EMBEREK A NAGYVILÁGBAN – Promoting the benefits of sustainable architecture with a real-life hobbit house

For nearly a decade, the Sosna Civic Association has been promoting the benefits of sustainable architecture with an unusual-looking but environmentally friendly hobbit house built from natural materials and waste on the premises of an eco-centre in the village of Hernádszentistván near the city of Kassa.

The building, which looks more like a fairy-tale cottage from the outside, was dreamed up years ago by István Szabó and his sweetheart Silvia, who started the special project with the idea of Máhatma Gandhi. “Gandhi believed that a house should be built with materials that could be sourced within a 20-kilometre radius. Our hobbit house was built using the so-called Earthbags technology” – said István Szabó, the head of the Sosna Ecocentre and the project leader. The walls of the building are made up of bags filled with compacted earth, which was donated as waste by the municipality.

Useful waste

On the northern earth-covered side of the building, a secondary wall of tires was built around the perimeter walls using a technique known as Earthships, which compensates for the pressure of the soil on the walls. The upper part of the building is covered by a so-called reciprocal roof, the main structure of which is a beam of unreinforced wooden beams. Also known as the mandala, this structure is interesting because it has been used in Chinese and Japanese architecture since the 12th century. The hobbit house’s plastering and flooring are made of clay, and a simple clay oven is used for heating and possibly cooking in the cosy interior. The building is heated during the transitional period by a so-called Trombe wall, which is actually a solar collector made from an old window, which acts as a passive energy collector, sucking warm air into the building’s interior.  The house is covered with clay, except for the south side and the roof structure, which mainly helps to accumulate heat inside the house.

Cheap materials

The house, which is fit for Bilbo Baggins from J R R Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’, did not cost more than a few hundred euros to build. All that was paid for is the timber they have bought for the roofing – and even that is the poorest quality timber, so it doesn’t cost much. Anything else in the house was collected from the nearby area: the soil, rocks, wooden bits, plastic bottles thrown-out bike tires, broken tiles, and other bits. They got it all for free. Without the help of Gandalf and Elvish magic, the process took a year. The foundation of the house is made out of a bulkier layer of rocks, and then a thinner layer of gravel was laid down to smoothen out the surface.

Mortgage trap

Over the past few years, plants have been planted in the soil, effectively creating a large vegetation mole hole on the roof of the house. Most of the construction solutions the Szabós have been using come from developing countries. Their main aim is to spread them here, especially among socially disadvantaged groups, but also among ecologically minded individuals who do not want to fall into the mortgage trap that is so typical of our times. The house was built using materials that are relatively easy to obtain and simple techniques to make them as widely available as possible. Inspired by the story of the Hobbits, the building has been used for almost a decade for the education and training activities of the Sosna Ecocentre, but it is also a showcase for buildings that incorporate ecological architectural elements.