Cae Mabon, Wales, UK

Hogan, Cae Mabon, Snowdonia, Wales

Smoke Hole

Talk about a green house!  How would you like grass growing right from your roof? The house, or rather hogan, at the left is part of Cae Mabon, a village of small eco-friendly structures in Wales.  Most people know that hogans are the traditional homes built by the Navajos of the American Southwest.  So how did a hogan end up in Wales?  In the early 1990s Australian musician and children's picture book author Eric Maddern bought a parcel of land in in an area of Wales called Snowdonia. He and his friends completed  the first building of what they hoped would become a  "green" community in 1994.  After that, they managed to erect a new building every year for about a decade.
           Cae Mabon certainly has a storybook quality to it. The buildings are small and one of a kind, with a touch of whimsey.  One is even known as the Hobbit House.  There's a serious side to the imaginative architecture, though.  All the structures are made of sustainable materials and built to last. The architects used a hogan as a model for this dwelling.  Like a Navajo hogan it is octagonal in shape (i.e. 8-walled) and has a smoke hole in the round, slightly peaked roof.  The smoke hole is rather elegant looking, almost like a work of art.  That's due to the roof-structure, something known as a reciprocal frame roof, which consists of interlocking triangles.  It makes the roof strong enough to support the weight of the sod on top and also creates an interesting visual impression from the inside.
        In 2008 Sustain Magazine featured Cae Mabon as the top natural building project in the U.K.  Since then the village has become a tourist attraction and hands-on learning lab with an international reputation--a communal space for communal spirits from all over the world.

Links:
You can find out more about Cae Mabon (including the origin of the name) here.  If you want to learn more about eco-housing and sustainable architecture, this overview from the East St. Louis Action Research Project can give you a start. Simon Dale's Low Impact Woodland House is another take on eco-friendly architecture and quite beautiful.  He also has a good set of links. Lastly, the Organic Architecture Guild covers sustainable architecture of all kinds, both residential and public buildings.  Check out their photo gallery for some real inspiration!

Photo Credit: Cae Mabon, Wales, UK