hibis, the reality, nothing else.
hibis   Curiosity.
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French
this page, Habitat -  minimal, rich and poor, natural..

Super minus, but super rich., for a size of a championship billiard or a prison cell !   (Le Figaro, May 2007)


This ancient cabinet in Chelsea, London,  offer a surface of 6,6  square metres, and was due to sell for about  250.000 euros, plus 44.000 euros works.
Seven offers were received, beyond the primary price asked for. The owner didn't sell, waiting for a better price. 		A   studio of 5.75 square meters (former storage room) is rented at Notting hill.
Eight square meters in front of Harrods were worth 160,000 euros in 2003. Prices can reach 500,000 euros for this surface. These " studios " are used by some to be dismounted during the week, or allow to accommodate a parent. For others, it's their first purchase.

2007. On the Champs ElyséesAux Champs Elysées, middle way and sunny side, the square metres would be about 8000/10.000 euros. Opposite side, one can offer it at only 5500 euros.

At the opposite to chic, an unspeakable slum , (July 08). That's 9 square meters for 450 euros , with all the same a toilet and a small window, which would hardly surprise after what we saw, if it was not a "sleep merchant"   Revealed after the visit of a minister to another sordid place whose owner was ordered to do the necessary work. he would deserve a condemnation, with some other visits of this kind, just to calm some ardor in the money. But no, that's not reprehensible. More or no less - we no longer know - these "undocumented" who pay dearly for a space in one of these more than squalid basements without no ventilation or sanitary and nothing. Not even a hutch, it's much more comfortable. Each President claims to fight, like so many things.. on which side is the force ? on the evil side it seems, as for people who travel.. in luxury caravans, blocking the roads.

2011 Paris (I do not know where), 14 m² for 500€/month. Family with a child at the smic (min salary) + help (housing assistance + possibly RSA), earn around 1300/1400 €:   not enough left to eat properly, get dressed, pay the nanny, some outings and equipment.  They can not move there either.

In Cannes , well placed all the same   we would be at 60,000 euros per square meter   (2010).

No window for rooms ? it's trendy. We have just created the duplex version basement, which is actually a souplex ?

you take a ground floor, (already not very appreciated), you add it a part of the cellar (luxury in sum since all the buildings no have none),   and you have this wonderful little apartment of your dreams. Not really cheap since the price would have a mere 30% cut. See below

No walls, no windows, no view. For parking slot, the price is right at $56,250 a tire.
In New York, Manhattan, spaces are in such demand that there are waiting lists of buyers. The price for a parking space are close to $50,000, in garages or in open lots, in other borough or less central area. Last prices are reaching $225,000 in the basement of 246 West 17th street, plus the monthly  maintenance.
Cynthia says "if we are coming in late for dinner or we have a lot of stuff in the car, do we really have to walk a few blocks to get home ?"  (New York Times, July 2007).

A good place in a cemetery is really similar in prices, with a square metre price reaching a flat price. If you are wealthy, you can choose. Therefore, surfaces offered are always cramped, and not too much well equipped. So  the ratio quality price is not really favourable.  2007..

More original , the Japanese, always and again propose very correct hotels, with a corner where one can suspend its effects, as well as a kind of horizontal chest in which one slips. It is especially, I think, to avoid souls men to go home.

These four windows are really weird, with two vents each, separated by a part built between the upper and the lower ones. Intelligence taken, it is for each vertical group, one apartment, one in semi-basement. Something not new here, at Les Sables d Olonne 

Ici, c'est différent puisque les ventaux sont décalés. Qu'en est-il à l'intérieur de la pièce ? Si j'ai pu me renseigner pour l'usage en passant, je n'ai pas eu la possibilité de visiter. Dommage.

Celui-ci paraît bien être un peu plus enfoncé encore, et quand à celui de droite, un hôtel, dont il ne reste qu'un soupirail de cave à charbon, je ne sais pas si c'est loué !   hibis

hibis


Ecological by size. Is this what awaits our children?     this seems to be a bit excessive and probably very opportunistic, US projects of "cubes of life" . one of them lives in 30 square meters, others in 6 to 12 !    it starts at 7 square meters, everything "comfort" Technology " including, for the modest sum of $72,000. Deliverable, thankfully, because it is not yet folding and does not fit in the trunk of the car.

It seems that rid of all the useless, we live much better. It is unmistakable; we know a little about it on vacation. The problem is to hold out in a society that does not really want promote the material deprivation. We could also think of the burrows, whose ecological qualities can not be more natural and which, supplemented by an opening on the sky - the lighting from the top being of far the best for connoisseurs, would be almost perfect. At the point where we are .. 		awesome for convenience. Better than the the Japanese capsule hotels, here is the sleep box, creation of Russian architects intended at airports or train stations . But why not elsewhere or to help the homeless.  

  The door opens thanks to a magnetic card. Two concealable high windows make it possible to monitor the display of flights. There is a folding shelf with wi-fi access, a TV   built-in partition, light and temperature adjustable, sheets changed automatically.


