After purchasing a ruin in a hilltop hamlet in the Spanish Pyrenees, Emmanuel Pauwels created a home in close harmony with the elements by first spending an entire year observing the patterns of the wind, sun, and rain.
Today, the sun provides for passive heating of the home via south-facing windows, but also an antechamber devoted toward capturing the sun’s warmth and distributing it through the home. In summer, the wind is funneled through the home for passive cooling.
Using a system of gutters and a first flush system for cleaning the rooftop water, the home captures, consumes, and returns 80,000 liters of rainwater to the garden every year. The gravity-flow composting toilets (on all floors) use a source separation system so the urine can remain sterile and be diverted to the garden.
Even the swimming pool is a refuge for the local flora and fauna. Pauwels created an organic pool that is cleaned by a regeneration zone: a natural system of plants and gravel. There are even frog stairs to support the couple of frogs that live in the pool.
Pauwels believes that homes can give back to their environment: “It’s not about being less bad, it’s about being good.” He also feels strongly that homes in harmony with their context provide more happiness for their occupants.
Green Living Projects: https://www.greenlivingprojects.com/
*On faircompanies: https://faircompanies.com/videos/turns-derelict-mountain-home-into-net-positive-dream-homestead/
39 Comments
Another Christopher Alexander reference .. I thought this design was very Pattern Language…. beautiful.. piece of art!
So very inspiring and yet most people are oblivious as to what can be done to reclaim old villages to live in a modern way.
I am seriously considering doing an underground home in the Arizona desert. I am doing some research online now but the information is sparse. Any suggestions from anyone are appreciated.
true connection with earth and life
Could you explain a bit more about radon extraction? Is this a concern for the average home or just this specific one? How does the extraction system work?
this is what we call a dream house
What an awesome house – the work that has gone into its restoration is amazing and I love all of the passive aspects of it too. Water running through a cover rill the kitchen is a brilliant touch. I really like the idea of heating and cooling the house using natural elements – I wonder how hot it gets in summer… I am guessing that the sun's trajectory which will be very much further north in the summer must also aid in cooling the house along with the breeze. Very interesting adn very creative. Thanks for sharing and have a happy new year 🙂
Brilliant!
very nice
"Its not about Sqaure Feet, Its about the Quality of Space" ….👌
Woah. Very impressive, and inspiring.
Here I am, planning the coming years, stressing about how I'll be able to buy/build somewhere here in Ireland (housing crisis, and international investment causing drastic price hikes for rentals and mortgages – highest rent costs in Europe).. When, well.. There are much nicer climates and cheaper solutions with beautiful tranquil landscapes with weather to allow you to grow all sorts of produce seasonally, and harmoniously.
I very rarely remember anything. This time, I remembered almost everything). Thank you.
Just phantastic
Biophilia: Love of Life. Water Is Life. He said, "It's Not being about "less bad", it's harmonizing with life." This sounds familiar, perhaps they are aware of the work of William McDonough, "Cradle to Cradle".
unbelievable and mind blowing!! Thank you Kirsten..
Kirsten, you and your husband have an amazing gift of transporting us to where ever you are! I really felt like i was in the Pyrenees mountains while watching this video.
16:47 "there's no PVC"… That's OK. But your kitchen (drinking?) water is garhered in HDPE tanks…. Why?
Wow that's amazing. Thanks for all the videos inspiring me sooo much. I just love this channel and it's one of my dreams to know so much cool stuff like this guy did to build such a ingenious house 😍 amazing!!
Brillant concept..living with and along side nature
This home is LUSCIOUS. It's warm and cozy like a small place with the expansive openness of the large. It doesn't compartmentalize. It has a soft quality to it from structure to colors. I've always known, yet forget how surrounded we are by gases and elements, radioactivity. So I wonder what it would be like to spend a few months away from all that to see how it affects me.
I'm surprised I don't see windmills
really pretty place.
best home ever
Awesome 👍😎🇨🇦⭐📷
Amazing!
Wow… shame humans like him are not the ones 'running-the-show' of how humans build on the planet; absolutely beautiful: not only in its aesthetic, but in what it represents, what we could be/how we could be: conscious beings that are besotted with this beautiful planet (what's left of it), instead of treating it with the contempt that has brought us to our current crisis (climate, loss of biodiversity, etc.).
What an inspiration! the curved windows are spectacular, and the views are breathtaking. What kind of livelihood/what amount of money is needed for this kind of life?
Thanks for sharing.
It is one of the most inteligent, în partnership with nature, most beautifull through' its common-sense houses that I ever see.
It is a GOOD work!
What a fascinating home and property with exquisite views!
Very well done
Elements.
Love the reference to the wind 'meter'. lol I have a few of those as I live on the top of a hill with a view of San Francisco.
incredible…
Simply brilliant! Kudos!
Natural code existence with life and nature ❤
How many other people live in the village? He said about 15 houses but they don't all look occupied. It would be interesting to see another video about the village, how to get to it, and the surroundings.
I really love your work. Please keep doing this kinda stuff
I love the beautiful stone and masonry work as well as the wood work in the house and the beautiful clay walls of the house. The only thing more beautiful than the house is the heart this man shows towards the world around him. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful and beautiful video Kirsten!
"It's NOT about square metres, it's about quality of space"