brewery so he hand-carved two 200-foot caverns under the castle to tap into one of the city’s only sources of natural spring water. Inside the caverns he dug three stone cisterns to hold the 8,000-10,000 gallons of natural spring water that flows through every day.Burnelll operated the Albion Porter Brewery until he had to shut down for prohibition. In 1919, it was remade into the Albion Water Company, which specialized in bottled drinking water from the cisterns. The castle was under threat of demolition in 1961 since it was adjacent to a road construction plan, but its nature of producing underground spring waters saved it. In case of a nuclear attack on the city, the castle could provide emergency water to the city. It is one of the only natural water sources that cannot be contaminatedThe castle was nearly demolished in 1961 to make way for a highway, but it was saved based on the argument that the fresh water source under the building “could be the only non-contaminated source of fresh water in the event of a nuclear attack.” (San Francisco Chronicle).In 2012, Bill Gilbert, who grew up in the neighborhood and remembers seeing the castle as a kid, bought it and installed a complex water filtration system hoping that someday he could begin bottling water here again.thealbioncastle.comOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/enchanted-castle-hides-underground-water-maze-in-san-francisco
Modern home hideout sits on forsaken volcano like Star Wars rebel ship Kirsten Dirksen 2023-12-24 | Perched on a slope of what is arguably the tallest mountain in the world (Mauna Kea), and accessible only by 4 wheel drive, Musubi House doesn't rely on city grids, but instead is powered by the sun and captures all of its water from a huge trapezoid sloped roof.Deep in the heart of paniolo (cowboy) country and surrounded by cattle ranches, this glass, steel and concrete home (designed by innovative architect Craig Steely), it was built to protect against strong winds, but opens up completely to an interior courtyard for sheltered outdoor living.“You are like being on a ship here right because you're dependent on yourself, the electricity, the water”, explains contractor and off-grid designer Scott Dale. It's the same as a sailboat in the middle of the ocean”.The base of the home is a giant triangle with one angle a sunken living room and rest of the home blurs the line between indoor and outdoor with floor to ceiling glass doors that open onto an open-sky courtyard. Even the bedroom and bathroom are translucent and the shower is completely outdoors with lava-rock tile. Since normally the owners, Stacy and Guy Brand, are here alone there’s no need for privacy, though the guest bathroom does have an opaque door (though only a macrame barrier wall).The kitchen is off-grid, but doesn’t make sacrifices. There’s an induction cooktop and full-sized electric stove and dishwasher. They used high-efficient drawers for refrigerator and freezer.The entire home is crafted, from the barrel-shaped skylights to a whitewashed pine ceiling that extends outdoors. “It's all skinned in this beautiful pine that we've whitewashed. This is a boat-builder's dream because all the lines line up from the outside to the inside. The same craftsmanship that goes into building a ship is the same craftsmanship that went into building the ceiling.”— Special thanks to architect Craig Steely: craigsteely.com/project/musubi-house— Scott Dale (featured in video) – contractor, and off grid designer (JSD Group, LLC)— Instagram: instagram.com/craigsteelyOn *faircompanies faircompanies.com/videos/modern-home-hideout-sits-on-forsaken-volcano-like-star-wars-rebel-ship
Giant Earthship vs wildfire: Did good prepping save this ecovillage? Kirsten Dirksen 2023-12-17 | Dan Schultz spent 15 years building his off-grid, self-sufficient utopia with whimsical homes and trees and gardens that produced enough fruit, nuts and produce to feed the half dozen residents for much of the year. The one thing they worried about was fire and last August their fears were realized.Caught in the path of the Smith River Complex fire that burned for 86 days and consumed nearly 100,000 acres, Dan’s ecovillage suffered some major losses: the 3 story lodge that housed 4 or 5 people burnt to the ground, as did their community kitchen and A-frame cabin, but other buildings survived with just broken windows, like the huge Earthship greenhouse, or with minor charring, like the Hobbit Hole shelter.One of the toughest losses for Dan was all the perennial food sources, or what made them truly a permaculture – “permanent agriculture” – homestead. “The orchard trees, you work for years to nurture them,” explains Dan. “They’re like your children, you know. We had 100 fruit and nut trees, we produced a couple thousand pounds of food from our orchard trees”.Shortly after the fire was extinguished Dan and volunteers got started rebuilding. They first had to clear trailer after trailer of rubble, spending $3000 on landfill fees. Their entire water system melted, all the PVC piping and polyethylene tanks, so for a couple months they bathed in the river and "bucketed up" water for washing. They just installed a