- Location
- Switzerland
- Name
- Matt
Just for the h*** of it
M.
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Daily Challenge Today 861
- Thread starter MoonMind
- Start date
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- Tags
- challenge photo challenge
Just for the h*** of it
M.
- Location
- Switzerland
- Name
- Matt
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Home away from home for two days. It's kind of a "tiny house" on environmental steroids ...
This is the KREIS-Haus (the "cycle house"), a house that mostly uses natural resources and recycles whatever is possible, even waste (and not only the water ...). It collects rain water, uses solar for electricity and heating and even human waste recycling in order to only have a minimal environmental foodprint as well as in-house farming (on the upper floor). In some ways, the house is actually a net exporter of useful resources (fertiliser, electricity - it produces about four times its own demand), but it also manages storage (water, electricity - using second-life vehicle batteries) on new levels while essentially not missing out on amenities - even though they're big on outdoorsy stuff I'm not too keen on - like a multi-purpose lounge I'd replace by a couple of comfy chairs in the blink of an eye. The house was built from as many environmentally friendly materials as possible and/or available - and it's still more affordable than most other types of houses, though I have to admit that those would be a lot bigger - but compared to other tiny house concepts, it's not only more roomy, it's also way more practical and more advanced. I'm intrigued - and seriously want to find out if I could make this work for myself ... As far as living space goes, it may only offer half of what my flat does, but it doesn't feel small at all. Storage ("things", not people or necessities) might still be a problem, but I've been thinking about a solution for that anyway ... So, interesting times, no sarcasm intended - though I may have to come back in the midst of winter to round off the experience.
M.
- Location
- Whidbey Island
- Name
- Lyle
It still looks rather big for a tiny house. The ones they put up here in the region are much smaller, just some 25 square meters.
- Location
- Switzerland
- Name
- Matt
I agree - it's not "tiny" as such, but the philosophy is the same. Most of the "bulk" of the house (it really isn't that big at all) is due to the technologies needed to make it almost self-sufficient and sustainable, including the fact that the outer surface is needed to provide the real estate needed for solar and the air volume needed for passive climatisation. Living space is divided into an "inner" and "outer" part, the inner being something of a classic hut-type room that can be pretty well , the outer is called "winter garden" and is high, airy and feels almost like an open space, a kind of indoor veranda ... it's hard to explain, but at least during the day, it certainly works. We'll see how well sleeping in here works soon ...
M.
- Name
- Miguel Tejada-Flores
Glennn
Veteran
- Location
- New Jersey, USA
- Name
- Glen
Glenn this is really amazing photo. The bridges and silhloutte with water reflections are great. Nice work.
Glennn
Veteran
- Location
- New Jersey, USA
- Name
- Glen
Thank you.. much appreciated. I’m not yet comfortable with people photography, but he was a good distance away. I’m at least becoming more aware of how random people in a scene can play a big part in a photo.
Irene McC
Legend
- Location
- CPT, South Africa
Is this house open to the public as an example / exhibition space or are there people living in it?
- Location
- Switzerland
- Name
- Matt
You can rent it - for two nights or four, for testing it out. It's part of a research project of a local university. In fact, I'll take an interview afterwards to assess my experiences.
It's been interesting so far - because of the practicality of most and the utter quirkiness of some solutions, but everything that's strange or irritating isn't decisive (or could easily be changed, respectively). That sais, I'd be very, very curious how this little house does during the cold season - it's well up to the task during summer, that much is obvious. But the small obviously heated spaces have me scratching my head ... I may be missing something, though (I guess I am).
M.
