Land Of Odd: Odd Homes

land of odd
In Gurgaon, India, a fast-growing suburb of Delhi, an unusual house has just been erected. Designed by architect Ganesh Ganapathy, the building is a glass cube seemingly balanced on one vertex. Its uniqueness is admired by neighbors and passers-by, but working out the details of fitting a functional, stable house into such a form proved a formidable challenge.

The owners, the Mahatta family, participated in, and indeed insisted on, the challenges of such an attention-grabbing form. They own the locally prominent construction firm, Mahatta Towers Pvt. Ltd., and they wanted the structure to boost the visibility of their company's capabilities.

[Here is a link to the article...]

What If You Had A Gun To Your Head And Had To Make $1000 In 48 Hours Or...

Read the rest of the post...

Land of Odd
"You are looking at pictures of our family home in Wales. It was built by myself and my father in law with help from passers by and visiting friends. 4 months after starting we were moved in and cosy. I estimate 1000-1500 man hours and £3000 put in to this point. Not really so much in house buying terms (roughly £60/sq m excluding labour).

The house was built with maximum regard for the environment and by reciprocation gives us a unique opportunity to live close to nature. Being your own (have a go) architect is a lot of fun and allows you to create and enjoy something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass produced box designed for maximum profit and convenience of the construction industry. Building from natural materials does away with producers profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings."

Some key points of the design and construction:

Dug into hillside for low visual impact and shelter
Stone and mud from diggings used for retaining walls, foundations etc.
Frame of oak thinnings (spare wood) from surrounding woodland
Reciprocal roof rafters are structurally and aesthaetically fantastic and very easy to do
Straw bales in floor, walls and roof for super-insulation and easy building
Plastic sheet and mud/turf roof for low impact and ease
Lime plaster on walls is breathable and low energy to manufacture (compared to cement)
Reclaimed (scrap) wood for floors and fittings
Anything you could possibly want is in a rubbish pile somewhere (windows, burner, plumbing, wiring...)
Woodburner for heating - renewable and locally plentiful
Flue goes through big stone/plaster lump to retain and slowly release heat
Fridge is cooled by air coming underground through foundations
Skylight in roof lets in natural feeling light
Solar panels for lighting, music and computing
Water by gravity from nearby spring
Compost toilet
Roof water collects in pond for garden etc.