new system in time for winter. Volunteers and donations arrived from across the country. The community kitchen was rebuilt from old barn wood and lumber milled from fire-damaged trees on the property. A donated geodesic dome structure waits where the A-Frame once stood. Dan says they will never rebuild the lodge.Today, the earthship, hobbit home, greenhouse home and roundhouse are all patched up and occupied. With the trees and produce from the earthship, and replanted garden, they can still grow enough vegetables to avoid the hour drive to the supermarket, and they await the spring to see just what of their orchard still lives. As they wait, Dan is constructing a mosaic from the rubble tile; it’s a phoenix rising from the ashes.Dan's fundraising: gofundme.com/f/sustainable-ecovillage-revivalOriginal video: youtube.com/watch?v=YOXkcz8j3GcFire footage credit: youtube.com/@gasquetmike8320On *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/his-remote-ecovillage-resisted-fire-off-grid-systems-back-up-%f0%9f%91%8d
No bank loaned them money. They built dream Hobbit Home themselves Kirsten Dirksen 2023-12-10 | When no bank would give them a loan for a sunken dome home, Steve Travis and Jeff Ingram began to build the earth-sheltered hobbit villa on their own, financing each step paycheck to paycheck and getting creative. They used recycled highway signs to lay the forms for the concrete foundation. They held a "dome-raising" party to erect the I-Beams (purchased as a dome kit). They tied their own rebar for a full year. They lived in a fifth-wheel trailer for 6 years before finally moving into a half-built house.Their commitment paid off. Today, the couple has spent a decade living mortgage-free in a home that is built to "withstand a nuclear blast," as well as hurricanes and earthquakes (they are in a fault zone). They have no heating or cooling bills since the home is hyper-insulated. “There are 1000 tons of earth on top of the house,” explains Steve. “The weight adds strength to the structure – like an egg, because of the barrel-hauled structure the weight of the earth compresses it and makes it stronger –, but the main aspect is the thermal mass insulation value.” Per code, the county made them put in two bedroom wall heaters, but they have never needed them. The home is maintenance-free except for having to mow the roof, which now bathes the entire home in green. “We've had people say it must be like living in a cave, but there's light everywhere in this house.” Because the walls aren’t load-bearing (the barrel vaults hold the home in compression), they were able to create huge windows on three sides of the home, allowing in plenty of southern light: “more than any home we’ve ever lived in.”On *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/no-bank-loaned-them-money-they-built-dream-hobbit-home-themselves
Young architects Fairy-Tale home inspired by Natures spirals: awe inside 🐚 Kirsten Dirksen 2023-12-03 | The Bloomhouse seems to erupt or grow from the ground, leaving no straight lines. It was actually hand-sculpted over the course of a decade into a piece of residential art. It resembles a fantastic animal (a dog, rabbit, deer, duck, dragon) or even a mushroom but looks very little like a conventional house.Architect Charles Harker began work in the early ‘70s using nature as inspiration and no blueprints or formal plans (the only permit required in unincorporated Travis County, Texas was for septic). His first step was to create the basic shape of the home in steel rebar which was coated in layers of polyurethane foam. Harker spent 9 months on site hand-sculpting the foam into intricate designs. The home was finished with layers of concrete stucco.The interior has been described as “falling down the rabbit hole in “Alice in Wonderland—mesmerizing and psychedelic” and having the snug quality of a Hobbit tea party. Each room flows into the next and it’s hard to stay oriented with the multiple levels and endless shapes. The bedroom is an oversized conch shell that Harker hoped with replicate the acoustics of the ocean. The only door in the home is on the bathroom though even this room drifts outside with an exterior shower.There are cubby holes and nooks everywhere, some are closets, And there is no elaborate system of tubes and orifices that make up a natural airflow for heating and cooling. Even the spiral staircase leading to the upstairs nook bedroom is part of the Venturi effect for natural air-conditioning.Dalton Bloom, the original owner, never actually lived in the home, but when Dave Klaunch bought it in 2017 it was inhabited, but the pipes had calcified and there were problems with mold. Klaus immediately began restoring the home giving careful attention to all the minutiae, like the Cherry wood “ribs” that accentuate the curves and gave us the impression of being inside a whale's belly.https://bloomhouse.live/
