Hobbit House Architecture: Intro To A How-To Guide

Just A Few Points


This intro lens is a gateway really. It's where I start things off before we roll our sleeves up and get dirt under our nails. And I wanted to make a few points to start off (just to make sure we're on the same page moving forward).

Just because this lens starts a guide to making a hobbit house, it doesn't necessarily mean that the info is written for a hobbit audience - I don't discriminate.

And, since I don't discriminate understand that, from now on, when I refer to you as a hobbit it's merely because I'm being lazy :). I mean, I understand that fearies, wizards, humans, and even hipsters may also be interested in building a hobbit house. But, to keep sentences short, all folks reading about the process will be grouped together as hobbit folk.

I understand that you're not necessarily in The Shire, but I do assume that you're somewhere in Middle Earth. And, with that being the case, you naturally have no cares about hobbit house zoning restrictions or other practical logistics sorta considerations.

HOBBIT EVOLUTION

             As confirmed by J. R. R. Tolkien's son, the hobbit species was not originally intended
             to be an integral part of the Middle Earth realm. They had been mentioned sort of in
             passing in Tolkien's earlier works (and his earlier visions of the future direction of his
             work).

             But, with the success of the children's book The Hobbit, hobbit popularity could not
             be denied.

             Upon the explicit request of Stanley Unwin (The Hobbit's publisher), the author later
             changed the direction of his stories to integrate them more and more into the stories.



HOBBITS IN OUR EVOLUTION

             In 2004, an Australian anthropological team was digging around in Flores, Indonesia.
             What they found there has triggered intense debate within the scientific community
             ever since. What was unearthed were hobbit bones. Ok, not Middle Earth hobbits,
             but the bones of a species that dates back 2.3 million years and is believed to be a
             distant relative of ours.

             This species is closest related to a species that came after Lucy's species died out
             (Lucy is the oldest skeleton of human ancestor found). That species is known as
             homo habilis - they never made it out of Africa though.

             Anyway, what's interesting about the species found in Flores (homo floresiensis) is
             that, in evolutionary terms, they existed until a point that is very close to when homo
             sapiens (we) evolved. They even outlasted our most closest evolutionary cousins,
             the Neanderthals. The homo floresiensis species died out 17,000 years ago, the
             Neanderthals died out 35,000 years ago.

             And check this out - the homo floresiensis species had hobbit feet. No joke, look it up
             if you don't believe me. I thought that was cool :).

              

The hobbit house image was made famous first by J.R.R. Tolkien's various books, then again as portrayed in the Lord of the Rings movie series. In late 2009, I was lucky enough to visit the Alexander farm set where the film was shot.

Usually in Hollywood land, when a movie is shot on location, it is their policy to later return the site to its original condition once the filming ends. And there was no exception for the hobbit house set (known as "Hobbiton" in Matamata, New Zealand).

They'd piece by piece taken down all of the sets throughout New Zealand when the movie was finished and the sheep farm that had been transformed into Hobbiton had begun to be given back to the sheep. But then, one day as they were working a BIG storm front swept in and got in the way of the restoration team's work. They then decided to hold off for then and return later to finish up the job when conditions were better.



The Lucky Storm


This turned out to be a very lucky storm for the farmers who owned the land Hobbiton was on. The storm lasted a week and the locals (being aware that this was their last chance to get a glimpse) kept calling up the Alexanders asking for permission to stop by and see that last remaining hobbit house sets.

This became the beginning of the Hobbiton tours - as the Alexander family was able to convince the production company to not only leave the remaining hobbit house sets standing, but also to support the tour idea. However, the hobbit house sets could not be shown in a way that was tooooo similar to how they were shown in the Lord of the Rings movies.


The Shire Today


During filming, detailing had been added to the hobbit house sets to make them look like parts of a real hobbit village (The Shire). Those details had long since been taken down (from back before the agreement was made).

When you visit Hobbiton today, what you see are gleaming white hobbit house shells scattered over rolling hills with sheep sprinkled all over. This is largely because the fronts of the houses all had to be painted white to help to distance them even more from the Lord of the Rings imagery.


              


Also, the hobbit house interior shots were done in sound stages in Wellington, New Zealand. The Hobbiton layout was purely for the exterior effect in the movie.

The result is that the hobbit house interiors at Hobbiton aren't very impressive (especially if you come with the expectations that were set by watching the Lord of the Rings movies). So, the main thrill comes from stepping onto the place where Frodo Baggins lived (cinematically speaking, of course).

The good thing though is that the experience is also helped by the fact that the studio kindly provided pictures that were taken when the set was in it's filmed condition. The main picture of this lens is one of those actually... cropped of course).

On my visit, a rare photo opportunity presented itself - there was a German hobbit roaming The Shire!

                      

It's A Real Guide


It's a real guide, so you'll need real tools (and to be real careful) if you go through it.

So do note that this project, should you decide to take it on, would require safety goggles, carefulness, proper understanding of how to use your tools (so users manuals should definitely be consulted beforehand, when needed), and an overall attentiveness.

I'll note the tools you'll need as we get to those points, but the safety point will be something for you to be on top of.

Did I mention that you should be careful? Because you should. I mean, I wanted to get that out of the way... the careful thing.

First things first, a hobbit house begins with a hobbit hole. And if you thought all there was to making a hobbit hole was merely climbing a hill, my were you wrong. There's actually quite a bit to consider.

So, we'll begin by going through the tidbits that help to streamline the process of digging a hobbit hole. That's a lens in itself.

From there, we will move on to the construction of the hobbit house itself. That part also takes up one lens - so there is a two lens process with this DIY task :).