Mana – Grown by nature, growing nature

The house that didn’t cost the Earth.

Introduction

We’ve been living on Howle Hill for nearly 13 years now and over the last 2 years we have been planning an eco house to sit on our 1 acre field and have now been given permission to build. It’s an unusual design, based in permaculture and yet simple and elegant. A place to feel alive and connected to the world around it.

We want to live closer to where we grow our food, live in a smaller house and in a more sustainable way. Therefore the goals for Mana House are to integrate the house and land, to integrate human and non human elements whilst using the land to live on, produce our food on and to minimise the external inputs and outputs, so to make a more circular economy which is sustainable.

We are part of nature and want to live in harmony with all other living creatures.

Bio-diversity and relationships between constituent parts is paramount and the house should add to the beauty and natural value of the land.

The field consists of annual crops, (and increasingly) perennial crops, wild flower meadow, orchard, woodland. Every part of the land has a purpose and all purposes add up to a sustainable whole. We value simple and related functions and technology.

We want greater separation from neighbours both physically, mentally and emotionally and at the same time develop closer relationships with nature. In other words interrelatedness and connection.

So the plan is to build a one bedroomed eco house in the corner of our field, starting in spring 2026 and finishing by autumn the same year. The sequence is to create detailed construction drawings by end of 2025, prepare the site for construction before March and start the house foundation as well as the WET System in March.

The house will be built on screw piles, with no concrete foundations, with a timber frame structure, filled with hempcrete walls, triple glazing, a green sedum roof with solar pv panels, a waterless toilet and a WET System for taking the grey water from the house to the garden.

If you are interested to follow our journey we will explain what the design is in more detail and keep reporting on progress along the way.