Tiny Off Grid Cabins for Simple Living
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In Romania, Victor has made his dream come true by building a small eco resort. Everything there is made out of natural materials, put together by human and horse strength, keeping the impact on the environment as small as possible. Victor himself studied environmental studies and the impacts of conventional building techniques. Working in environmental assessment, he felt that he needed to have a proper solution and figured out that natural buildings was it. In his opinion, the main challenge is the re-adaptation of the technologies we have today and the ways we use them. He decided to set an example for this kind of implementation.They first started with a cabin made out of local materials. Victor put importance on it fitting into the landscape like a camouflage. He chose to do a green roof – while keeping the cows away from eating it – made out of old plastic fruit baskets. It is the only part where they had to use petroleum to waterproof it. For the rest of the cabin, they used different woods for different purposes. The stairs are made out of oak wood, as it is the most resilient for any weather. The rest is mostly made out of birch wood. The shingles that make the outside wall were made manually one by one and needed most knowledge and experience.Going inside, there are different recycled components: the door handle was found, beer bottles built in the wall give a nice little light effect in summer when the sun shines through them, and a stove has been recycled from an old water tank from the mill. Bricks around the stove don’t only protect the wood around it, but also retain the heat and keep the cabin warm during winter. The bed is made out of oak wood and was built by a talented carpenter who volunteered. The mattress is made out of hemp textile, filled with water weed that grows only twenty meters away – a perfectly ergonomic mattress that molds after your body shape.
The second cabin is a pyramid cabin, made out of 90% natural and local materials. For this one, they chose shingles for the roof, to see how they would evolve over time. This part was a little bit of a challenge, Victor says, as they knew that the shingles would last much longer when if they got the angle right. He also claims this is the most basic cabin you can get: chunks of birch put together with plaster in between that insulates the cabin and retains the heat. The floor is insulated with wood plaster and the windows are the only custom-made windows they bought for the construction. The stove is the other half of the water tank they had converted for the first cabin. A small challenge was to find a right sized wooden chunk to make the bed, so that it wouldn’t collide with the door when it opened.
In a small cabin apart are the shower and a sauna. As the spring lies further up the mountain, they are lucky the water comes down by gravity and hence don’t need any electricity. The water gets heated by wood fire in a boiler. Everything inside is either made by the team who constructed it or bought from local craftsmen, like the linden bowl for the sink. The shower is made out of oak wood, sealed it with linseed oil and wax to protect it from the water. For more light, they even installed a skylight above the shower they took from a car from the mill. In the sauna, you have beautiful sunlight coming in, in addition to an amazing view while having it heated with a stove with volcanic rock. Outside and apart lays also a basic compost toilet cabin with shingle design. Victor emphasizes that this kind of construction is now more accessible than it has ever been. You can go online and get inspired by other people who have done it already. This inspiration is the very first step. When you reach the point where you really want to do it yourself, Victor’s advice is to first go volunteer somewhere and figure out if this could be something for you or not. The adventure is amazing, he says, and if you try it out, you will certainly never regret it!
