We drove to a small village called Hyangnam in Gyunggido a few weeks ago to participate in a meetup of members of an online Natural building forum.
This was the first of such meetups and the hosts were not expecting such a big response. They were planning to invite participants into their small straw bale home but happily ended up having to erect three tents to house the nearly 80 of us who came.There were speakers presenting information mostly about what kinds of natural building materials are commercially available in Korea. Representatives from companies were showing their wares: including wood products, tiles made from specialized minerals that draw impurities from the environment, and a wood pellet boiler system.I don't think I'd like to be dependent on a industry manufactured product for heating, but some pellet boilers can also burn logs.
The model we saw was similar t this:
This was the first of such meetups and the hosts were not expecting such a big response. They were planning to invite participants into their small straw bale home but happily ended up having to erect three tents to house the nearly 80 of us who came.There were speakers presenting information mostly about what kinds of natural building materials are commercially available in Korea. Representatives from companies were showing their wares: including wood products, tiles made from specialized minerals that draw impurities from the environment, and a wood pellet boiler system.I don't think I'd like to be dependent on a industry manufactured product for heating, but some pellet boilers can also burn logs.
The model we saw was similar t this:
I love the idea of making your own pellets:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs471oZgbtg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs471oZgbtg&feature=related
It was great to see so many people interested in building there own home in a culture where DIY is just beginning to lose it's low class stigma. Overall though, there seemed to be too much focus on prefabricated materials rather than evaluating the natural building materials available right at the building site. dirt, stone, clay!
To balance this, there was one speaker who presented ideas about the importance of people reacquainting themselves with nature and using home building as an opportunity to do so.
Hopefully for the next meeting there will be some hands on work, this time around it was very much classroom style sit down and listen to the expert style learning.
Hopefully for the next meeting there will be some hands on work, this time around it was very much classroom style sit down and listen to the expert style learning.
The hosts home is a modest size strawbale building maybe 700 square feet and was originally built as a retirement home for his parents.
here are some pictures.
One detail I really like are these low windows that make use of the cool air coming down from the mountain behind the house. For a culture that spends a lot of time on the floor this is great vernacular architecture! Felt wonderful to feel the breeze across folded legs at are low table lunch.
Louie enjoyed a good snooze in the fresh country air*
