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A real-life hobbit village will soon be nestled in the lush forests of a Swedish island, a whimsical housing scheme billed as the first of its kind.
But behind the fantasy gimmick lies a genuine interest for sustainable development.
The hobbits, small characters with hairy feet in novelist J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy classics, are a model of environmentally friendly living, says British hobbit-house architect Simon Dale.
"Hobbits portray people living a peaceful life in harmony with nature," Dale, 35, said on a recent visit to Stockholm.
He was in town to plan for the cluster of 30 houses on Muskoe, an island 40 kilometres from the city centre amid Stockholm's picturesque archipelago.
The island's first hobbit house is scheduled to be ready next year, with the village completed within a few years.
At first sight, the huts resemble Bilbo Baggins' dwelling in the Shire in Tolkien's 1937 novel The Hobbit.
"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit," begins Tolkien's tale. "It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle."
In Tolkien's idyllic agrarian setting, the hobbits live in tune with nature - in stark contrast to the author's era of mature industrialisation.
The Swedish hobbit village will keep the notion of natural materials and soft, round shapes: the windows, doors and walls will all be curved.
Yet the houses will be slightly more up-to-date, built for modern city-dwellers longing to retreat to nature on weekends and holidays.
An induction hob, beside a wood-burning range, would be the "most hi-tech thing", said Dale. Energy efficiency would be a primary goal, so heating would come from solar power and wood-burning. Natural building materials from the area would also be used, such as timber, stone, sand, clay and grass.
The village is not targeted at Tolkien fans, rather it it intended to appeal to those who care about the environment and want to live close to nature.
Sweden, like other countries taking the lead in sustainable development, has in recent years seen a boom in eco-friendly urban renewal projects.
But Dale noted a key difference between those projects and his. They "aim to maximise the efficiency of resource consumption, while we aim to minimise resource consumption," he said, adding that sustainability did not require fancy new gadgets but can instead be attained by living more simply.
He said Muskoe was the perfect location for his project.
Home to a naval base decommissioned nine years ago, the island has a natural forest and farming landscape, yet is conveniently equipped with well-developed infrastructure, including a grocery store, restaurant, pharmacy, public transport and a three kilometre tunnel connecting it to the mainland.
Apart from his "hobbit holes", the village will feature 350 eco-friendly homes.
Dale said local farmers and residents were intrigued to see the agricultural estate being brought back to life, providing jobs and atmosphere.
Yet for the moment the entire project remains in the realm of Tolkien's fantasy pending real-world bureaucratic clearance.
"It's up to the municipality to give us the green light, but we're optimistic," project organiser Marie Eriksson said


Hobbit-like village to be built on Swedish island

One of the homes. Photo: AFP

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Environmentally friendly housing with huts resembling those in Tolkein's novel to be built


A real-life hobbit village will soon be nestled in the lush forests of a Swedish island, a whimsical housing scheme billed as the first of its kind. But behind the fantasy gimmick lies a genuine interest for sustainable development.