Heat  (Grèce)

The white color helps to fight a little the external heat. The paint with lime is also very economic. For more effectiveness, the inside should be painted in black, which would not be pleasant at all; however, the inside is generally dark in hot countries. The narrow and tortuous lane, if it doesn't have any more our favour, constitutes however an effective protection against the bad weather and especially the sun ; everybody knows that, walking in some old little village in the south. (photo catalogue) 		Egypt : houses in raw brick (bricks not cooked in the furnace) They all seem to be under construction everywhere: this is due to the imposition that only takes effect if the house is completed .  
Raw brick is an excellent material for insulation, much better than a concrete block or even stone, which also retains moisture. In our countries, fired brick dimpled, retaining trapped air, is a fairly good insulator. The adobe, compacted land of the poor countries, also offers excellent insulation, far superior to our concrete blocks.   hibis


The taxation alters the dwelling.
As it is said below, in Egypt, the imposition takes effect only if the house is completed. In France, in the Middle Ages, the size of openings were taxed:so that, windows remained very small.
In Holland, the narrow colorful houses with their pulleys at the top, lining along the canals, were taxed on the width of the frontage. So, they were very narrow.
During the financial collapse of Greece (2010), we learned that a small chapel built in the garden, was enough to classify the beautiful house as a worship, so dedicated with no taxation, od course..
In Japan, an advantageous status granted to religious corporations. 182,601 religious organizations are officially declared as such. There are 77,738 Buddhist temples (2008), Shinto shrines 85,364. As a matter of fact, if the income of some hotels and restaurants are similar to those of a religious corporation, including religious schools,  their tax rate will be decreased around 17% instead of 30% for other companies. A growing number of temples and shrines in difficulty management are the target of agents seeking to seize it, quietly.

Fighting against scorching heat.
In Spain, in North Africa, in Arabia, in Mexico (haciendas under arabo-Spanish influence), the architectural design opens space towards the interior of the house, around a central courtyard. This patio arabo-Spanish protects from the sun on all the faces. It is supplemented by covered interior balconies, a fountain which refreshes by evaporation. One knows the passion for the hurdy-gurdies beautiful residences of Morocco.

 Italian shutter with slots, of which a lower part can be opened (not those in the South of France), makes it possible to let pass the air while stopping the direct rays of the sun. The half darkness also intervenes in the calorific exchange as described above (Greece). The great principles of freshness without air-conditioning can be thus summarized (Arab palates ): white outside, dark interior, thick walls, sometimes successive, bored  with broad openings to let pass the air, at least to the top, organizing the parts open on a courtyard receiving fountain and better, a circulating  water, and vegetation.

Troglodytes. Not really sympathetic for this time of large overall openings, it is obviously the dwelling which guarantees the best insulation ever, with a quasi constant temperature. Only the ventilation is a problem.
They evoke the prehistoric man, Cromagnon style, who - they say - did not live in caves, but occupied them as some sanctuary. It is the modern man who lives in caves ! ! say for dwelling,  wine conservation (as in Touraine) or to find some seclude shelter during the war.

Here, in the Luberon (Vaucluse) some caves are still used as back room for detached houses and others show clues of recent dwelling.
Elsewere, they are some luxuous dwellings which ave been designed in. hibis


Earth made houses. After having built buildings Nader Khalili, architect Irano american recalls with ancient practices, here in California, nearby beautiful wooden houses Kaufman & Broad
ONU is interrested. One need aonly a big enough place so one can dig out the earth. Rather cheap, good insulation, only a few days construction with some workers.


see the inside..


CLAY AND STRAW (adobe), the real house to live in for the modest ones.
An experiment is successfully pursued, near Calais I think, because there is a lot of clay. A pioneer set out to build ecological houses for cheap. It is now a collective enterprise supported by partners. And we first made bricks of clay and straw, the same size as the norm, and for cheap because the clay next, costs nothing.   
It is not forbidden to open momentarily a window or a door because the key word is, according to the author, inertia ! Inertia of the walls themselves, and not a special wall accumulator that would receive the sun, as what is promoted.   
The quality of the soundproofing, is excellent because the walls thus made are absorbent.


Left hand, in Mali, one can observe an advanced traditional habitat, made of raw bricks and earth. In the center, magnified, very essential silos for the reserves or storage-putting away of invaluable goods. While observing well, one can see some of them on each place. The urbanization is completed, with lanes bordered of low walls. Inside small properties, passages and backwards alternate according to a diagram which was established by the time, the power of the families or the need for the moment.

This diagram exists elsewhere, in the southern countries mainly, but also in our old villages or downtown. The property can be uncertain or shared. I saw a case where it was necessary for a family to pass in the neighbor soil property to get into home, situations which pose lots of problems nowadays (I was informed of that in Ariège, by a friend of mine).



The Blue City. North India.
At the edge of the desert of Thar, this city was a prosperous oasis, crossing point of the caravans towards Asia, China even. The Brahmans made it whitewashed in blue, color of invaluable water, in order to preserve the fresh interiors. But from another source it is the color of god and godness The city is installed at the foot of a sandstone fortress, which one sees in close-up. hibis André M. 		This facade is a blockhaus. This is only the shed of a large and beautiful   property which includes, on the left, another blockhouse at right angle, pierced and lengthened, with bay windows, terrace, etc.
The dirty gray blockhouse of the bottom, in the state,   allows to compare.
Ready for bombing !
Almost Brittany.     hibis

Former intuitive Ecology. Generally, farms are built large facades facing to the south and north. Near we inhabit, there are old horticultural houses, all parallel for the entire street, all oriented entrance south and not facing the street. Animals and supplies (fodder) were against the house, or below, and were thus involved in the heating or insulation of the house, just like the firewood, stacked high against the facade. If applicable, they leaned against the slope to obtain an additional protection, with however a risk, humidity.
I say "generally", because a harssh sustained wind, the land, rocks, river, damp, could oblige to change that. 		In Norway, examples have been reconstructed of semi-buried habitat with a roof of earth covered with vegetation; we saw rooftops with shrubs growing on it.   Voir "toiture végétale" (Norvège) , "bories"  (Provence). Aujourd'hui, nous découvrons la végétalisation des toits terrasse..
Crowding in the city promoted anarchy of construction.  Except in the case of a large inner courtyard - there are still many of them left untouched, old farmhouse or big mansion - the facades are all on the street, which is an aberration. Many people never see the sun, sold as extra.

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