Have you ever heard of nature homes?
That’s the type of house this Norwegian family built for themselves in Sandhornøya, in the northern part of Norway.
Benjamin, Ingrid, their four children, two dogs, and two cats all live in a nature house that’s built inside a greenhouse with a water recycling system.
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They moved in nine years ago after building it for a year and a half.
It’s been bliss ever since.
They’ve very much wanted to live on the island because they live an organic lifestyle and they care about the environment.
But it’s very hard to buy a house on the island. So they decided to build their own.
And they even built the entire house with natural, recycled, or leftover materials.
Cob paves the way.
Their walls and floors are made with cob, which is a mixture of clay, sand, and straw.
This is a very hands-on material because you mix the materials by stomping on them. And this will allow them to make soft bricks.
And they used the cob bricks for the walls and the floors.
It’s especially beneficial for the bathroom because the clay absorbs the moisture when using the shower and leaves a different but pleasant smell inside.
The cob floors were sealed with linseed oil and beeswax, which made the floors waterproof and washable.
Even when they spill something on the floor, it’s easy to clean.
Big walls regulate the temperature.
When you go inside the house, you’ll notice that the cob walls are thick and huge.
“When living inside a greenhouse, that’s a good idea. The house won’t get too hot when it’s sunny outside because of these thick, massive walls that will store the cold from the night,” Ingrid explained. “During the day, they will heat up and store the heat during the night so we get this constant, nice temperature.”
And because it wasn’t any ordinary house with ordinary walls, Benjamin made most of the furniture in the house, including the kitchen fixtures, using leftover wood.
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And when you go outside the nature house but stay inside the dome, you’ll be surrounded by so many flowers and fruit-bearing trees.
It’s a gardener’s delight.
They grow tomatoes, grapes, apples, plums, and cherries. Since they have a great water recycling system, all the water they use is recycled to water the plants.
Their biggest worry when it comes to the plants is they grow too fast and they have to harvest fast.
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What about living inside a greenhouse?
Isn’t it too humid?
“People think it’s humid here, but it’s not. It’s a dry greenhouse. We have vents on top of the dome that opens up. And we have these pipes buried underground. They take air from down by the sea and the air is cooled down underground,” Ingrid shared.
Even if it’s summertime, they still get cool air in their house.
And during the winter season, the underground is warmer so they get heated air coming into their house.
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What an incredible setup!
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Learn more about building a nature house and how it works for this family in the video below!
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