Off-grid Hawaii dream: couple builds budget home & thriving food forest Kirsten Dirksen 2023-11-29 | Matt Holton and Cristina Pineda were living on Maui where the average home price is a million dollars when they heard about lots on the Big Island selling for about 20K. They bought an acre for 22K, and with no building experience, soon began to build their own home. Near the rim of the Kīlauea volcano caldera, their rainforest community of Fern Forest remains affordable thanks to its lava zone 3 rating (1-5% of zone 3 has been covered since 1800). With no option for city water, everyone collects rainwater here and many homes are unpermitted and uninsured. “Here is a little place where people kind of let be and no one gives you much trouble for what you’re doing,” explains Matt.After digging out a driveway and lining it in gravel, the couple moved an RV onto their property and began to build. They got some help from neighbors and Matt’s architect brother, but mostly they used books and the Internet to build themselves a seismically-safe and hurricane-resistant home.They use limited solar (mostly just for charging their electric car and heating shower water) and rely instead on a bit of propane for their outdoor kitchen. They have a tiny fan, but mainly depend on the trade winds to blow through their home for cross ventilation. Instead of heating (it can drop as low at the 50s fahrenheit), they rely on warm jackets and down comforters.They don’t bother with a refrigerator since a garden in a rainforest produces food with very little labor. They have at least 30 varieties of fruit trees and a diversity of vegetables like Samoan spinach (a bush) and lemongrass (great for rice). “It’s like a gardening paradise,” explains Matt about the lack of irrigation needed, “You just have to trim”.“You kind of embrace living in the forest,” explains Matt who grew up on Maui. “You sleep deeper here, maybe it's the pace of life as well as just being surrounded by all the trees, there's a comfort as well as a simplicity and beauty to it that we like.” Cristina, who grew up in New Mexico, adds, “This is the dream that I never had.”Matt's channel@Mauirunner Cristina's channel @cristinapineda808Matt's art holtongallery.blogspot.comOn *faircompanies faircompanies.com/videos/couples-budget-home-tropical-food-forest-in-dirt-road-hawaii
He built $2K remote dome cabin amid freezing Siberian wilderness (step-by-step) Kirsten Dirksen 2023-11-19 | Bio-architect and handyman Alosha Lynov has experienced his own Tolstoyan Odyssey: interested in natural building, he taught himself to design and build shelters with materials and shapes inspired by Nature that resemble an Arctic version of Antoni Gaudí's designs.Alosha pushes his version of eco-construction to the limits so his "buriable" shelters "can handle the harshest and most erratic weather patterns as well as strong wind and snow loads."In the first chapter of our series with Alosha, we follow him to Siberia, where he learns from a local how to adapt his curvilinear designs to build a vaulted turf home capable of bringing beauty and comfort to one of the harshest environments, showing "what anybody is capable of."Alosha's longterm plan is to redesign the Earthship Subzero temperatures without sun, what he calls his Wautillarium Autonomous Eco Home.Alosha teach others how to build his homes and permaculture gardens on his online Bio-Veda Academy bioveda.coDaily Mail UK covered Alosha's story: dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-12810727/Handyman-remote-cabin-Siberia-wilderness.htmlOn *faircompanies faircompanies.com/videos/he-built-remote-dome-cabin-amid-freezing-siberian-wilderness-for-1k
Retro-futuristic ADU sits atop old Austin bungalow, freeing backyard Kirsten Dirksen 2023-11-12 | An Austin couple wanted to add on to their two-bedroom bungalow, but they didn’t want to move out and they didn’t want to use backyard space, so architect Nicole Blair decided to attach an ADU (accessory dwelling unit) to their roof.The steel structure was prefabbed off-site, and in less than 24 hours, it was placed on top of four steel columns (3 of which pierce the original house). The 660-square-foot cottage sit just two feet above the main home, but just under the city’s height limit.The “upstairs cottage” has a kitchen, living room, bedroom and a second room which one of the owners, a hairstylist, uses as a hair salon. The owners named the new space “The Perch” which Blair says reminds her of the birds often perched on top of it when she visits.nicoleblair.comOn *faircompanies faircompanies.com/videos/didnt-want-to-move-out-they-bolted-modern-prefab-to-roof-instead
Veteran coder builds stone-covered Dome Home into Texas hill Kirsten Dirksen 2023-11-05 | When Al Schwarz moved from upstate NY near Dallas, TX, he wanted a home with low energy bills and protection from extreme weather, so he dug into a hillside, inserted cement domes and buried them again with enough earth and rock to guarantee protection.He spent 10 years stacking 230 tons of rock as a retaining wall and planting grass and trees atop the home. The final home is heavy enough to guarantee a steady temperature. “A normal house weighs about 46 tons,” explains Schwarz. “This one weighs between 600 and 700 tons, so it cannot change temperature rapidly – only about a degree in 24 hours. Therefore, it’s very easy to keep the inside comfortable.”His 7 acres cost $49,000, though he took out a loan to build the domes which was not easy to find for such a non-conforming property. He finally found one that had financed other dome homes in the past.With a greenhouse of vegetables and potatoes, and a lake in his backyard for fishing he is nearly entirely self-sufficient. The home is powered by solar and often feeds back into the grid. His earth-sheltered home has also become a refuge for neighbors during extreme weather. One neighbor was so impressed they have installed their own prefab dome for private protection from storms.Visit Al's YouTune channel: youtube.com/@alschwarz9024On *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/veteran-coder-builds-stone-covered-dome-home-into-texas-hill
