Going off the grid is something that a lot of us have been tempted to do more than once in our lives.
When the world gets too busy, when your friends/children/partner can’t seem to talk to you without picking up a phone or tablet or when you can see people wasting resources left, right and center; well, it’s just tempting to drop it all and go live in the middle of nowhere, away from all that stress.
Just take some time to turn off.
Well, just to tempt you a little bit more, check out these 4 beautiful, peaceful off-grid houses that will definitely make living off-grid seem like an even better idea!
1. The House on Limekiln Line, Huron County, Ontario, Canada
This beautiful house was designed by Lisa Moffitt for her partner’s mother. Moffitt herself lived on-site for part of the development of the project that took three years to complete.
The beautiful home is built into a cornfield. The asymmetrical design of the exterior, which is steel clad, has been purposefully constructed so that it seamlessly mimics the agricultural style of the local barns, outdoor buildings and houses.
And of course, that amazing extended porch that provides the best views you could hope to ask for.
2. 4Treehouse at Lake Muskoka Cottage, Ontario, Canada
Another Canadian masterpiece comes at the hands of Lukasz Kos, the cofounder of the Toronto-based architecture and design firm Testroom.
Considering maintaining the natural state of the surrounding trees intact, this beautiful treehouse is actually built around the base of a tree. As Kos stated in an interview with Dwell magazine,
“This was really a parameter-driven project. That is, I had to let the trees decide how the tree house would be.”
It’s three-storeys, with slatted design panelling for the exterior, allowing occupants to feel like nature is just a reach away.
It really is breathtaking.
3. The Fab Lab in Barcelona, Spain
The Fab Lab has been constructed to mimic the workings of a tree. It captures energies with its solar panels (or “leaves”) and sends it down to the electric grid (the “roots”) and stored until it returns either back to the house, or is sent for use somewhere else.
“The Fab Lab House uses the resources of its environment — sun, water, and wind — to create a microclimate that passively optimizes the basic conditions of habitability.”
The main structure of the house was constructed in Berlin, Germany with a CNC Machine and the rest was constructed in Fab Lab Barcelona, Spain.
The Fab Lab is the results of a team of over 25 different nationalities working together and has been recently named Decathlon Europe People’s Choice Award.
4. Zerohouse
Ever dreamed of living off the grid, but don’t really want to put up with all those pesky hurricanes and floods? Well, that’s what Zerohouse was built for!
The 650-square-foot home can survive 140-mph winds, and the helical-anchor foundation system means you’re safe in water up to 10-feet deep and can store power on its onboard tank of batteries so that it can sustain itself for a week without any sunlight.
ZeroHouse also “hibernates” to conserve energy, catches rainwater that it then places in a 2700 gallon cistern, and sends all organic matter down to a compost that only needs to be cleared out twice a year.
It also looks super comfortable.
Being surrounded by concrete blocks everyday, and the hustle and bustle of city life, it’s hard not to wonder why more people don’t live this way.
this is just awesome, keep doing the great work.