United States
£ GBP
Tony Wrench shares his many years of experience, skills and techniques used to build this unique and affordable low impact home that costs GBP 5,500. The author explains the process of visualising and designing a house through to the practical side of lifting the living roof, infilling the walls, laying out rooms and adding renewable, autonomous technology.
Now in its fourth edition, with a fascinating 2014 update, Tony also includes sections on the physical design. He offers advice on compost toilets, wood stoves, kitchens, windows and on planning permission. There are additional photographs of life in and around the dwelling and illustrations from the construction plans.
In 1993, Tony Wrench evolved the concept of 'permaculture land', low impact sustainable way of liiving that include self-build with local materials, appropriate technology and food growing. His ideas infuenced Welsh Assembly's planning laws. In 1997, he and his partner built into a low impact roundhouse. Tony runs workshops and has helped build many more.
"Tony Wrench's book is practical yet unfussy, written with humour and full of valuable information with lots of photographs and illustrations. He tells the story of the building very well. It is very inspiring to read because it changes your perspective on what is possible."
– Martin Holme, for Permaculture magazine
"This book is a description of the fascinating process that would lead through the design of the structure, the detailing, the construction and the fitting out. It is not a technical treatise in any sense, though the basic sketches could be used to build a similar structure. There are many good photos to back up the text, and they give a better sense of scale than the line illustrations. The book is well written with a good deal of wit and logical explanation, by a permie who is obviously in tune with living sustainably and willing to eschew much of the baggage we take for granted, but is still able to live simply and luxuriously. Highly recommended."
– Micheal Guerra, author of Compact Living
"The amount of extremely useful and inspirational information presented here is vast, breathtaking in fact. This is the book I have waited to see for a long time, it is, in short, invaluable. My recommendation is never to think about a seasonal festival again without at least looking at this book and seeing what advice it has to offer."
– Robin Whitlock, Awen magazine