Couples attic apartment is kaleidoscope of nooks & skylights 🍕 Kirsten Dirksen 2023-10-29 | Sam Ciccarelli and Rosie Dooley live in a kaleidoscopic attic home that is a maze of triangles, tunneled bedrooms and expansive skylights that have inspired them to launch a one-of-a-kind pizza venture. The couple, who met while working at the famed Chez Panisse, sell wild-fermented pizzas cooked in a 2,000-pound, igloo-shaped oven bolted to the flatbed of a vintage 1989 Ford 250 truck.At every pop-up since they launched a year ago, lines snake around the block and pies sell out fast. Ciccarelli is dedicated to creating an ideal sourdough; he believes in the power of naturally-fermented doughs not just for for better digestion and gut health, but he mentions longevity studies showing that blue zone inhabitants tend to eat sourdough over breads leavened with industrial yeasts. He is dedicated to his sourdough starter: he feeds several on a regular basis and stores one as backup in the freezer. His was originally brought from Italy, but he later realized natural leavens pick up the friendly lactobacillus bacteria from their current location, which isn’t a problem given the Bay Area’s renown for its sourdoughs.On the day of a pop-up, he starts mixing the dough at 4 a.m for 70 pounds of dough - enough for 130 pizzas - and has to adjust the mix based on the weather. Changes in temperature can ruin a fermented dough so Ciccarelli is continually experimenting with ancient-grain flours and the dough’s hydration to create exemplary crusts.Ciccarelli named the pop-up (and hopefully the future restaurant) Urelio’s after his great-grandfather, and he was inspired by the big Italian meals he grew up with.ureliospizza.comOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/their-roof-apartment-is-charming-their-gourmet-pizza-truck-is-wild
Strawbale Home couple built after fire is bioclimatic marvel Kirsten Dirksen 2023-10-22 | Ken Haggard and Polly Cooper have built natural homes with passive solar techniques and powered by renewables since the seventies, so when in August 1994 a wildfire destroyed their property and home, they decided to rebuild them back, only better.They used fire-resistive strawbale walls for their new studio and home, built next to the only structure (also made with straw bale) that survived the fire. Strawbale has a two-hour fire rating when clad in earthen plasters.The studio's main facade includes both a masonry and a water Trombe wall for storing daytime heat for use overnight. The water wall uses an internal chamber filled with water that regulates the interior temperature: convection currents within the water help transfer heat through the entire thermal mass much quicker than only masonry.When the Haggards bought the land in 1980 it was an abandoned trout farm, but they worked to restore the waterways to create natural swimming pools (filtered by plants) not just for people, but also for endangered species of turtles and frogs. A charming little piazza sheltered by trees and several ponds helps regulate the area's temperature and create a respite for them and the local fauna —students and researchers from Cal Poly come to the property to study the frog population.—Ken & Polly Haggard: slosustainability.com—David Bainbridge (water wall): sustainabilityleader.org—Kenneth Haggard's bio: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Haggard—Organic architecture: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_architecture—Fractals in architecture: https://users.math.yale.edu/public_html/People/frame/Fractals/Panorama/Architecture/Arch/Arch.html—Trombe wall definition: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trombe_wall On *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/all-burnt-down-they-built-natural-home-restored-land-only-better
