Building styles and idea's

Attached is a TV3 clip on living in a Modern Yurt in NZ. Love it.
URL: file:///Users/Bramley/Downloads/Rethinking%20property-%20NZ’s%20largest%20residential%20yurt%20%7C%20TVShows%20%7C%203%20News.webarchive

I can't access the video from the link above for some reason, but found it here: http://www.tv3.co.nz/tabid/3692/MCat/2908/Default.aspx (The second half is about "affordable"(???) housing in Auckland and a yurt on Kawau Island - beautiful.

Yurts are made here in NZ. These are some of them:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/services/trades/building-construction/auction-670840632.htm (Northland)
http://www.tipis.co.nz/ (Golden Bay)
http://www.yurtnewzealand.co.nz/
http://www.tasmancanvas.co.nz/yurt-maker-repairer.php (Motueka)

Yurts are more like what I would call "affordable"! They're also wonderful to live in.

Hi
My question regarding yurts would be: how do they behave in winter? I mean are they warm? They seem to be wonderful in summer when it's hot, but when temperatures outside drop to just above 0 and you have small kids...
How about straw bale houses? They are warm and materials are definitely cheap, with people eager to help ( to cut down on labour costs) they should not be too expensive.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RdXfhkvprVg
There is a 7 day workshop in Canterbury on building straw bale houses which myself an my husband intend to do one day.
http://www.soldesign.co.nz/workshops/straw-bale-design-construction-workshops

Hello Alina, Yurts are typically insulated and can be very warm. Releasing heat in summer seems to be more of a problem, and some yurts have opening skylights for that purpose. The acoustics and atmosphere in a yurt are wonderful, according to people who live in them.

Strawbale houses have well insulated walls, but their performance in winter depends on the roof more than the walls. They can be pleasant to live in, but not necessarily cheap. They have to be very carefully built to be sure that no moisture will ever, ever enter the walls, from inside or outside; they need wide roof overhangs and deep, specially sealed foundations, which all add to the cost.

The workshop in Canterbury is led by very experienced and competent tutors - you couldn't do better if you want a strawbale house.

I did a natural building workshop in New South Wales -- straw, mud, reciprocal roof, earth floor, etc. Excellent workshop from Milkwood Permaculture. I believe strawbale building works best where grains (like wheat) grow well -- Canterbury Plains, for example. It doesn't perform so well here in the hot, humid Northern Rivers. My organics tutor in Chch had a strawbale house close to Diamond Harbour -- most comfortable house I've ever been in.

OK, not saying this is for everyone. Some people are violently opposed to metal houses. But it is a very good way to reuse material as opposed to digging more material out of the ground. The basic container is pretty inexpensive and it lends itself to being fitted out by the individual homeowner. It's easy to insulate and you can even clad it with other materials (and put on a "normal" roof) so that it doesn't look metal. Just sayin'. http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to/g172/shipping-container-homes-460309/

Hi Sonia, don't want to sound like a crazy fanatic, but I kind of fell in love with straw bale so I just want to say that those houses can be built on stumps which greatly cuts the costs. As to the loss of heat through the roof I suppose it's the issue for all type of houses, but generally a house made of straw has similar Insulation properties to passive houses. Using natural clay to cover the walls also helps the house to breath and moisture from within the walls can easily evaporate. I know there were also projects of dome shaped houses where there would be no issue with the roof overhangs:) There is definitely a lot of both pros and cons of a straw bale house and I am sure people out there may have many more interesting ideas for ecological and affordable houses.
But when talking about affordable housing, I suppose so far yurts would be the most affordable and easy to built. I will definitely read more about them as this is a new concept to me.

I've been watching this earthbag style of housing grow and grow in capability. Amazed to find out just now that an orphanage in Nepal built with this technology survived the earthquake(s) unscathed except for some chipped plaster, when "normal" buildings around it fell like blocks. They're sort of using the little buildings as co-housing, so I thought I'd post the home page here.
https://calearth.org/

Jo this is inspiring. I love the idea of having something like the eco dome being the bedsit apartments of the shared house. Also thought the shared house main centre block could also be made of earth materials but in the first instant due to time and a place to accommodate CoHOP workers I had wondered about using relatively inexpensive Yurts to stay in while we are building the bedsit apartments around the site. These could all be attached together eventually to be able to call it a shared house to meet the needs of the Council building codes of only one house per lot with a 2nd small building as well.

wow - love this discussion. I especially love strawbale houses and earth made homes. This just feels so right. When I visited Santa Fe a few years ago I immediately felt at home - and it was the earth homes and the rounded corners, it just feels such a good fit with the environment and what we're creating at Atamai.

While i love many of the homes I've seen made from containers, I personally wouldn't want to live in such a metal environment. As a Feng Shui consultant I'm even concerned about a new trend in Tiny Home building - to use metal studs and framing throughout. They're doing it for weight considerations - but that's a lot of metal to surround yourself with, although I'm currently living in a bus with it's own share of metal.

Thanks for sharing all these great examples.
I love the photo at the top of the calearth webpage - imagine that at Atamai!

I'm new to the group and wanting to get up to speed so I can be more fully involved. Thanks for the warm welcome I've received.