It has been far too long since I circled back to this particular series, and I would like to give a big thanks to all of you who have messaged/commented me about it! Today I'd like to chat a bit about an important facet of village-building: the buildings!

As I covered in the article Owning The Land, one of my goals for this project is maximizing the sovereignty of the land itself, while minimizing personal "ownership" and potential connections/contracts to government. I've also been looking mostly at locations that don't have government "building codes" or "zoning laws." It's important to me that this village comes to be in a place where everyday interference by organized crime syndicates is at a minimum. If you can't build whatever you want, on your property, then you are clearly still just serfs on the lord's land.

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Artwork by my friend Brett Jones

The Beauty of Co-Creation

One of the keys of my vision for village creation is that I want it to come into being through the synthesis of my ideas and those of everyone else involved, along with the land itself. So often, people ask me what I plan to build on the land, and it always turns into a pretty long conversation about co-creation, and the fact that the land will look like the mix of people who it houses, and their connection & cooperation with the land around them.

What I'd like to do today is just take a brief walk-through of some of the designs, build-styles, and alternative eco-designs that have caught my eye over the years. What really exists on the land will depend on what our most local resources are, what the climate is like, and what we can find consensus on. Without any further ado, let's take a look at some interesting types of buildings & housing...

To keep it simple, I'm going to simply include a screenshot of a results page for each type, with the image being a hyperlink to the page itself. I obviously don't own any of these images.

A Simple Beginning: Yurts

I've stayed in yurts a handful of times, from smaller 8-10' ones with wood frames & fabric coverings at festivals, to huge 40-50' across that were wood all the way through. I love the shape, and most varieties are both cheap and easy to source & assemble. Obviously not great for extreme winters (or extreme weather of any kind depending on the build), I definitely foresee a handful of these at least.

Domes

I've always loved domes! Not only are they round (or at least rounded), which I like so much better than the cubes that most humans live in these days, but they are an extremely efficient use of space, many can be assembled quickly & easily, and there are tons of options.

At this point, I've been part of a few dome builds myself, falling into 2 categories:

1. PVC Piping framework: There's a guy in Colorado who sells a kit of all the joint pieces needed, and you simply cut the lengths of PVC that you want, thus deciding how big the dome will be. (these often look more spherical)
2. Metal framework: These just involve bending the ends of a bunch of metal rods to the proper angles, and then connecting them. This style tends to look more like a half-sphere.

With either design, I've really liked the use of screen/mylar to cover the whole thing, and then topping that with hemp/air/con-crete, or some other more climate-specific covering.

The Container Castle

The design I've been most excited about recently is pretty obvious from its name... it's a castle made out of shipping containers. Here's the message I sent to my friend @clarkkozak to describe it to him:

Imagine, if you will, a 40' shipping container. (40'x8'x9')
Now stack 2 of them (40'x8'x18x')
Then 5 long (200'x8'x'18')
That's one castle wall.
4 walls = 200'x200' interior space
Probably stand 1-4 containers upright at each corner? (40' towers)
Probably cover the outsides of the walls with hemp/con/air-crete

So, my idea is less about buildings made out of shipping containers, and more about using them to create a castle wall around the a large open area, which can then contain domes, yurts, green houses, etc. The epic part is that not only are those 40,000 square feet well protected and privacied, but the inside of wall itself is something like 12,000 square, not including staircases to get between floors (2 containers high) or up the towers.

Hobbit Holes

I imagine we've all thought at least once or twice about how cool it would be to live in a hobbit hole, or other cute, well -designed cave-like dwellings... right? Maybe not :-P

I've always been a fan of the idea myself, though I've often taken it even farther in my imaginings, going from a small round house in the ground, to a network of caves, tunnels, and rooms - using fiber optics to bring sunlight wherever it's needed. Definitely the idea of getting a whol hill sounds quite appealing to me, but I also like this style of creating Hobbit Holes anywhere.

Bamboo Madness!

I've certainly known about the various beneficial properties of bamboo, from how quick & easy it is to cultivate, to it's light weight and strength, to its anti-microbial properties. I had never really considered giant bamboo wicker buildings, until I saw this video. Definitely something to consider :-)

To Be Continued...

Thanks so much for dropping in on another chapter of the Manifesting the Village series. I'd love to hear the types of building materials & architecture that you are most excited about / experienced with. Personally, I feel like the most important factor when choosing how/what to build is what is local, and what is best suited for the climate you're building in. Straw-bale houses are great... but not in the jungle.

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