Got abandoned bunker network. Theyre building underground village Kirsten Dirksen 2023-10-15 | In Paradise Valley (Montana) there are 52 underground bunkers, capable of housing hundreds of people. They were built in the 1980s to prepare for nuclear fallout. When Dean Anderson found one for sale by owner, he snapped it up for a good price since it was filled with 45,000 pounds of dried food.“Basically to me it was like a million to a million and a half dollars worth of cement stuck underground,” explains Anderson. “I was thinking all this leftover stuff, gone, they’re going to bury it, so I could buy it for next to nothing and turn it into something cool.”He’s now in the process of converting it into a series of apartments. The decontamination chamber alone is now a two bedroom apartment. The giant cement dome goes three stories deep. He has already created an apartment and huge communal living space on the top floor, after cutting holes in the sides to open it up to the views (they are 7 miles from Yellowstone).There are still two floors of building to complete, but Anderson has not just created more living space, he has also turned food storage space into a source for geothermal heating and cooling.Anderson has done all the work with a crew of young men in recovery. He believes in physical labor as therapy and years ago “an old man” helped him in the same way. Now 30-years-sober, Anderson has spent years replicating this work-therapy on his construction projects. He trains and pays the men who are often just off the street or out of prison in hopes that they will follow his path. “We’ve had 40 kids through here. The bulk of whom are clean and healthy and doing well.”After five summers on this project two apartments already but there’s still more work to be done. Dean and his crew have been filming their experiences for a TV series. The Montana Society season two launches on October 20.montanasociety.orgOn *faircompanies faircompanies.com/videos/got-abandoned-bunker-network-hes-starting-underground-village
Inventor of DIY campers, $20 shelters & wee goodness #shorts Kirsten Dirksen 2023-10-10 | Boeing retiree Paul Elkins is an original maker of all things small and crafted. We've known him for a while, and we'd love to share his encyclopedia of incredible projects:—Check out his channel: youtube.com/@paulwelkinsdiy/featured—Don't miss his plans & self-published books: elkinsdiy.com
NJ retiree builds off-grid Wood Tower homestead in remote Andes Kirsten Dirksen 2023-10-08 | Wendy Green had spent most of her life in suburban New Jersey long days as a yoga teacher, so when she turned 50, she sold her house and used the proceeds to buy remote land in the Andes. Wendy became an advocate of the Financial Independence, Retire Early movement (FIRE) before it even existed —and also a yoga master of sorts along the way.In her new homestead, she built an all-wood, tall and narrow, home, installed solar, a gravity-fed water system, and planted a large garden to live as self-sufficiently as possible.Her property sits at the end of a road outside Mindo, Ecuador; she bought it from an American couple who had hoped to start a bird-watching retreat, but left it unfinished. Despite being in a cloud forest, there’s enough sun in the morning to power the home at night. Early on, she discovered a natural spring on her property and used it to create a gravity flow system to provide tank-filtered water for the home.To help pay the bills, she hosts overnight guests for yoga and fresh food from the garden and hiking on the hundreds of trails she and her team have built through her property. Now at age 70, she still teaches yoga, but she feels far removed from the grind. She says she feels her hours are her own and her guests often become friends. She has plenty of time to stay focused on eating well and exercising, important for her goal of achieving a long “healthspan”.“It’s a small life, but it’s a healthy healing life. You know some people want fancy trips, nice cars and jewelry and all the trappings that come with a modern lifestyle. I’m just really happy with my house, my water system, my trails, my employees and my guests.”Wendy runs yoga retreats 7/14/21 days and visitors get to experience life with their host:“We do yoga, hike, eat local food. They [visitors] feel transformed. Trails go for hours around her property, but they are just a few.”Casa Verde yoga/detox/hiking retreats: wendygreenyoga.comModern treehouse: www.airbnb.com/h/modern-treehouseVideo credit: Luis Felipe Lalama instagram.com/ifollowmycameraFinancial Independence Retire Early (FIRE movement): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIRE_movementOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/young-70-year-old-builds-tall-treehouse-amid-rainforest-paradise
She used commercial materials to build dream 2-story ADU for $30K Kirsten Dirksen 2023-10-01 | Christi Azevedo has spent years machining metal to make furniture so when she wanted to build a fast, fire-resistant, easily-configurable backyard home, she created a prototype from insulated metal panels."The furniture business gave me the skills for working at a scale that is half furniture half building," she explains. In 2015 we filmed her San Francisco boiler room conversion that also relied on metal, but with this build she hopes to create a blueprint for an ADU (accessory dwelling unit) that at 200-square feet "was designed to be a suitable size to share the backyard of a city lot." She believes the materials will make this easy to replicate on any size lot. "A post and beam light gauge steel frame and insulated metal panels are components that can be walked through a tradesman entrance and easily assembled."In her Grass Valley, CA backyard, she and a friend with no construction skills put up the framing without help. The framing and panels were installed in two days, the cladding took another 2 days and the windows one more, so she estimates the home's envelope took 5 days to erect and cost $30,000.The home can carry a snow load of 35 pounds per square foot and the panels are insulated for heat and cold (R42 in the roof and R24 in the walls).The then height limit of 16 feet (it's now 20’) led to the home's staggered-height volumes which make the interior feel in contrast to the exterior's boxlike feel. Azevedo Design www.christiazevedo.comPhoto credit: César Rubio www.cesarrubio.com; Instagram @cesarrubiophotography
