We Can Dream: Hobbit Houses to Rule Them All
Escape the real world and explore your Middle-earth fantasies
New Zealand came to mean Middle-earth for many after The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies began being released back in 2001. Hobbits and rings have dominated the country’s tourism marketing ever since, as fans flock to see the 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 awhile. You literally camp under the hill at Underhill Valley, about a 45-minute drive from Hobbiton. This hidden house was handcrafted from native wood more than 15 years ago and is now a sweet retreat. There’s a Bilbo-style wood interior, outdoor tub and old coal range.
The house snuggles into the hillside, with barn doors to draw against the cold.
The interior is warm and welcoming — and tall enough for humans. Skylights draw magical sunlight patterns on the fur-covered bed nook; a vintage iron stove allows for cooking and heating; and candles and lamps light romantic evenings.
Dig in, eco-style. Wellington-based Watt Architects has been exploring sustainable design since the 1970s. The firm designed this house in a regular subdivision of huts overlooking Lake Taupo on New Zealand’s North Island.
The sloping site made it perfect for an earth-sheltered building, with passive solar heating from a Trombe wall (a thick, dark and heat-absorbing masonry wall) and conservatory on the sunny side. The grass berm on 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 (remember, this is the Southern Hemisphere), releases cooling breezes in summer and has a tree growing inside: Middle-earth cool.
See more of this house
The sloping site made it perfect for an earth-sheltered building, with passive solar heating from a Trombe wall (a thick, dark and heat-absorbing masonry wall) and conservatory on the sunny side. The grass berm on 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 (remember, this is the Southern Hemisphere), releases cooling breezes in summer and has a tree growing inside: Middle-earth cool.
See more of this house
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, or YIMFY, a center for natural building technology). In his own hobbit-like home, he’s brought light and delight with handcrafted wood, earth and straw bales.
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 wood 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.
Wee playhouses. Tiny hobbit houses bring out the child in all of us. Here, playground landscapers Leaves of Green of Nelson, New Zealand, have created enchanting huts tucked into banks and glades for children to explore.
Climbing frames and fruit trees add magic to everyday play.
If you can’t make your own hobbit hole, Maine firm Wooden Wonders has ready-made cottages for play huts and chicken coops — and even an adult version.
Hobbit hut modern. For a contemporary take on the home of a hobbit (curving, Earth-friendly, cute), landscape designers Texture Group of Christchurch, New Zealand, 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, also of Christchurch. Hewn log furniture, rough-cast 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. It’s a garden folly to rule them all.
Folded copper will last for generations to safeguard your kingdom.
Folded copper will last for generations to safeguard your kingdom.
Hillside modern. For a more contemporary spin, Studio Pacific Architecture has tucked a poured concrete house into the hill above Rawhiti in New Zealand’s Bay of Islands. Topped with a sod roof, it could only be 21st century, but it’s as cozy and enveloping as Bilbo’s burrow. The rest of this getaway is cool, wooden and contemporary.
Or in Switzerland, you could stay in these Villa Vals, designed by Bjarne Mastenbroek and Christian Müller in 2009.
Oregon’s Nathan Good Architects created a version of a hobbit house with earth roof, shingle walls and a net-zero energy footprint.
For pure indulgence, it’s hard to beat this Pennsylvania cottage designed by Archer & Buchanan Architecture for the grounds of an avid J.R.R. Tolkien fan’s home (he collects books and artifacts). As well as a museum-quality air, the house has handmade roof tiles, joinery, hinges and lights.
See more of this private retreat
See more of this private retreat
Here’s a more down-to-earth cottage that was built in Wales in only four months by ecological designers Simon and Jasmine Dale. See how it came together here.
If outdoors is too difficult, 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 a Utah mansion.
Browse more Fun Houzz features
Browse more Fun Houzz features