You Can Live in Your Own Personal Hobbit Hole

Green roofs are all the rage in building design these days, but you can take it one step further and make it look like your house is literally a burrow in the earth. Green Magic Homes, a Miami-based designer of prefabricated houses, designs readymade dwellings that look like they came straight from the Shire.

The rounded modular houses are designed to be covered in garden vegetation, crops, or trees, a modern spin on the sod roofs traditionally used in places like Scandinavia for better insulation. You can choose from various designs and layouts and add on structures like car ports, or request a custom design. The parts are manufactured in Mexico in just 10 days, and can be assembled in as little as three days for a one-bedroom house.

The vegetation covering the house provides insulation to keep it warmer in the winter, and evaporation and shade keep it cooler in the summer. The plants also absorb stormwater runoff, potentially reducing flooding and water waste. A 2012 report estimated that putting green roofs on 50 percent of Southern California buildings could save the region some $211 million annually in electricity costs [PDF].

Really, we should all aspire to live in hobbit holes. No, the doors aren’t circular, but you could probably get that customized.

[h/t: Curbed]

All images courtesy Green Magic Homes