Couple builds dream natural Roundhouse with hempcrete, cob & lime 🐚 Kirsten Dirksen 2023-09-24 | Concerned about indoor air quality, Neil Decker and Stella Michaels wanted their home to be chemical-free, so they decided to build it out of hempcrete (hemp, lime, and sand). The couple didn’t think they could afford to live in California but found a rundown property in Gold Rush old country on the Western Slope of Sierra Nevada just outside Nevada City (above 2500 feet, with cold winters), where they moved into a fifth wheel trailer while constructing their home.They had experience building with earth-bags (flexible formed rammed earth) but felt it was too hard on the body. They knew hempcrete was lightweight and was easy to work with. They were able to raise half the house in 5 days. They then trained and hired local students to help finish the exterior build just before the winter rains. They then let the house get wet and dry during the winter, which helps to harden the lime before adding a lime plaster to the exterior. The couple added clay plasters to the walls for the interior and laid an earthen cob floor. The couple was told by locals that we wouldn’t be able to get hempcrete approved, but the local building department told them as long as they met the codes for insulation value and raking strength, there should be no problems. And in 2016, they were the first hempcrete home approved in California. Decker explains that not only is hempcrete extremely durable, but it’s also fire and earthquake-resistant and can help with indoor air quality since it’s very breathable and mold-reducing.Decker had spent a lot of time in yurts as a ski guide, and he liked how it felt to live in a circular structure, so they decided to design a perfectly round home. They spent 2 years observing how energy flowed through our property to choose a building site. Inspired by Earthship design, the home is passive solar with nearly all glass on the south, passive cooling with a 6-foot openable skylight controlled by a thermostat that allows heat to escape when indoor temperatures rise above 75 degrees. Cooling tubes are buried 5ft underground and run 50 ft in front of the home to cool ambient air outside the house's interior. Cool air is passively pulled into the tubes as hot air escapes out of the skylight in the summer.Neil & Stella's home is among California's first permitted hemp homes.TIMELINE:0:18 Moved to a more affordable area outside Nevada City (Sierra Nevada foothills) and built a 40-foot Hemp Roundhouse (1st hemp roundhouse in the US, among the first permitted hempcrete homes in CA).4:27 Living on the property while building.8:50 Using clay plaster and hemcrete in building a sustainable home.13:40 Hempcrete specs as building material (a breathable wall system made of hemp, lime, and water used to restore traditional buildings and is now being used to build houses).18:15 Earthen floor that provides grounding and natural healing.22:01 They wanted a small, simple bedroom with soft lighting, and the whole place tries to inspire calm and natural beauty.26:19 Neil Decker's background living in a roundhouse and the benefits of its design.30:32 Home uses passive cooling systems to reduce utility bills.34:50 They wanted a healthy home that would last multiple generations and were excited about their house's unique and special features.Some people are suggesting in the comments that Nils affirmation about "grounding" of the human body with the Earth is some invention. The reality is more complex, and several scientific studies explore "Earthing" (or reconnection with our environment) by, for example, frequently going barefoot. Here's one article published in 2012 (from the National Library of Medicine): "Earthing: Health Implications of Reconnecting the Human Body to the Earth's Surface Electrons": ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3265077Abstract of the paper: "Environmental medicine generally addresses environmental factors with a negative impact on human health. However, emerging scientific research has revealed a surprisingly positive and overlooked environmental factor on health: direct physical contact with the vast supply of electrons on the surface of the Earth. Modern lifestyle separates humans from such contact. The research suggests that this disconnect may be a major contributor to physiological dysfunction and unwellness. Reconnection with the Earth's electrons has been found to promote intriguing physiological changes and subjective reports of well-being."—Hempcrete Roundhome owners' personal website, Starseed Creative: starseedcreative.com—Check Neil Decker's video on the house project, "1st Hempcrete Round House in the USA" youtube.com/watch?v=jThZxJNo7Lc—Neil Decker's channel: youtube.com/@neildecker1On *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/6-years-building-healthy-natural-roundhome-with-hempcrete-cob
