Brilliant simple van setup by Sam Ausden, who is pulling an equally brilliant trailer built with SIPs (structural insulated panels) with solar panels powering a big air conditioner and a 14kw 48-volt battery.
His units were on display at the TinyFest Festival last weekend.
There are 17 $8 milk crates holding everything. They are held snug with powerful magnets. Simple, cheap, practical, lightweight.
Quite a contrast with expensive, overbuilt, heavy Sprinter van conversions.
All wood from beach and hand-split shakes from driftwood cedar. Bruno Atkey’s incredible repertoire of buildings is on display on pp. 74-95 of Builders of the Pacific Coast (my favorite of all my building books).
Everything he does, all the joints, the design, the materials are to me, perfect. A kindred builder.
(My tower is roofed with shakes that Bruno split from driftwood cedar logs and that Misha drove down here in a van about 7 years ago.)
Hi Lloyd 🙂
I’m a long time reader and lover of your wonderful books — thank you so much for sharing the treasures you find and inspiring so many builders out there. You have a great eye for beauty in natural and built form.
Here is a structure I built inspired by works I have seen in your books (Home Work is still my fave!).
Thanks again for bringing positivity and sharing the joy.
Be well.
Ben Anderson,
Wollongong, Australia
Cuttlefish Cottage: Latest build. About 50 tons of soil on the roof, all glass (apart from louvres) was destined for the crushers, so I built windows and doors to fit the glass. Mud brick walls covered in local white clay ‘paint’ I made, all furniture & kitchen from hard rubbish piles or off ‘Gumtree’ (like Craigslist), local made steel beams (we have a steel mill in town). All hardwood timber from salvage, e-crete floors (using clan, fly-ash & recycled aggregate), trombe wall, passive solar design, vegetable garden on the roof (makes amazing watermelon!!!), solar hot water, amazing ‘landscape tanks’ for retaining walls and water storage combined, outdoor kitchen for our market garden (check out ‘Popes Produce‘ on Instagram/F-book) and heaps more!
The Art Nouveau ‘Gran Hotel Ciudad De México’, 1899, by French Architect, Jacques Grüber
www.boredpanda.com/amazing-architecture-buildings-pics
In contrast to most of what we see out out in the world, there is good architecture here and there. A stunning collection — 50 examples.
I can’t find attribution for this photo, which is on Reddit, and widely elsewhere. Always credit the photographer, people!
Facsimile (actual size) of notebook of Francesco Di Giorgio Martini of Sienna, Italy, 1439-1501. He preceded and probably influenced Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519
Johnny Vang built this unique camper, which is featured in our forthcoming book, Rolling Homes. It’s an ingenious design, where it does not appear that anyone is living within. Johnny just wrote, saying he needs to sell it. It’s a 2004 Chevy Silverado with an LM7 5.3-liter, 8-cylinder Vortec engine with 301,000 miles on it. He says it gets 15mpg at 70 miles per hour. When I asked him what shape the motor was in, he replied: “Motor still runs strong. Just got to add a quart of oil ever 1500 miles or so.”
In my opinion, it’s a rare bargain, at $3900. He can be contacted at johnnyturbogt@gmail.com
From our good friend yogan, a highly skilled and innovative carpenter in France:
Our last job!
A big tower in colombage (Middle Ages technique of half-timber framing).
We sawed the wood with a mobile horizontal bandsaw, then drew an outline of the entire tower on the floor of our workshop; we then laid the wood on the markings to draw the assemblage.
Only tenons and mortises! No nails or bolts.
It’s a 4.5 × 4.5 × 12 meter (15 by 15 by 40 feet) tower (without the rock foundation).
8.7m3 (94 sq. ft.) of oak and chestnut was used. Almost 18m3 (194 sq. ft.) of uncut logs.
The roof and the walls will be finished this year!
www.cabanophiles.com
yogan.over-blog.com
facebook.com/mryogan
instagram.com/yogancarpenter
I apologize for the paucity of posts, but working on our next book, Rolling Homes, has been taking all my time.
I’ve avoided posting any of the material from the book because it won’t be available until June or July, but here’s an exception.
Serendipity materializes at the last moment!
We’ve been working on this book for about a year and half now and were down to one remaining page to fill.
Flash back to 2016 when someone (anonymously) sent us a photograph of this perfect little vardo — one of those rare little structures where everything is perfect. It’s a delight. Like the creations of Lloyd House or Louie Frazier, all the elements are working, and I’ll say to myself, “Oh yeah!”
I posted it on my blog, asking if anyone knew where it was or who built it. No response.
Two days ago (six years later), I get an email from Bulgaria and Cen tells me that he is a mystery builder. Voila!
Here are the details from my new friend and kindred spirit in Bulgaria.
–LK
Originally built as a play space for my daughter and as a guest house, my camping karutsa design has a long heritage and has taken both me and my family on a wonderful journey.
Karutsas, pulled by horses or donkeys, were part of a way of life now disappearing in Bulgaria.
This one was built from recycled materials, and sleeps 1-3 people with comfort and style. A twist on its larger gypsy cousins, its distilled and refined design is a pure joy to be in. Once you enter, you don’t want to leave.
Insulated and weather proof, you can relax comfortably inside, you can view nature, read a book, or just be.
Deceptive from the outside, the inside space is light and airy. The step-up, step-in, sit-down porch, shelves, hooks, and storage compartment provide a nautical style living system. The outside kitchen and bathroom with tarp increase its overall usability.
This prototype has been just that. Its latest incarnation is evolving into what I hope will become a true relative of its Bulgarian cousins. A true modern hybrid, yet sympathetic to its origins and ethos.
They say form follows function — these wagons are like the Canadian canoe: just about impossible to improve upon, yet the design can be tweaked.
As we move into this new sustainable era, I hope to see my new lightweight designs again traveling the Balkans. A rolling, tiny home, fit for purpose, fit for use.
I owe a great deal to you, your work, and passions, Lloyd, and may it long continue — your books now give just as much pleasure to my children as they still do to me. I can’t count the number of people I have lent them to here in Bulgaria — a constant volley of wow and wowwwwww every time.
Thanks again, Lloyd — the biggest hugs from us all in Bulgaria. You are welcome here any time.
–Cen
Photo by Jon Kalish
Handmade living structure built from invasive grass by Daren Rabinovitch on the Aptos, California homestead known as Trout Gulch, created by members of the animation company Encyclopedia Pictura.
Note: Sean Hellfritsch, who lived at Trout Farm for a while, commented that they could not keep the woodrats out of the building. (Makes sense, it looks like a giant woodrat nest.)
Link to the NPR story Jon did about the place:
www.npr.org/2011/07/17/137680605/making-cutting-edge-animation-on-a-diy-homestead
