Two Roundhouses with Greenhouse earthbag house design (click to enlarge)
This is my second plan that’s designed specifically for building roundhouses in stages. As I stated in a previous blog post, I think building roundhouses like this is the simplest, easiest way to build an earthbag home: build in stages, one roundhouse at a time so you can pay with cash and move in right away. It’s far easier to start small and add on later than jump right into building a large home that could take months or even years.
Please note, this design illustrates just one of many possible ways to build in stages with an added greenhouse. Many of my clients come up with their own design, often by combining various plans and options of mine. So have fun. Make a simple sketch and send to me at strawhouses [AT] yahoo.com for a free estimate. One easy way to do this is to print the plans from my website and cut out the parts you’re interested in. Rearrange the parts as you wish, glue them to another piece of paper, and draw any remaining parts by hand. Write notes on your sketch if needed. Scan and save as a jpeg file and email to me. This could also be a fun school project and good way to learn about designing houses.
Two Roundhouses with Greenhouse floorplan (click to enlarge)
This unique design combines:
- Hobbit House: 471 sq. ft. interior, optional 471 sq. ft. loft, one bedroom, one bath, Footprint: 28′-6″ diameter
- Roundhouse Studio (master bedroom in this design): 177 sq. ft. interior, fold-out bed, 1 bath, Footprint: 18′ diameter, plus buttress
- Greenhouse for year-round food production: 70 sq. ft. interior
Total: 718 sq. ft. interior, Footprint: 38 x 52 ft.
Related:
Three Roundhouses Design
I like the idea of a separate guest room like this. would this be easy to adapt to an earthberm type home w/ the back side built into a hillside?
Yes, it would be easy to berm this plan.
Nice plan! I like the idea of indoor grow bed in the hall. Every morning you’ll walk past the greenery, make it easy to care for plants as a part of your daily routine. Plus I bet the sun and warmth feel good in winter. Also, two doors between the main living space make for plenty of sound protection for the master bedroom.
I agree. All good points. This is something I’d consider building for myself (and I’m very particular).
This is perfect! After convincing my husband that earthbag building is the best choice for our future Jamaican homestead, he also settled on this plan. We will build the roundhouse studio first as a future guest house. However, I desire a type of roof that can be part of a rain water catchment system and won’t blow away during a hurricane. Flat roofs rule in Jamaica because of hurricanes and that means more cement….exactly what I am trying to move away from. The only thing that comes to my untrained mind is a metal roof. Any thoughts?
The best roof for you is a ‘flat roof’ (actually low slope about 1.5 degrees) with a parapet around the sides. It’s easy and won’t cost much to change the plans.
Is this at $10.00 / sq.ft? who do I call?
$10.sq. ft. is the bottom range if you go all out to use salvaged/free materials where there are no codes. For consulting, my email address is shown above.
What kind of flooring do you recommend for the greenhouse portion? Something that will let the grow bed drain into the gravel? And if you built this with wide overhangs, a wrap around porch would be great, wouldn’t it? If you had to elevate it for flood concerns, would you just use a few layers of gravel bags under the entire base of the building, or gravel bags in the base of the wall and then build an elevated floor, like a house with a crawl space underneath? Or should I just see if my computer will work again and read your book?
Greenhouse floor: Recycled brick set on a layer of sand is probably the easiest and nicest. Or you could just use pea gravel, but that would get tracked throughout the house and make a mess.
The grow bed is contained in a planter.
Wrap-around porch would be great. Make sure the greenhouse gets adequate sunlight.
The gravel bags form the foundation under the earthbag walls. Fill in the rest of the area inside with tamped road base, gravel, etc.
Crawl spaces will add to the cost of construction. It’s much less expensive to build a slab floor, etc. on grade.
This is great! I already had the idea of building a house out of two prefab round house kits, but it’s great to see a visual of how they might look put together.
I’m been saying for quite a while the easiest, fastest shape to build with earthbags is a roundhouse. Build one roundhouse and then add on later if you want to avoid debt. Adding a connector space is a simple solution for joining them. Plan ahead and you could create more complex designs. I need to do a blog post on this: put a window where you’ll need a door someday. Frame it out in advance just like a door. Add some bags inside the frame up to windowsill height and install the window, etc. At a later date it’s easy to knock out the filler bags and install a door.
I live in Kenya which has a tropical climate so we don’t need a greenhouse. Why not alter the width of the greenhouse area to turn it into an enclosed terrace or lounge and throw the doors open during the day, provide mosquito protection in the evening and shut it up for the night.
This will give you an extra lounge or dining room area with an inside/outside design, particularly by adding a patio, possibly roofed, in front of it.
It could become the main entrance to the complex.
I think I would like to build this.
All excellent ideas. It’s always best when you adapt designs to your specific climate and needs.
Owen, how are do you calculate the square footage of a round building? Using the 18′ studio roundhouse as an example, i divide the 18 by 2 and get 9. I then multiple 9 x 9= 81 then i multiple 81 x 3.14 to get 254.34 square foot? I must be doing something wrong because your square footage is 177. Thanks ^_^
18′ is the exterior diameter. My area measurements are of interior floor space. Earthbag walls are 18″ thick, so deduct 3′ from 18′ to account for two walls. That means the interior diameter is 15′. The radius is 1/2 the diameter or 7.5′ in this case. The area of a circle is pi x radius squared or 3.14 x 7.5 squared = 177 sq. ft.
Thanks again Owen!
Owen, would the low slope/parapet roof for rain water catchment work in New Mexico as well? Would metal be a suitable material for that?
Yes, but you’ll want a minimum slope of about 2:12 to prevent leaks. Seal the screw heads with silicone.
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