House in a Greenhouse Anyone?

I think that it would be amazing to put a small cabin or cottage inside a greenhouse. There was an article about a couple who built an "eco-luxury" home in Sweden. It's not what I'd envision (the house is too large in my opinion), but the concept is inspiring. Other than air circulation, and assuming you live in a relatively cool climate, any thoughts on the downsides?

I suppose it is the ultimate in solar gain!

I can see some advantages: it doesn't matter so much the house orientation, great for indoor gardening, airlocks automatically built in, the inner house would not need to be quite so waterproof....

The glass envelope would need to be much stronger than a typical greenhouse. I'm thinking access for maintenance, wind loading and so on. Maybe a commercial greenhouse might be already up to the job though?

There would be some practical downsides though - first, and maybe not the most important, all those windows to clean! Other problems might be  birds flying into the windows (pooping on the roof), as you say air circulation will have to be carefully thought out, in northern climes the summer days are long and heat and humidity will need working out.

I had a feeling I've come across this idea before, but I'm afraid I can't remember where.

I’m working on one, more of an Earthship with a much larger greenhouse.  I am too far south to pull off the fully enclosed version. For my climate, it made a lot more sense just to be attached and not a shell within a shell.

The greenhouse needs to be at least commercial grade, it really depends on zoning permitting make you sad.  The wind load gets intense fast as you make the greenhouse taller. You may have to build both to residential code and get taxed on the entire square footage, or just the house portion. Do your research.

You really have to be on top of humidity management in the greenhouse.  You can turn your house into a Petri dish really quick.  Many horror stories.

If you do it, make sure to put in air tubes for the house so you can pull in cooler outside air directly to the house.

I found this fascinating video of the family living in it.

Actually some nice details of the water treatment system with what I think maybe a home made version of an aquatron system.
I think it really needs to be in a cooler climate area like Sweden, but it seems to be working pretty well for them. They actually don't have a sloping roof on the inner house, so can use the roof space as extended living space. I was impressed by how cheap the build was, but am not sure if that was for just the greenhouse envelope, or the inner house too - it sounds like there was a house there already, which they wrapped with the greenhouse and then rebuilt the house inside.

Nancy Reading wrote:I had a feeling I've come across this idea before, but I'm afraid I can't remember where.

Yes we have. It's in the archives somewhere.

My experience indicates that the more of the perimeter of your house you can enclose with porches, sunrooms, and such, the happier you will be. And the more energy efficient you will be. Those buffer spaces are magnificent, especially in a cold climate like mine.

And yet a fully enclosed living space inside a greenhouse could be problematic. Temperature, moisture/humidity, mold, pollen, .... And the critical systems of the house would still require communication with the outside air. Do-able, but not simple.

Okay, I remember an old post about this too, from sometime in 2024, a Quebecois lady, and she wrote two threads, one of which was titled something like "Its the Crazy Lady Who Wants to Live In a Greenhouse Again" or something.

Hey folks, I went fishing for related threads. Here's what I caught:

https://permies.com/t/239773/crazy-lady-live-greenhouse-ideas

https://permies.com/t/238722/Planning-build-tiny-house-commercial

https://permies.com/t/211864/greenhouse-word

https://permies.com/t/40156/live-greehouse

https://permies.com/t/31025/Living-greenhouse

Thank you to all who have replied. My research and your comments lead me to explore just adding on a very large conservatory - greenhouse of sorts so that the house itself doesn't become that dreaded petri dish lol! It is a bit disappointing as I am concerned about all of the aerial spraying and cloud seeding going on all over the country and just want to protect my soil from the heavy metals as much as I can. I think investing in a good air filtration system is going to be a priority in the coming years (it's no longer a theory, there is enough data to show this spray is very harmful).

Again, thanks. If you think of anything else, feel free to drop it here so everyone can share ideas on this house in a greenhouse idea.

I always wanted to live in a pyramid shape greenhouse lol. Makes me feel better Im not the only one that thinks like this.

It would be much cheaper and offer much more use to build your house with 12 inch insulated walls and 30 inches attic and have a separate greenhouse for plants.