Low Impact Hobbit House

A few years ago I was using Stumble Upon for the first time and came across something that has stayed in my bookmarks ever since. It may have popped up for a lot of you as well if you stumble through environmental things. A family in Wales built a home to work with the ecosystem around it in the most efficient and low impact way possible. What was most interesting about this was that it is built in the form of a Hobbits home. Who would have guessed Tolkien was giving us great environmental architecture and landscaping ideas when he wrote his books 75 years ago.

Not only is the house environmentally friendly, but the surrounding environment is not your typical "yard". During the period of building the home the family took part in managing the surrounding ecological woodlands and even crafted a forest garden. What is most amazing is that to build all of these things required less materials and tools than it would require to build a normal home. The house is dug into a hillside like a true Hobbit home. The dirt and other materials that were dug out did not go to waste, they were reused in other ways throughout the home. Main structures of the home were built using wood from the surrounding woodlands and lime plaster on the walls which makes the home more breathable, so it's almost a living, breathing part of the ecosystem. 

This home and this family's story is evidence that there is hope that humans can learn to live in a low impact way. People tend to use the excuse that there is no way we can live in harmony with the environment when we need shelter and live in this society. Although this is a fair, valid point this house shows that there is incredibly affordable and feasible ways of approaching this symbiosis.
Not to mention that I am a Lord of the Rings/Hobbit fan and I've always been jealous of the way the Hobbits lived in the Shire, so I would LOVE to have a home like this. Knowing its possible really blows my mind.