Hobbit-like tiny house is an instant office for your backyard

Whether it’s a tiny home or a prefab shipping container, there are more options than ever when choosing a backyard dwelling. Peruse any Pinterest board, however, and you’ll see that most garden studios are woodsy cottages or shaped like modern boxes.

Not the Archipod, a dome-like structure that would make a perfect addition to a hobbit village. The freestanding spheres come in two sizes: a smaller dome that measures 9 feet 6 inches at its widest point and a larger pod that is 12 feet 6 inches in diameter. The walls are made of curved plywood with encapsulated fiberglass insulation, then finished with plaster so you can’t see any internal joints. Western red cedar shingles give the Archipod a fairytale look, and a double-glazed stainless steel porthole window lets in light.

All of the pods are built to customer order and can be tailored to specific requests, but options include a semicircular desk, radiant floor flooring, and whatever lighting, outlets, and electronics you might need. The Archipods come with concrete foundation blocks, and you enter the sphere through a top hinged gull-wing door that looks a bit like a spaceship.

Prices start at $24,000 and the pods can be moved fully assembled and delivered to your site by crane. If fitting a crane on your property isn’t a possibility, the pods can be built on site from main components that are sized to be carried through a house. Although originally founded in North Yorkshire, England, Archipod also has a distributor in Waldoboro, Maine.

Courtesy of Archipod

Courtesy of Archipod.

Courtesy of Archipod

Courtesy of Archipod