Home alone in Gotham: when all you can afford is tiny dwellings Kirsten Dirksen 2023-09-17 | How prohibitive is it to live solo in NYC today vs. 20 years ago? As remote work & high prices have hollowed out part of the activity in Manhattan, we follow different people living in tiny quarters while trying to get by in the city.Manhattan hasn't returned to pre-pandemic activity levels for commuter work, but the shift didn’t translate into cheaper living, and rents remain prohibitive.The long-lasting reality of micro-apartments in New York shows that the need for entry-level housing has remained high over the decades. But the current lack of affordability may affect young-age emancipation —and empty-nesters' ability to downsize into smaller living quarters near vibrant city centers.In 1965, there were about 100,000 single-room occupancy units (SROs) in the city. But over the following decades, developers began to convert them to larger units, and today, it's estimated there are just 3000 apartments in New York City under 400 square feet.Over the years, we've interviewed many living in spaces as small as 78 square feet. These are smaller than current minimum size standards but grandfathered in as a reminder of a time when creating affordable housing for those with limited incomes, primarily recent immigrants, was paramount.During the course of our documenting tiny apartments in New York, the city recognized the need for smaller, more affordable spaces and eliminated the 400-square-foot minimum size standard. Today, zoning still requires at least one room of 120 square feet, and this doesn't include a kitchen, bathroom and closet.TIMELINE:0:30 Kirsten lived in a shared apartment in the Village near Washington Square Park 20 years ago (4 bedrooms, 1 bath, 1 kitchen);1:00 Housing has become more expensive in NYC 1:15 Felice Cohen's microapartment 15 years ago1:51 Alaina Randazzo recent microapartment (which she thought was Felice Cohen's original microapartment; it's not).2:30 Are microapartments permanent solutions?3:30 Residence hotels and boarding houses in the early 20th-century.5:05 Alex Verhaeg's current microapartment in Manhattan;9:50 Some small apartment renovations have had a big public impact, like Graham Hill's APT-1 renovation in SoHo.11:33 revisiting Luke Clarke Taylor's "shoebox apartment" in Hell's Kitchen (2011); Luke and Kirsten/*faircompanies were featured on a NYT's article back then, Gulliver Seeks Rental nytimes.com/2013/05/21/nyregion/gulliver-seeks-rental-the-newfound-fascination-with-tiny-dwellings.html13:30 The trend of transforming furniture and micro apartments in Manhattan.14:00 all spaces in micro apartments have become functional with the addition of transforming furniture.20:00 Where is the trend of micro-apartments headed?21:30 Michael and his wife, retired empty-nesters, go against the trend by moving into a smaller place with transforming furniture in the city.Alex Verhaeg: youtube.com/@abonaax; tiktok.com/@stmarksshortyNikki Espina: tiktok.com/@nicole.espinaAlaina Randazzo: youtube.com/@alainarandazzo; instagram.com/alainarandazzzoFelice Cohen: felicecohen.comLuke Clark Tyler: http://www.fieldissuedesign.comGraham Hill: thecarbonauts.comOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/home-alone-in-gotham-when-all-you-can-afford-is-tiny-dwellings
Housing crisis + plastic overflow = prefab made of used bottles Kirsten Dirksen 2023-09-10 | Could two separate events, the housing crisis & plastic pollution, converge in a project to build homes? One LA-based startup 3D-prints modular backyard homes of recycled plastic that aim at lighter, faster, more affordable builds.They 3D-print homes in one day using recycled plastics for less than $50,000. Using a massive 3D-printer, Azure Printed Homes prints the floor, roof and walls in a day and then finishes 99% of the home in their Culver City factory. Because the plastic is so light it can be put on the back of a truck and driven to the install site where it is connected to the foundation and utilities.The first homes were built with post-industrial plastic waste, but Azure cofounder Ross Maguire explains that as the recycling revenue streams have gotten cleaner, they can now print with post-consumer waste, like plastic bottles.Prices start at $43,900 for a 180 square-foot ADU (accessory dwelling unit), bathroom and kitchen included. Two modules for 360 sq-ft of floor space can be attached for $85,900. Permitting, foundation, delivery and installation usually cost an extra 20 to 30% of the price.With the app, you can lightly design your home choosing from clear glass side walls, multiple window options, flooring, paint color, and you can add solar panels and battery and go off the grid. Maguire explains that because the home is printed in one monolithic unit there are no thermal bridges so the homes are very efficient to heat and cool. azureprintedhomes.comOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/concerned-by-trash-they-print-50k-homes-from-used-plastic
