Hobbit Houses to Rule Them All
Escape the real world and explore your Middle-earth fantasies
It’s hard to remember a time when New Zealand didn’t mean Middle-earth from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies (for the record, the first film was released in 2001). Hobbits and rings have dominated our tourism marketing ever since, as fans flock to see the mythical forests, rivers and shires of the movie location. You can visit Hobbiton in Matamata, complete with an ale at the Green Dragon; go glamping, hobbit-style; or tour the workshops where the magic was created.
Or, you can become a complete fan and create a tiny bit of hobbit-like magic in your own house or garden.
Or, you can become a complete fan and create a tiny bit of hobbit-like magic in your own house or garden.
Stay a while. Camp under the hill, literally, at Underhill Valley. This secret house was handcrafted from native timbers over 15 years ago, and is now a sweet glamping retreat. There’s a Bilbo-style wood interior, outdoor tub, an old coal range. Too cute for words.
The house snuggles into the hillside, with barn doors to draw against the cold.
Inside the space is warm and welcoming – and tall enough for humans. Skylights draw magical sunlight patterns on the fur-covered bed nook; a vintage iron stove works perfectly for cooking and heating; and candles and lamps light romantic evenings.
There is even a waterproof bathroom. Recycled and handcrafted copper plumbing, hewn stone basins, and sturdy native woods complete the hobbit ambience.
Dig in, eco-style. But for more real life, Wellington-based Watt Architects have been exploring sustainable design since the 1970s. They designed this house in a regular subdivision of baches, overlooking Lake Taupo. The sloping site made it perfect for an earth-sheltered build, with passive solar heating from a trombe wall and conservatory on the sunny side. The grass berm of the southern street side has only a skylight chimney and garage to hint at the house buried below.
The north-facing conservatory pulls in winter sun, releases cooling breezes in summer and has a tree growing inside: Middle-earth cool. See more here.
From Warkworth, north of Auckland, Graeme North has spent 40 years spreading eco architecture around the country (he chairs the Earth Building Association of New Zealand, and was a founding trustee of Yes, In My Front Yard (YIMFY), a centre for natural building technology). In his own hobbit-like home, he’s brought light and delight with handcrafted wood, earth and straw bale.
Organic shapes are welcoming and earth-friendly. The YIMFY community has a demonstration project in a West Auckland eco community, and North has many houses to show the longevity of this building style in New Zealand’s damp climate.
These guys dream big, promoting the idea that one day home builders will be able to source earth bricks and plasters, straw bales, and untreated timbers as a matter of course, with full endorsement of local council planners.
Gardens, the Shire way. If you can’t go underground for your hobbit house, create the charm of their arched entrances with a gate, complete with rugged wood arch, in your garden instead. See more of the magic of this garden, with glittering mosaics, tiny creatures and enchanting courtyards.
Tiny play time. Tiny hobbit houses bring out the child in all of us. Here Nelson playground landscapers Leaves of Green have created enchanting huts tucked into banks and glades for children to explore.
With climbing frames and fruit trees, magic comes to everyday play.
If you can’t make your own hobbit hole, Maine, USA, firm Wooden Wonders has ready-made cottages for play huts and lucky chickens – even an adult version. Sadly, they don’t ship off-shore, but their website has inspiration aplenty.
Hobbit hut modern. For a contemporary take on the home of a hobbit (curving, earth-friendly, cute) Christchurch landscape designers Texture Group created a chic garden shed. Leafy bamboo and crisp modern wood slats create the ambience, without the burrowing into a hill.
Take a leaf from this French-style courtyard kitchen and dining area by Goom Landscapes. Hewn log furniture, rough-caste concrete benches and stone pavers bring polish.
Castles too. The glittering ramparts of a copper castle would have Elven kings trembling as they tramped through Arda: a garden folly to rule them all.
Folded copper will last for generations, impenetrable to safeguard your kingdom.
Hillside modern. For a more contemporary spin, Studio Pacific Architecture have tucked a poured concrete house into the hill above Rawhiti in the Bay of Islands. Topped with a sod roof, it could only be 21st century, but is as cosy and enveloping as Bilbo’s wee burrow. The rest of this bach is cool, wooden and contemporary.
And around the world. Probably the most famous modern take on a hobbit house is Malator, an earth house with glass walls in Pembrokeshire, UK, built in 1998 and much photographed and awarded.
Or in Switzerland you could stay in these Villa Vals, designed by Bjarne Mastenbroek and Christian Müller in 2009.
Portland’s Nathan Good Architects created their version of a hobbit house with earth roof, shingle walls and a net-zero energy footprint.
For pure indulgence, it is hard to beat this Pennsylvania cottage built on the grounds of an avid J.R.R. Tolkien fan’s home (he collects books and artefacts). As well as museum-quality air, the house had hand-made roof tiles, joinery, hinges and lights.
A more down-to-earth cottage built in only four months by ecological designers Simon and Jasmine Dale in Wales is not a million miles away from the cottages of the Shire. See how it came together here.
If outdoors is too hard, how about converting an indoor room into a year-round hobbit playground? Clever paint, a teensy wooden structure, even the blues skies of the Shire. This is only one of many fantasy rooms in this Utah mansion.
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What is your fantasy movie house?
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