How One Family Thrives In The Arctic Circle By Building Cob House In A Solar Geodesic Dome

If you are someone who has ever wanted to live in a sustainable home where you are in total control of how you keep your food going, then you need to sit down and speak with the Hjertefølger family.

We first heard about Benjamin and Ingrid Hjertefølger in 2013 when they began building Nature House, a three-story cob house wrapped in a solar geodesic dome. Located on the island of Sandhornøya in northern Norway, the ultra-green home was designed to enable the family of six to eek out a sustainable existence despite challenging climatic conditions – they even grow most of their own food. Inhabitat recently caught up with the Hjertefølgers, who have now lived in their home for three years, to learn about their challenges and victories.

Ingrid Hjertefølger

The Hjertefølgers, which translates to Heartfollowers, live in Nature House with their four children – they’ve added one to their number since Inhabitat last wrote about them. After constructing their cob home topped with one of Solardome’s single-glazed geodesic domes with the help of friends and neighbors, the family moved in on December 8, 2013.

Ingrid Hjertefølger

“The house works as we intended and planned. We love the house; it has a soul of its own and it feels very personal. What surprises us is the fact that we built ourselves anew as we built the house,” Ingrid Hjertefølger told Inhabitat. “The process changed us, shaped us.”

Ingrid Hjertefølger

The family had to design their home with extreme temperatures and wind in mind. It’s impossible to grow food in the dome in winter – Hjertefølger said there are three months without sun at Nature House – but the design does enable the family to grow food five months longer than they could outside. They grow apples, cherries, plums, apricots, kiwis, grapes, cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs, squash, and melons.

Ingrid Hjertefølger

Growing their own food is just the beginning of sustainable living at Nature House. Hjertefølger said all of their grey and black water is reused for fertilizing and watering the plants they grow. The family composts food scraps. They make sure to use clean, biodegradable household products, as elements in those products could end up in the food they eat. The home will have a long lifespan too – Hjertefølger said cob “lasts forever if you keep it dry,” and as their dwelling is always covered with the glass dome, it hasn’t been worn down by weather. She also said there’s no need to paint or even maintain the cob structure’s walls.

Ingrid Hjertefølger

Improvements could be made to the house, but for the most part the family seems incredibly satisfied with the design. “If we were to build a new Nature House, the ideal thing would be double glass on the green house so that we could have a tropical garden and no dripping in the winter,” said Hjertefølger. “But that is a bit unrealistic because it is very expensive with all that glass.” She also said they’d like to make a few changes to how the plant beds are set up “to get more usable space and better placement for different plants.” Overall, though, the family says they thrive inside Nature House.

Ingrid Hjertefølger

“The feeling we get as we walk into this house is something different from walking in to any other house,” Hjertefølger told Inhabitat. “The atmosphere is unique. The house has a calmness; I can almost hear the stillness. It is hard to explain. But it would have been impossible getting this feeling from a house someone else has planned and built for us, or a house with corners and straight lines.”

Ingrid Hjertefølger

Ingrid Hjertefølger

Ingrid Hjertefølger

Ingrid Hjertefølger

Ingrid Hjertefølger

Ingrid Hjertefølger

Ingrid Hjertefølger

Watch this well-crafted short film and tour of the Hjertefølgerne / The Heart Followers home via Deadline Media:

Guy Explains Why His CEO Left Work At Exactly At 5 PM, Others Share Stories About The Wholesome Bosses They’ve Had)

Throughout the months, we’ve known some people who had conflicts with their higher-ups for not respecting their work schedules. For example, we met this man who wasn’t allowed to leave early even though there was no more work, so he saw to it that he wouldn’t work anymore after his time. We have also known this guy who wasn’t let go even after his work hours.

Today, we’ll end these kinds of stories on a positive note. In a TikTok video by Alec (@handle), he retold his story where he observed his boss leaving at 5 pm on the dot. He then discovered him doing some work in his car. When he asked him why he did his matters in the car and not in his office, the boss responded that he wanted his employees to appreciate their work schedules by making them comfortable at leaving at 5 pm as well.

More info: TikTok

Bosses who respect their employees’ work schedules still exist, and this man can attest to that

Image credits: pm_alec

In his video, he revealed that his CEO would leave the office exactly at the last minute of work



Image credits: pm_alec

The viewers applauded the CEO for such a positive habit



Some users shared that there are even more of those who care








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