Granny felt lonely. Her new backyard home has her relatives knocking Kirsten Dirksen 2023-09-03 | Alice Marozas had been living alone in a 5-bedroom home since the death of her husband 7 years earlier when her daughter suggested that instead of finding a retirement community, she move into a prefab in their Los Angeles backyard. Alice had loved growing up in a multi-generational household (after her mother had taken in her 7 younger, orphaned siblings) loved the idea of being closer to her daughter and grandkids, but she didn’t want to be a burden.Claudia and her husband Chris Buchanan wanted to preserve the backyard as it was, including their tall hedge and vegetable garden, so they found a panelized prefab so the “granny unit” could be hand-carried in pieces through the 3-foot gap in their hedge. Since California had recently passed new ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit) legislation, they could place the prefab right up next to the lot line, instead of adhering to an older 15-foot setback requirement. This left the garden and hedge untouched..Once a foundation was laid, it felt like the home went up in a day, explains Chris, who filmed the home one evening mid-build when the wall panels had been slid together, but the ceiling panels still hadn’t been snapped into place and the internal LEGO-like structure is evident (HVAC hidden behind ceiling panels and track lighting that takes advantage of the gaps between panels).Most mornings Chris and Claudia cross the hedge so he can tend the garden and she can have coffee with on her mom’s porch. And in the afternoon, their youngest son crosses to visit grandma’s house for a snack or to watch sports.Backyard home designed & built by Cover: buildcover.comOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/granny-felt-lonely-her-new-backyard-home-has-her-relatives-knocking
Steep lot was unbuildable. He raised retro-futuristic home over lake Kirsten Dirksen 2023-08-27 | Robert Oshatz believes a house should fit the land and its residents, so his homes are all a bit fantastic. His own home seems to defy gravity, floating above a very steep hillside on a lot that was cheap because it was deemed unbuildable. Perched on a 30° degree incline, his funnel-shaped home soars above a steep drop- looking down on birds and treetops- and resembling a recently-docked spaceship.Most of his homes have an otherworldly quality because he avoids the conventional box form, choosing instead curvilinear shapes so unorthodox that his work has been compared to everything from Middle Earth shelters to Hans Solo’s Millennium Falcon.After years of designing single-family residences, he is now building a subdivision of “vertical homes” (like his own) that soar above the trees. The designs are made to work with the land so they don’t require any excavation of the steep hillside nor do they affect rainwater runoff, meaning there should be no erosion nor risk of landslide.oshatz.comOn *faircompanies faircompanies.com/videos/steep-lot-was-unbuildable-he-raised-retro-futuristic-home-over-lake
From D-Day to Bohemian houseboat: life in WWII Normandy landing craft Kirsten Dirksen 2023-08-21 | World War II saw the quick development of amphibious boats capable of landing on shallow waters to allow quick deployments like Normandy's D-Day. One of such plywood landing crafts survived to become a fine, cocoon-like bohemian houseboat in countercultural Sausalito, the picturesque old fishing town on the other side of San Francisco's Golden Gate.In the 1890s, they called themselves "Venetians of the West," in the 1960s, they staged the "Houseboat Wars," and today, Sausalito’s floating homeowners are suspended above carefully-planned watery streets and fully-legal parcels.Gina Locurcio discovered this community when she visited by boat one afternoon and was sold on the floating lifestyle. When she discovered a friend was selling an old WWII-landing-craft turned houseboat, she bought it and updated the Bohemian home into a more modern trapezoidal home that preserves the history of this one-of-a-kind shelter.It's been home to Shel Silverstein, Alan Watts, Allen Ginsberg, and Stewart Brand (still is). Otis Redding wrote “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” here. wrote “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” here. Jennifer Garner's floating home is located on the Liberty dock here for the Apple TV series "The Last Thing He Told Me" (based on the novel).After WWII, when the Marinship shipyard closed down nearby (at one point, 20,000 people built military ships there 24 hours a day), needing places to live, people began to turn leftover boats and craft into floating homes. Locurcio's 568-square-foot landing craft home is snug, but has a storybook charm. She finds it a place of calm, but is now living in a larger spot on a nearby dock with a roommate so is selling her unique home. micheleaffronte.evrealestate.com/ListingDetails/4-Main-Dock-Sausalito-CA-94965/323021627https://www.ginalola.net; Instagram: @ginalolaOn *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/how-wwii-amphibious-vessel-became-whimsical-sausalito-houseboat
