Filed under: Architecture, Art, BoingBoing, Book Conservation, Cory Doctorow, Hobbits, movies, Tolkien, Writing stuff
Gotta love this: a collector of J. R. R. Tolkien artifacts needed a small library/museum to house his collection. His architect decided to do the right thing, and go to the source material for inspiration. The result is a wonderful little Hobbit House, straight out of the books:
Asked to design a fitting repository for a client’s valuable collection of J.R.R. Tolkien manuscripts and artifacts, architect Peter Archer went to the source—the fantasy novels that describe the abodes of the diminutive Hobbits.
“I came back my client and said, ‘I’m not going to make this look like Hollywood,’” Archer recalled, choosing to focus instead on a finely-crafted structure embodying a sense of history and tradition.
The site was critical too—and Archer found the perfect one a short walk away from his client’s main house, where an 18th-century dry-laid wall ran through the property. “I thought, wouldn’t it be wonderful to build the structure into the wall?”
Now, my wife is an architect, so I know a little about this profession, and having a client willing to go along with such a design is a real boon. And as a rare book and document conservator, I appreciate an architect who went to the trouble to make sure that the environment was appropriately climate controlled for the archives. And as a craftsman, I really appreciate the attention to detail by the contractor and his crew – this isn’t just a facade, it’s well-crafted workmanship.
Wonderful, all the way around. I can’t help but think that J.R.R. would be pleased.
Jim Downey
Via Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing.
21 Comments so far
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Communion Of Dreams 
Nice. I only hope the client is making lots and lots of charitable contributions to promote the health, education and welfare of Americans living in poverty. Otherwise this bit of self-indulgent excess is going to drain the fuck out of his/her karma. Hope he/she doesn’t mind being reborn as e. coli.
Comment by A. Davey May 12, 2007 @ 8:26 pmthat is very nice! i want to find a nice hill somewhere and build a hobbit home underground like bilbos. the only bad thing is i hate spiders and it’lll proplably have more then a normal house.
Comment by Dillon Combs January 6, 2010 @ 2:11 pmWell, there are a lot of ways I could respond to this. First, I don’t believe in ‘karma’, except perhaps as a metaphor. Second, I’m not sure why you would restrict your wishes that the client is making lots of charitable donations to help just Americans. Lastly, I could say that this is the system under which we operate, where those who have some ‘excess’ wealth or disposable income are free to use it as they see fit, within the law, and that overall this seems to help build the general economy.
But I guess the real response I would have would be to ask if you live the life of a saint, and have donated all your worldly goods to help the poor? Because otherwise, your criticism is just a matter of degree, isn’t it?
Jim Downey
Comment by Communion of Dreams May 13, 2007 @ 6:24 amWell said Jim. Beautiful little structure. Love to hear these places exist!
Comment by Catherine Coughlin November 2, 2021 @ 9:08 amEnjoyable read!
Comment by Ju May 27, 2007 @ 11:17 amSounds like A. Davey has a Karma problem of his/her own. Personally, I find this little house charming and beautiful. And anyone who brings some beauty into the world has done a good thing.
Comment by CES January 25, 2008 @ 8:14 am[…] Welcome to the Hobbit House. « Communion Of Dreams (tags: hobbit projet home déco écolo) […]
Pingback by links for 2008-04-15 « Mogore April 15, 2008 @ 10:34 am[…] a day. The somewhat odd thing is that there is a consistent bit of traffic to look at one post: Welcome to the Hobbit House from almost a year ago. That gets 20 – 25 people a day. I think that the secret to getting a […]
Pingback by May Day! May Day! « Communion Of Dreams May 1, 2008 @ 11:01 amWhere is this house located?
Comment by David Moss May 14, 2008 @ 10:59 amDavid, the original article in Fine HomeBuilding (linked in my post) doesn’t say, but it does list both the architect and the builder as being in Pennsylvania, so I would guess there.
Jim D.
Comment by Communion of Dreams May 14, 2008 @ 11:42 am[…] overnight we passed 25,000 hits to this blog. I mentioned a few months back that Welcome to the Hobbit House was far and away the most popular post I’ve written. It still is, by a factor of 10x. It […]
Pingback by Numerology. « Communion Of Dreams August 27, 2008 @ 8:07 amIt’s very nice!!
Comment by Sebastian. S September 18, 2008 @ 12:40 amI would like to see more rich people spending money on this than in drugs or ferrari collections,… let him alone!!
“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold it would be a merrier world.”
Comment by Tom McCormick November 20, 2008 @ 12:10 pmCan I buy a set of blueprints?
Comment by Kenton March 10, 2009 @ 7:52 amKenton, you might try contacting the architect. Good luck!
Jim D.
Comment by James Downey March 10, 2009 @ 10:35 amWonderful creativity still trickles down from JRR. The house was built with local stone, lots of manual local labor, lots of local inspiration. Having just spent the day working on this hobbit garden I am personally glad that our economic system allows such creativity and passion to be rewarded. Much much better than another soulless McMansion destroying our landscape.
Comment by Booglebart March 25, 2009 @ 5:31 pmI would love this – we always talk about how darn cute Bilbo’s house is in The Lord of the Rings!
Love that!
Kimberly 🙂
Comment by Kimberly @ Real Estate Investing Blog April 18, 2009 @ 1:32 amI adore this little cottage, it reminds me of my playhouse when I was a child. I’m going to try to recreate it on my Sims 2 video game!
Comment by Angela May 17, 2009 @ 10:42 amhow do i get a hobbit house built here in california?
Comment by rod June 5, 2009 @ 2:47 pmI’ve loved this house ever since I first saw it published in Fine Homebuilding. Tweak the circular door (accurate, but not practical) into a wide true radius door with a circle motif but vertical sides, and you would have a charming and beautiful little house. I could quite happily live in such a house.
Comment by Rosefolly December 6, 2009 @ 9:11 pm[…] While I’m on a bit of vacation, I have decided to re-post some items from the first year of this blog (2007). This item first ran on May 12, 2007. […]
Pingback by Looking back: Welcome to the Hobbit House « Communion Of Dreams July 13, 2012 @ 7:00 am