Hobbitat builders think small, sustainable
Hob-style living takes a ‘special kind of person’ say tiny homes’ creators
OAKLAND, MD.— In an age when homes include four-car garages, media rooms and man caves, one company is bucking the trend.
Hobbitat, a construction company in Oakland, Md., (not affiliated with The Lord of the Rings), specializes in tiny houses made of reclaimed and reused materials.
Each of their tiny homes, called hobs, are around 250 square feet — about 11 per cent of the size of an average U.S. detached house — and can sleep up to four people.
A hob takes between six and eight weeks to build and can be moved to its new site in a single day.
The only design rule: the structure must be able to fit out the door of their shop.
“It takes a special kind of person to live in a tiny house,” said Sue Thomas, co-founder of Hobbitat.
Over the past 30 years, the size of single-family homes in America has risen dramatically, driven by rising incomes and low mortgage rates.
After the 2007 housing crash, the median size of a U.S. home dipped but has again rebounded to precrash levels — back up to 2,315 square feet in 2012 — as the economy recovered, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
Bill Thomas, co-founder of Hobbitat and Sue Thomas’s husband, said he is building for people who are more interested in eco-friendly living than in big spaces.
He is hopeful that more people will come around to the idea that smaller is better — especially as energy and land costs continue to rise.
“People have these crazy homes,” Bill Thomas said.
“Two people in, like, 14,000 square feet.”
The Thomases also decided to think smaller and moved their operation to an old storage lot outside of Oakland, and brought the entire construction process indoors. This extended construction time yearround and helped avoid the traditional pitfalls of building outdoors in a harsh winter.
“Each time it’s a bit of a challenge. It’s like a rebirth.” SUE THOMAS HOBBITAT CO-FOUNDER
The Hobbitat team travels from Buffalo, N.Y., to Charlottesville, N.C., to find materials for their micro-cabins, buying wood from old railways and salvaging doors from old neighbourhoods. Old air horns and buckets are turned into light fixtures, stained glass from old buildings is rescued.
“We started in historic restoration, that’s where our heart was,” Bill said. “This is the perfect application.”
“Each time it’s a bit of a challenge,” added Sue. “It’s like a rebirth.”
Every hob is made from completely salvaged or repurposed materials (save for the flooring of companion outdoor showers, which is water-resistant faux wood).
Although the bigger-is-better trend doesn’t appear to be slowing nationwide, sustainable and eco-friendly techniques are gaining momentum with homeowners and builders.
Despite the fact that a smaller house is one of the best ways to shrink energy costs, a new focus on sustainability doesn’t always translate to reduced square footage. People are concentrating on making the most energy-efficient home possible, without consideration for size, said Carri Beer, senior associate at Brennan Architects.
“The trend is that people want to be ultra-sustainable,” Beer said. “People want to do more than just be LEED silver.”
LEED, or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, provides a framework for implementing green design in new and existing buildings. Most green architects are LEED certified and apply their standards to projects.
With more than 30 years in the building industry, the Thomases were always keen to use reclaimed materials. But an interest from local ecotourism project Blue Moon Rising launched the company into a niche market.
“Blue Moon Rising was the catalyst to moving toward all-sustainable building,” Sue Thomas said.
Established in 2008 with the hope of providing rural Garrett County, Md., with an entirely eco-friendly vacation destination, education centre and meeting place, the Blue Moon Rising project enlisted Hobbitat a few years ago to construct 13 cabins for the property.
Tucked into 15 acres of land just off Deep Creek Lake, Blue Moon Rising operates with three main ideas in mind: reclaimed, recycled or recy- clable. This ensures that every material used has the smallest impact on the Earth, or can be reused or recycled. Living roofs — made of succulents and grass — cover two of the retreat’s main buildings while each cabin is constructed of salvaged materials. Cars are left near the front building of the compound and guests are issued an electric golf cart, charged with solar panels, to drive all the way to their cabins.
The Thomases, meanwhile, said they’d like to see clusters of hobs sprout up throughout western Maryland. Capital News Service