Preliminary ideas for housing 6 Boots

Just a drawing with idea about structure ... to start concept the frame of house .
Reciprocal roof frame with logs .

About top windows ... Can me maid from two planks panel with insulation 300 mm between . If the distance between the glass is enough big , the lost of energy is very small .

If the top used strawbale for insulation, the top would be lighter and still sturdy enough for a green roof?

I think yes. The wood frame is not completely. Between the roof logs, there is one more row.
The layer of the earth must be thick enough to allow grass to grow well. To use the straw on the roof it is necessary support, like wooden boards or planks near the plank, maybe with small space between.
Strawbale must be treated with  copper sulphate fungicide solution .

In my opinion, this the best solution for the wall and roof, if the bales are tightly pressed. Much much cheaper than logs wall. Use logs just for poles and roof frame and that it is.
For plastering is indicated yellow clay mixt with horse dung,  or animal hair, or very small chopped straw, or sawdust...
First layer one part clay, one part horse dung, one part sand, water, and chopped straw as it contains, sifted to get out a fine paste. About 2-3 cm. Second layer the same combination plus one cup of flour mix with one cup of water, and on the fireplace another four cups of water . This cold quantity is about 5 buckets of the 10-l mixture. Do not leave the clay so prepared for more than 2-3 days for it will smell bad from flour.
At last, just clay, sand one part or two or three, depends on the quality of clay ( the paste must be sticky). Yellow earth is put to soak for at least two days. Dung is used fresh.
The material obtained must be sticky, creamy and not crumbly. The last layer doesn't put the straw.
How to fix strawbale ...

Dear Permies,  



 

In the above video and many more from Ileana Mavrodin you can see the
beautiful work with clay.  

How you can advance in the strongest tasks of Mother Nature to sustain the
life, the living in this wonderful world.  

 

All the best,  

Matei Monica.  

Miles Flansburg wrote:Catherine, I would love to see someone use logs to build a "beehive comb" type of housing unit. Imagine many different eight sided rooms built in a "circular" form which leaves a large open room in the center. Each unit would be similar to a Hogan, sharing walls and with strong dome shaped roofs. The whole building could be bermed around the outside, up onto each dome roof. The center "courtyard" could be covered with a large wooden dome also, surrounded by windows to let in light.

Bees make hexagon shaped cells, so you could have 1 room in the shape of an hexagon surrounded by 7 hexagon shaped rooms. This assumes they are all identical in size as it would be impossible to cobble different sized hexagon shaped rooms together. Making it as a log type house would be challenging, for sure, with all these angles!
I would suggest large closets could be created in the 'wasted' triangles on the outside, each 2 adjacent rooms sharing one large closet? Closets/ storage rooms do not require as much heat but function as a great insulating space too, although if it is a real log cabin, the insulation problem is solved. I love the idea of an inside "patio"/central room. If I read your project right, the central room would be much taller so accommodate these light giving windows. The glass windows would bring in lots of light so you could raise many seeds/ perhaps a tropical plant or two?
Or you could also have one overarching dome roof for the entire structure, which would make for a tight roof. [I'd be leery of the roof leaking if there are too many "seams" in it.]

Could someone explain what "boots" are in this thread?  All I'm seeing is houses in the round. I've never heard them called boots before, so there must be some other definition.

Lif Strand wrote:Could someone explain what "boots" are in this thread?  All I'm seeing is houses in the round. I've never heard them called boots before, so there must be some other definition.

 This is a program at Wheaton labs where people come and work either to earn tickets to things like the Permaculture Design Course they offer etc.
https://permies.com/wiki/bootcamp
The people who have or are participating in this program are referred to as "Boots". Housing the participants was difficult at one point, but I think they may have improved the options since this thread was started 3 years ago.

The OP was trying to design housing that would provide the Boots with basic accommodation without it being too expensive, but any building costs time and resources which weren't available 3 years ago. However, as a design for any building which needs to act as a multi-person with shared kitchen situation, this thread had some good ideas.

2 ideas from my experience:
In northern Maine I encountered an octagon log cabin  with a stone fireplace in the center which supported the center of the roof.  The central mass kept the home very comfortable with its radiant heat. Such could be built as a rocket mass heater with surface and oven cooking provisions.
From my experience growing up on a homestead with central wood heat to keep the peripheral rooms warm each one needs a cold air return under the floor to the base of the heater and an air inlet at the ceiling to crate a circulation.  The added dinning nook 40 feet from the wood heater would warm up just because of the cold air return.  

Why not do something like an Army barracks, but in the round. One foot locker and one wall locker for each individual for his/her own 'private' (pardon the pun) space!

Double bunk two people in smaller rooms with a larger central area for cooking, eating, relaxing.

That would stretch your timber framing to cover double the people without too much extra cost for the commons room necessities.

Gotta think that CONSERVATION matters! Heating/Cooling would be cheaper per person. Common meals would also be cheaper per person.

Just my thoughts!  

Mullti-functional furniture would be really great, too. Kinda like the rolly shelves shown in Paul's Youtube channel, but maybe used a storage/closet and the backside can be wall space for hanging pictures, or other things.

Ok . It is a good choiss .
What about the wall ?